Drowning Ruth
(Books)
Author
Published
New York : Doubleday, 2000.
Format
Books
Edition
1st ed.
ISBN
038549971X (jacket)
Physical Desc
viii, 338 pages ; 25 cm.
Status
Description
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Copies
Location | Call Number | Status |
---|---|---|
Kimball Library | FIC SCH | Available in Coop |
Plaistow Public Library | FIC SCH | Available in Coop |
Subjects
LC Subjects
Other Subjects
More Details
Published
New York : Doubleday, 2000.
Edition
1st ed.
Language
English
ISBN
038549971X (jacket)
Notes
Description
Christina Schwarz's suspenseful debut pivots on two of the lost "virtues" of the past: silence and stoicism. Drowning Ruth opens in 1919, on the heels of the influenza epidemic that followed the First World War. Although there were telephones and motor cars and dance halls in the small towns of Wisconsin in those years, the townspeople remained rigid and forbidding. As a young woman, Amanda Starkey, a Lutheran farmer's daughter, had been firmly discouraged from an inappropriate marriage with a neighboring Catholic boy. A few years later, as a nurse in Milwaukee, she is seduced by a dishonorable man. Her shame sends her into a nervous breakdown, and she returns to the family farm. Within a year, though, her beloved sister Mathilde drowns under mysterious circumstances. And when Mathilde's husband, Carl, returns from the war, he finds his small daughter, Ruth, in Amanda's tenacious grip, and she will tell him nothing about the night his wife drowned. Amanda's parents, too, are long gone. "I killed my parents. Had I mentioned that?" muses Amanda.
I killed them because I felt a little fatigued and suffered from a slight, persistent cough. Thinking I was overworked and hadn't been getting enough sleep, I went home for a short visit, just a few days to relax in the country while the sweet corn and the raspberries were ripe. From the city I brought fancy ribbon, two boxes of Ambrosia chocolate, and a deadly gift... I gave the influenza to my mother, who gave it to my father, or maybe it was the other way around."
Schwarz is a skillful writer, weaving her grim tale across several decades, always returning to the fateful night of Mathilde's death.
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Citations
APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)
Schwarz, C. (2000). Drowning Ruth . Doubleday.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)Schwarz, Christina. 2000. Drowning Ruth. Doubleday.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)Schwarz, Christina. Drowning Ruth Doubleday, 2000.
MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)Schwarz, Christina. Drowning Ruth Doubleday, 2000.
Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.
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