Drowning Ruth - Christina Schwartz

"Drowning Ruth" is the debut novel by Christina Schwarz which I read it on the recommendation of a friend. Its an international best seller and was recommended as a good read through Oprah's Book Club in the US. Its an enjoyable read however its clearly a debut novel in that I feel it could have be far better than it was. The plot premise is excellent and I was intrigued as to what the outcome would be but I found the outcome flat and not as "dark" as I had assumed it would be. PLOT Amanda Starkey is working as a nurse, but after an affair with a married man suffers a breakdown so returns to her childhood home. Her home is now ...

Drowning Ruth is the first novel by American author Christina Schwartz. It has been a best seller around the world and praised by many critics. I suppose as it is a first novel I should be more measured in my criticism but in the case of this book I find it difficult. The novel is set in a Wisconsin farming community in the years at the end of the First World War and takes us through to the beginning of the 40’s. We follow the lives of a young woman Amanda and her family, her younger sister Mattie, her Brother-in-law Carl and her niece Ruth. Amanda, an independent woman for the time, has left her rural home to go and train as a nurse in Chicago, there she ...