They Came Like Swallows

I read William Maxwell's novel about the 1918 flu pandemic, They Came Like Swallows, in March 2020. I had bought it many months ago -- who knew it would become so germane? The experience it portrays has a lot in common with what we have experienced these past two years -- the sense of suspended time and reality, the sense of waiting for who knows what.The novel is a tapestry woven of many threads, always portrayed implicitly:* the mundaneness, and the mystery, of families* the love and comfort a mother can bestow simply by being there* the pressure and unease a father can impose simply by being there* the fury and frustration a sibling can incite simply by being there* the superficial mundaneness, and the deep meaningfulness, of conversation* the inability of children to clearly distinguish between waking and sleeping, between experiencing and dreaming, between seeing and imagining -- an inability that makes all aspects of life (nature, events, households, furniture, families, relationships) both uniquely rich and uniquely frightening* the paradox that life is full of things that children do not intellectually understand but that they deeply intuit -- for example, birth and death, good and evil, love, adult dynamics, and sexuality* most important, the nobleness of dogs -- particularly old dogs:"John was very old and decrepit. In winter he got rheumatism in his legs and had to be carried in and out of the house. Half his days were spent in looking for bones that he had long since dug up. And often he thumped his tail fondly when there was nobody there."As always, Maxwell's writing is bejeweled with sentences of such simplicity, clarity, and beauty as to take your breath away:"A sound (what, he did not know) struck the surface of his sleep and sank like a stone.""Outside, branches of the linden tree rose and fell in the wind, rose and fell. And November leaves came down.""With no more leaves to fall, the trees stood out in bare essential form, forgotten during the summer and now remembered.""The sky hung down, dark and heavy upon the trees.""When his mother read to him, her voice fell softly from above. It turned with the flames. Like the flames, it was full of shadows.""His mother smiled at him foolishly from the bank. And it seemed to him that she was smiling at the sky also, and at the creek, and at the yellow leaves which came down, sometimes by the dozen, and sailed in under the bank and out again."This book is a master work by a gentle magician.

Forty-three years separate THEY CAME LIKE SWALLOWS (written in 1937) and "So Long, See You Tomorrow" (1980), which is probably William Maxwell's most-read and highly regarded novel. But it would be understandable were a reader to think they had been written much closer in time to one another. They both involve a small-town family in Illinois in which the mother dies from influenza during the pandemic of 1918. And they have much the same tender, somber, elegiac quality. Moreover, both are exquisitely crafted. I was deeply moved by "So Long, See You Tomorrow". I am also moved by THEY CAME LIKE SWALLOWS.The novel takes place in November and December 1918. The story consists of three parts, each of which is told from the perspective of a different male of the Morison family -- first eight-year-old Bunny, a hyper-sensitive lad; then thirteen-year-old Robert, a more active "all-American" boy, who carries on with hardly a trace of handicap even though he lost one leg above the knee in a childhood accident; and last, the father James. All three accounts center on Elizabeth, mother of Bunny and Robert, wife of James, and the emotional and psychological lodestone of the family. But Elizabeth dies, shortly after having given birth to a baby boy, and it seems as though the family will disintegrate with grief. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, love and family ties begin to assert themselves and the novel ends with a few rays of hope.As with "So Long, See You Tomorrow", there is an autobiographical foundation to THEY CAME LIKE SWALLOWS. William Maxwell was born in small-town Illinois, and in 1918 his mother died of influenza after giving birth to a younger brother. At the center of "So Long, See You Tomorrow" is the boy left behind (presumably, William Maxwell). At the center of THEY CAME LIKE SWALLOWS is the woman who died (a portrait of Maxwell's mother?).The title is borrowed from "Coole Park, 1929", a poem by William Butler Yeats. Maxwell uses an excerpt from that poem as the epigraph for the novel. The epigraph begins, "They came like swallows", and the fourth and fifth lines read: "And half a dozen in formation there, / That seemed to whirl upon a compass-point". Surely Elizabeth Morison is that compass-point.

Great story and character development set during three 1918 Spanish Flu

Although this book was written in the 1930s and set in 1918, it is completely relevant to our COVID times in its depiction of how a small community deals with the Spanish influenza as it rampages through its population. Maxwell’s writing is lucid and easily draws you into this small town in Illinois and the disbelief and denial of its citizens as schools and churches are ordered to close to stop the spread of disease.Each section focuses on the thoughts and feelings of a different family member from the youngest son to his father as they inch closer to the tragic death from flu of one of their own.I highly recommend this quiet but profound book.

This was a short, quiet novel about a family that contracts the 1918 flu. Written less than 20 years later, this book appears to be semi autobiographical. Maxwell was 8 or 10 when he contracted the flu and his family’s experience would have seriously marked him. For me, this makes this novel quite compelling.

I read this at the beginning of the pandemic thinking it would make an interesting and relatable read. What I found was an odd, exceptionally boring book that could have passed for a case study instead of a novel. I felt very disconnected from the characters and it was overly psychological. Not my cup of tea.

An interesting, beautifully written story of life under the shadow of the flu epidemic in post First World War United States. It is told successively through the the eyes of three male characters; two brothers and their father.The author paints a vivid picture of the affluence of (upper) middle class America in the early part of the 20th century but it is not particularly engaging maybe because I found all the main characters somewhat anaemic.A book more about place and time than plot and character.

Set at the time of the Spanish flu epidemic and based on the author's own family experience, this is a work of great poignancy which never touches on sentimentality. I had never read any other books by this author but promptly ordered two more. I recommend it most highly.

This family portrait was written in the 30's and is set in 1918. It takes you right into the spoken and unspoken aspects of family life, narrated in third person but from three points of view, that of 8-year old Bunny, his older (by 5 years) brother and in the last section, by their father. There are aunts and uncles who come accross vividly, without the clutter of too many details.The fears, hopes, fulfilments and misunderstandings in familial relating are sensitively evoked. The pivotal person in the household, the mother, is fully cast through the experiences, interactions and thoughts of the other three. I was concerned that I might find the portrayal of Bunny a bit sentimental, but overall I so admired the quality of the writing. William Maxwell is very observant about the way people's differing view-points (real and imagined) can be stifling or releasing for one other. There is sorrow and also humour in this story about life, loss, fear, hope and love.

Just beautifully written. I don’t think I’ve read a book written from different viewpoints which has succeeded as well as this. I was inconsolable at having to leave the young boy’s version but almost immediately hooked on the next, and then on the next. A memorable read.

This is such a beautifully written story and the three characters through whom the story is told are each very clearly imagined. I had not heard of William Maxwell before but look forward to reading more of his work.