They Came Like Swallows is a book I bought early on in the pandemic, interested in literature from other pandemics. But after reading a couple of other books about pandemics, I lost my taste for it. Christmas Day I found myself the recipient of a new, shiny Kindle, one much improved over my tortoise-paced older Kindle, and for some reason, I was inspired to open this book.
I'm glad I did. Can I recommend it to others? Perhaps only with the caveat that this is not a happy book; it's set in late 1918, and the flu pandemic is beginning to rage, and someone key dies. If you're not up for that, I certainly understand. But if you are, this is a lovely book about mourning, regret, loss, and the interiority of all of it.
Slight spoiler:
Ready?
The mother of a young family succumbs to the flu. We see the lead-up and aftermath of her death through the eyes of both of her sons and her husband. How they feel, how they register what's happening, is filtered through each of their points-of-view. That just increases the heartbreak in terms of how little they understand each other and how everyone is working through what's happened. The unnecessary guilt some feel, the laser-sharp focus on certain things they wish they had done differently--Maxwell details this in clean writing, not melodramatic or sentimental, just describing the way things are.
Maxwell's So Long, See You Tomorrow has long been considered his masterpiece. That's not a book I loved the first time I read it. On rereading this summer with an online group, I developed a deeper appreciation for it. But for me, They Came Like Swallows is the better book, clearer, narrower in scope and ambition, and utterly successful. Your mileage may vary, depending on your love/lack thereof for So Long.
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