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Book Summary and Reviews of The Waters by Bonnie Jo Campbell

The Waters by Bonnie Jo Campbell

The Waters

A Novel

by Bonnie Jo Campbell

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  • Published:
  • Jan 2024, 400 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

A master of rural noir returns with a fierce, mesmerizing novel about exceptional women and the soul of a small town. The #ReadWithJenna January 2024 Pick.

On an island in the Great Massasauga Swamp―an area known as "The Waters" to the residents of nearby Whiteheart, Michigan―herbalist and eccentric Hermine "Herself" Zook has healed the local women of their ailments for generations. As stubborn as her tonics are powerful, Herself inspires reverence and fear in the people of Whiteheart, and even in her own three estranged daughters. The youngest―the beautiful, inscrutable, and lazy Rose Thorn―has left her own daughter, eleven-year-old Dorothy "Donkey" Zook, to grow up wild.

Donkey spends her days searching for truths in the lush landscape and in her math books, waiting for her wayward mother and longing for a father, unaware that family secrets, passionate love, and violent men will flood through the swamp and upend her idyllic childhood. Rage simmers below the surface of this divided community, and those on both sides of the divide have closed their doors against the enemy. The only bridge across the waters is Rose Thorn.

With a "ruthless and precise eye for the details of the physical world" (Jane Smiley, New York Times Book Review), Bonnie Jo Campbell presents an elegant antidote to the dark side of masculinity, celebrating the resilience of nature and the brutality and sweetness of rural life.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!
  1. The prologue of The Waters begins, "Once upon a time." How does this opening phrase prepare you for what is to come in the novel? Which aspects of the novel seem most strongly influenced by fairy tales and fantasy stories, and how successfully does author Bonnie Jo Campbell juxtapose these details with the realistic details in the novel?
  2. What effect does the title of the prologue, "Chapter Zero," create as you begin the novel? What purpose do you think this title serves? How does this first chapter title resonate when you reach the last chapter, the epilogue, "Chapter ∞"?
  3. Hermine Zook has a particular worldview and a specific vocabulary to describe it. She calls the world outside M'sauga Island "Nowhere," the people ...
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Reviews

Media Reviews

For Campbell, the dose of pixie dust is thoroughly diluted in a stream of gritty reality; her style never leaves the loamy land behind[.] Once you get thoroughly sunk into the story, you'll resent ever having to leave this matriarchal family that insists on preserving its own peculiar ways in a world determined to move on... Campbell's most astonishing feat is bringing The Waters to a climax that abandons the fantasy of her 'once upon a time' opening and yet eventually delivers us to a place of real magic we never could have anticipated." —Ron Charles, The Washington Post Book Review

"Campbell has been exploring hardship, especially the hardships that independent and exploratory women have to work through, for most of her writing career. She knows that unexpected misfortunes have to be put up with, and the question is always whether to do it your own way or to give in to the people around you and embark on a life you do not want... The Waters is a thought-provoking and readable exploration of eccentricity and of all different kinds of love — familial love, romantic love, love of knowledge, love of animals and love of one's own environment, even when it is a difficult place to live." —Jane Smiley, The Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Campbell, who lives outside Kalamazoo, Michigan, is one of American fiction's leading voices about rural life: the struggle to make a living, the beauty of the wild environment, the thorny and sometimes violent relationships between men and women, and the economic and industrial pressures that threaten everything… filled with vivid descriptions of the diverse flora of this wetlands, The Waters is a realistic novel with a strong thread of fairy tale running through it[.] The Waters builds toward an incredible climactic episode that addresses the great divide running through this imperiled community." —Jim Higgins, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

"Bonnie Jo Campbell has quietly become one of our best writers. She brings news you haven't heard before, and that's why I read. Her new novel, The Waters, is written in prose strong and lyrical, and tells a story so deeply rooted in a specific place that the accumulation of details approaches the magical." ―Daniel Woodrell, author of Winter's Bone

"Bonnie Jo Campbell's The Waters is a novel, a living myth, and a place.… Imagine a mash-up of Flannery O'Connor and the Brothers Grimm, of Angela Carter's reimagined fairy tales and William Faulkner's gothic sublime. And yet, The Waters is all Bonnie Jo. If you've read her, you know what I mean, how she sees and evokes us, and this land we inhabit, covered in mayapples and dogwood, cuntshells and quickmuck, with a masterful, tender objectivity. The Waters is no utopia. It is muddy and bloody; it swallows us whole and effervesces into fog. It is the magic we'd inhabit if we still believed in magic, the dream we'd have if we could sleep." ―Diane Seuss, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Frank: Sonnets

"The Waters will suck you into its muddy gut and not let go.… A powerful, fragrant, readable, almost edible novel. In The Waters, Bonnie Jo Campbell, who understands the women and men of the no-longer-prosperous rural Midwest better than anyone, dreams up a marshy Northwoods township where factual flora and fauna, soil quality and agricultural practice, demographics and religious affiliation somehow share a long, dotted, antic boundary line with Oz and The Blue Fairy Book, with märchen, folkways, and ancient myth." ―Jaimy Gordon, National Book Award–winning author of Lord of Misrule

"Campbell's thoughtfully rendered characters find life rewarding and bewildering in equal measures...Atmospheric, well written, and generally satisfying despite some overly familiar elements." —Kirkus Reviews

"Baggy writing, drawn-out scenes, and twee character names aren't doing this story any favors, but Campbell's immersive descriptions manage to suck the reader into its swampy setting. Patient readers will be carried away." —Publishers Weekly

"If you enjoy reading about strong, independent, purposeful women who thrive in the face of adversity and in spite of serious flaws, both personal and professional, this is a book for you[.] From lurking vengeful locals with firearms to deadly snakes protected by federal law, this tale moves irresistibly to an end that fulfills the promise of the rest of the book. It also addresses some trenchant current issues that appear in the news daily but are not, in fact new, but age-old problems that continue to baffle those with prospective solutions. It is a muscular and meaningful book that should be great book group material." —ReadingTheWest.com

This information about The Waters was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

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Janine S

Addictive and compelling
This is a book that is not an easy read, but it is a very worthwhile one! It is beautifully written, strangely addictive and incredibly intense. This intensity though is what keeps you interested and sometimes on your seat as the story of three generations of women who either live or grew up on an island surrounded by a community that loves, fears and is strangely ambivalent about them unfolds. Hermine "Herself" Zook is the matriarch of a family of three daughters (Primrose (who lives in California and practices law),

Molly (who is a nurse in the community) and Rose Thorn (who is beautiful, lazy and struggles to understand herself)) and granddaughter, Dorothy "Donkey," a precocious 11-year-old when we meet her. Herself is a healer and maker of herbal potions craved by the women (and men who are not quite as open about this) but at the same time the legends, lore and suspicion that surrounds Herself makes her fearsome and strange. Herself married Wild Will Zook but she kicked him out at one point after he built her a big house off the island. The mysteries surrounding Wild Will and the origins of Donkey underpin the story as does the winsome but toxic love between Titus Clay, Jr. and Rose Thorn, which to the community represents a kind of fairy tale, perfect love that seems to inspire the community, resonate within the story line.

Donkey plays a pivotal role as she is the linchpin between Herself, Rose Thorn and Titus. There are many moments that are funny, compelling, but triumphant too. But, it is nature and the love of nature and animals (the two donkey Astrid and Triumph, the cow, Deliah, Ozma, the pet dog, and the Massasauga rattlesnake Donkey believes is her "sister") that underlie the telling of the story of these strong, compelling women. Moreover, this is a book about relationships: man to nature, woman to man, siblings to parents, friends to family, community to the world.

There is so much about the nature of the story - secrets, truths that must be exposed, acceptance of responsibilities, etc. - that if revealed in this review would give the story away. There is realness to this story that is unique - the characters all have such huge flaws that at times you just want to slap them and say "wake up, you're being stupid" - but isn't that what happens in real life?

There were moments when I had to stop reading too because the intensity could overwhelm me but persevering got to me to place of intense satisfaction when I was done reading. Suffice it to say, I’m glad I read this book. Highly recommend.

Alyce T. (San Antonio, TX)

Outstanding Book
Bonnie Jo Campbell has produced a masterpiece. I feel that The Waters will become a classic. The author's style of writing resembles Ernest Hemingway. The detail is engrossing not bogging. The story plot about a family on an island in Michigan that allows no men involves you in all aspects. Hermine "Herself" is a strong woman who has raised 3 daughters while being the healer for the adjoining town. Primrose, Maryrose and Rose Thorn are all loveable in different ways. I wish there was a higher rating than a 5. When I finished The Waters, I went to Chapter 1 and reread the first 50 pages again. It is a family you do not want to leave and a book that you do not want to end.

Ann H. (Boulder, CO)

The Waters
What a great book! The author's descriptions of The Waters location and nearby village "Whiteheart" were so good you could almost picture yourself there - visiting Rose Cottage and Boneset Table. The complex family dynamics were powerful yet it was apparent all three daughters and granddaughter were loved by the elder Hermine "Herself" Zook, the local herbalist. A variety of themes were played out in the book - value of natural remedies, effects of pollution on the environment as well as incest and rape. Book clubs would have a lot to discuss with this book.

Lloyde N. (Olympia, WA)

Rural Noir
I took on reading this book as a challenge, as I did not understand what the term "Rural Noir" meant. Basically, it means "Southern Crime Fiction". So, I have read the Los Angeles Crime Noir fiction of James Elroy, which is difficult to read because of it's graphic portrayal of crime, but if you hang in there you will be scuffed a bit, but rewarded for your diligence of a story well told. This book has strong female characters, firstly in "Herself" the heroine of the story, and her three daughters and her granddaughter Donkey. There's lots to like here, but I would get bogged down in some of the detail, and where the book was headed. An excellent slow, but not fast read. Well worth your time, and your reading time will be rewarded with a strong story line, and delving into part of the culture and pace of a section of the United States many readers know little of.

Stephanie S. (Driftwood, TX)

Wow
Wow! I loved this book!! If I didn't have dogs that needed walking, I might have finished the second half in one sitting. As in so many good books, the Island and the Waters (the swampland around the island) were important characters in the story. The author's descriptions of the setting were so beautiful and so complete that I felt them come alive.

The women in the story reminded me of the women in Toni Morrison's 'Song of Solomon', strong, independent, and non-conforming. I was rooting for all of them, even when they were clearly in conflict with each other.

I would recommend this book to everyone. Get ready for a beautiful world inhabited by tough, beautiful and complicated women!

Cheryl R. (Jeannette, PA)

The Waters
As I began to read, I didn't know if I'd be able to keep all the characters straight. But the story soon settled into a story of generations. A story of moms, daughters, and granddaughters. The tale of family joy, grief, and secrets unfolded with unexpected twists and turns. At first it seems like a story of women; but read closely. The story of the men of the town is woven in and gets stronger throughout the book. All the characters I thought I'd confuse came to life in this story of generations and relationships.

...14 more reader reviews

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Author Information

Bonnie Jo Campbell Author Biography

Photo: John Campbell

Bonnie Jo Campbell is the author of six works of fiction, including American Salvage, finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and Once Upon a River, a national bestseller. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, AWP's Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction, and a Pushcart Prize, she lives outside Kalamazoo, Michigan, with donkeys.

Link to Bonnie Jo Campbell's Website

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