The Knowledge of Water

I just finished Sarah Smith's The Knowledge of Water. Absolutely incredible, with passages at the end that are worth reading, and reading again, and then stopping to savor. It's a book about passion, and in particular the passion for one's art, one's calling, and how people honor that passion in the context of a whole life -- not "fit it in," because passion cannot be accommodated, does not fit comfortably around the edges -- and it's about how expectations twist people's lives. And it's about women, their expectations for themselves, men's expectations, about the choices they make, about what it does to a person to give up her truth in order to do the laundry and buy the groceries and raise the children.There are no bad guys in this book. There is a pianist who loves a man, but who for days leading up to her first public performance forgets to write to him. There is a doctor who gets caught up in saving his hospital and forgets that he has left his bride-to-be in a cheap hotel. There is, yes, a wedding that comes off in a paragraph, because the story is not about weddings but about marriage, of which the wedding is only an incidental part. There are discussions of love and risk and art and truth and forgery. I think -- although I won't know for years -- that this book will bear reading and re-reading, and may be one of the ten books that I would take to a desert island.I was reading this book in Penn Station, waiting for a train, and had to sit down on the floor because I was so far into the book that I was beginning to lose track of where I was.

This was a selection for our book club, and it provided a lot to talk about. A number of us gave it a top rating. The historical setting is beautifully done and the author brings in a number of interesting issues, including feminism, men/women relations, questions of the disabled. The way the book builds to a flood that coincides with the climax is stunning.

This book was excellent. I loved the images of turn-of-the-century Paris and its suburbs. I also loved the usage of the French language. The mystery was involving and kept the reader guessing until the resolution. I am now reading it for the second time and it is just as good. I intend to read the prequel to this (The Vanished Child) sometime very soon. Sarah Smith has a very unique way of words and describes scenes while leaving some to the imagination.

I found The Knowledge of Water to be an absorbing blend of mystery, period history and romance; but before you write it off as a bodice-ripper, let me add that the characters are well developed and believable, and the thorny women's issues are thought-provoking and timely. The result is good, entertaining brain food. My only regret is that I read this volume before the first one in the series, The Vanished Child. Although I plan to go back and read it now, I fear Knowledge of Water gives away too many of the surprises from the first novel.

Even though this book is set at the turn of the century, the choices and actions of women speak to the women of today. Having a family AND a career is more commonplace, but excelling in both is just as difficult, for men, as well as women. Sarah Smith gives voice to several men and women as they wrestle with their passions, searching for a solution they can live with. What makes this book excellent is that just like today, there are no easy solutions