The Boy in the Lake

by Eric Swanson

Book Overview

After the death of his grandmother and a patient's suicide, therapist Christian Fowler seeks solace in the haunting, wintry landscapes of his youth. There, he recalls a brutal childhood tragedy and realizes he unwittingly betrayed a boyhood friend, in this novel about the nature of love and the burden of guilt.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312262973
• ISBN13: 9780312262976
• Release Date: May 2000
• Publisher: Griffin
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

conflicted adult confronts childhood guilt, sexuality

Eric Swanson's brilliant, subtle and evocative novel, The Boy in the Lake, brims with elegant language, compelling dialogue, and universal themes of sexual longing and childhood guilt. The protagonist, a capable mental health professional involved in an unravelling romantic relationship, confronts a childhood rife with a sterile home life, a nascent awakening of his homosexuality, and a series of traumatic events which underscore his feelings of powerlessness and guilt.Swanson draws his characters compassionately; each has literary integrity and authenticity. Parts of this slim novel are carried by powerful dialogue (in many ways reminiscent of Hemingway); other sections contain absolutely elegant imagery (as if you were reading a prose poem).For those readers who lament that modern American male authors lack ability to describe and analyze relationships, The Boy in the Lake will be a pleasant reminder that dissecting the heart is not exclusively a female literary occupation.

A discus, quietly hurling

The title of Eric Swanson's little masterwork tells it all. The Boy in the Lake. Doesn't seem very provocative or profound. Swanson's elegant simplicity of nature in storytelling doesn't warn us. Everything about his novel suggests that we sit back and enjoy a tidbit of Americana.....until the author so successfully traps us in his web that we are caught unaware. Who or what is the boy in the lake?This is how we all have felt in the agonies of growing into our adult selves. The gamut of awakening of the hormones, the ever-present drive to feel needed, to be loved, to be noticed, to not be destined to "grow old and die alone" - all of these growing pains are woven in such a craftsman manner that in less than 200 pages we have met characters who are archetypes..for ourselves. This is very fine writing indeed, and the protagonist journeys back and forth through his history and his present with such ease and natural pace that it is a joy to stoll beside him. This is a very fine book by a gifted author of prodigious talent.

Good things do come in small packages

THE BOY IN THE LAKE is a graceful, yet powerfully moving novel that deals with lies, desire, violence and forgiveness. The power of this novel lies in the understated elegance and economy of the narrative. Simply written, the storyteller's voice is both subtle and seductive, drawing the reader quickly and completely into the story. While this book could so easily be passed over on a bookshelf, you would do yourself a favor by seeking it out.

Searching for the Boy-Next-Door

Swanson has penned a book, a majestic rendering of the heart that haunted me long after I put this novel on the shelves among my favourites. I was touched with the simplicity of his writing, and astounded that such simplicity is exactly what engages the reader and keeps them glued to the pages until the book meets its resolve. I think we have all ached for someone, perhaps found them, and then lost them for reasons that are often too painful to remember... or so we think, but we do remember them, even if through subliminal hauntings that carry forward into our adult lives. Christian is so familiar to me, like a shadow-self who appeared before me in my sleep to remind me of a someone all too familiar to Reis. If this is the one book you pick up off the shelf to ponder, beware the strong effect that it is destined to have on you. Its intoxication will leave you breathless, dizzy and aching for someone you thought you said goodbye to years ago.

Evocative and thought-provoking

Swanson's novel is a quick read -- but not quickly forgotten. Christian's search for absolution from both his childhood friend and from himself draws the reader in and takes him along on a journey of self-discovery. A deceptively simple trip home brings Christian full circle and face-to-face with the friend he betrayed 30 years before. I was involved with Christian and unable to put the book down until I had devoured it and internalized its message entirely. This is one book I expect to pick up time and again in order to discover new layers within.