Sweet Water by Christina Baker Kline

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Publish Date: May 1, 1993
Format: Hardcover
Pages:285
ISBN: 978 0060190330

When a grandfather she never knew bequeaths her a house and 60 acres of land in Sweetwater, Tenn., a restless young artist leaves New York to recover her past and rethink her future.  Cassie Simon’s mother Ellen died when Cassie was only three; raised in Boston by her grieving father, she never knew her maternal relatives.  Unprepared for the thick veil of mystery that surrounds them, Cassie is especially bewildered by her brusque grandmother, whom rumor credits with hiding a terrible secret about Ellen’s death.  In alternating sections told from their respective points of view, Cassie and her grandmother fight their separate battles to cope with the truth about the tragedy.  The result is a powerful, immensely readable tale of loyalty and betrayal, family and memory, made fresh by Kline’s often beautiful and always lucid prose.

My Thoughts

I had recently purchased Orphan Train and then this book came up in a book club and realized it was by the same author.  Sweet Water is Kline's first novel and the first I have read of hers.  Yet again it is one of those tricky 3 star books.  There were a number of good aspects to this novel and then there were some that were not so good.  I liked the concept, of a young girl needing to find herself, and part of the search is to know who her family is and where she came from.  Returning to her birth town after the death of her grandfather, whom she had never met, she starts to develop relationships with her grandmother, aunts, uncles and cousins.  While the description states that the book is shroud is mystery...the mystery was a real let down.  Instead of having the mystery aspect woven it I would have rather preferred for the whole novel to focus on relationship building, self discovery and letting go and moving on.

I liked hearing Clyde's point of view and why she was so stand offish - which in my opinion was unnecessary.  I would have preferred Clyde and Cassie to have a typical grandmother granddaughter relationship.  Yes I understand her heartache, but it was not Cassie's fault for everything that happened in her grandmother's life. The ending was terrible - in that it didn't really end.  It almost seemed like the author just got tired of the story and just said the end.  I was also not a fan of the character Troy.  I found him as a love interest was just wrong.  While I liked that the author gave her a love interest I just did not like that it was him. 

You could defiantly tell that it was a first novel by an author - and I'm sure that writing her following novels she developed more depth.  Well I'm hoping so anyways, as I plan to read more of her. 

My Rating: «««

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The reviews made here are my personal opinion. I’m not being paid to review any of these books. I am by no means a professional book reviewer or editor.  I do this for the love of books.