Wish You Were Here (Vintage International) Paperback – January 22, 2013

Manly, controlled tale of parting and deaths in a rural family. Winners and losers alikego through abundant pain and scant joy, those who fare best just don'tacknowledge defeat. Swift is a master story-teller and an immense connosseur ofhuman emotions, a modern master.Nature is lovingly described, shades of greatEnglish poetry. It stays with you.

Couldn't really get into the story. Author keeps jumping from one faze of life to another. Characters do not seem to be specific to the story. As one reads, the characters eventually come to be described but it seems to be a slow and painful process. Just a slow read with the question - Okay, where are we now? Not excited with authors writing style.

I've followed Swift for years and he just gets better and better. In Wish You Were Here Jack Luxton, a dairy farmer turned resort keeper who is haunted by his family's past, waits for his wife who is out in their car while a storm rages. Jack has his shotgun ready on the bed. This is the frame for what happens in the rest of the novel -the story behind the story. The reader is taken back to this situation as it progresses.The rest of the tale is comprised of all the threads which lead up to that situation in the bedroom. Chronology, how events tie together and build on each other, is of the essence to Swift so the story is told in non-linear fashion but clicks together like a plot strand if the reader has been putting it together.The theme, or one of the themes, is being stuck in the past vs escaping it. Swift uses verb tenses very effectively to denote past, past perfect, present, future and even future perfect ("would have to") ("might have ...") It helps keep things straight as to when they happened as related to where things are now, etc. in this winding novel of how the past and its memory create the present. Much of the narrative is a kind of stream-of-consciousness with a changing time frame of reference.

There's a lot to discuss in relation to war, nation, and hero discourse. At the asme time, there is a subtle suspense that could be a bit slow, but overall adds to the quiet grace of the novel.

Having grown up in a family with a long military history, and having experienced having a brother in the military whose life I always worried about while he was stationed overseas, I went into this novel with certain expectations. I pictured myself falling into an emotional rollercoaster of a novel, full of scenes I could easily identify with. Alas, I did not grow up with a sheep farmer turned campground owner brother with a depressed wife. So the beginning befuddled me a bit, but I tried to keep up. But ack, I just could not hold interest here. I found not one character I could latch onto and say YES! I feel you! I got no feels. No nothing. Except a headache from all the tedious prose that tried to batter me over the head with all the heavy-handed symbolism.That kettle line I've seen a few other reviewers comment on -- "Then Ellie had gone to fill the kettle. Certain moments in life, it seemed, required the filling of a kettle. Kettles got filled every day, without a thought, several times over..." -- when I read that part myself, it stirred something in my memory that I'm still trying to fully recall. I cannot think of what the book was, but I feel almost certain I've seen that image, metaphor, whatever you want to call it -- used in a scene in another story at some point. Driving me crazy that I can't put a finger on it.I've read a number of online reviews that in one way or another deem this book "unputdownable". Whatever they got out of it was clearly lost on me. However, I've seen rave reviews of some of other Swift's work, particularly Last Orders, Waterland, and some of his short story collections, so I'd be willing to give his stuff another go or two before dismissing him from my shelves entirely.

I really enjoy Graham Swift. My book group thought it was too long. It really seems like a man's book on the style of "All the Pretty Horses" with very little dialog. It was mostly introspection and the narrator was able to see all the characters' thoughts so you weren't left guessing about motivations.

One review called this novel “emotionally gripping.” I would call it emotionally restrained, to say the least. The novel is largely about a dairy farming family in England, devastated by the mandated killing of all their perfectly healthy cattle, due to an outbreak of mad-cow disease. The mother in the family dies young, leaving two sons, Jack and Tom, and their father Michael. The younger son, Tom, is in many ways the favorite son, but there is no animosity between the two brothers. After Tom joins the army on his 18th birthday and Michael dies, Jack and his long-time girlfriend Ellie sell the farm and take ownership of a caravan park (like an RV campground) on the Isle of Wight. I’m not sure what the primary theme is here, but I would guess it’s grief, insufficiently expressed. Tom’s death is sort of the last straw, as far as Jack is concerned. Also, this is the second novel I’ve read recently where an ailing dog figures largely in the plot. This novel is about men, specifically emotionally stifled men, but it’s not the kind of thing I think that most men are likely to read. Consequently, it leaves this woman reader scratching her head, asking, “What’s it all about?” Jack is an ordinary guy who has endured tragedy and then basically loses it at the end. Until that point, for which there is substantial foreshadowing involving a gun, Jack’s inner turmoil is understated. The finale is indeed gripping, but the lead-up doesn’t really build to a boiling point. Rather, it just chugs along, and then Jack suddenly becomes someone that we don’t recognize.

Graham Swift is one of the best writers of our day. This book is just another example. If excellent writing and character studies is what you like, you might consider reading all of his books.

Having read most of Graham's previous books I was looking forward to reading this. Didn't find the first couple of chapters interesting at all but as some reviewers recommended sticking with it, I did. Shouldn't have. It's an interesting story but the writing I found was boring, repetitive, turgid and completely lacking in engagement. After the midway point I scanned forward, taking a few lines from each page, and quickly reached the end. I don't think I missed anything. The end itself was an anticlimax and I only wished I had jumped straight there after the first couple of chapters, Nothing to see, Officer! As I said, a shame as I generally like Graham's work, Last Orders is in my top 5 books of all time but this one sinks.

This was recommended to me by a friend and I have to agree with her that it is a truly mesmerising read. It holds the reader's attention from start to finish. Although the setting is benign the tension is real and makes this a page-turner. I loved it

This was the choice of my reading group. I found it very depressing. I was taken through the Mad Cow disease, the out break of Foot and Mouth and the sorry life of a Devon farmer. This is the first book I have not finished, I would probably have jumped off a cliff had I continued.Not for me.

Seems confusing at the beginning. Stick with it. You'll soon find it difficult to put down. Swift never deals with two-dimensional characters. If they bleed, you bleed with them. You know these everyday people.

well written and atmospheric. I love the way Swift's characters are always so much a product of their time and place. Reminded me of another one of his that I really liked - Waterland. Read them both - you won't be disappointed