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The Taking
In his critically acclaimed novel, Longing, J. D. Landis explored the volatile nature of passion as he brought to life the extraordinary marriage of Robert and Clara Schumann. It was a fervent love story that unfolded against the lavish backdrop of the Romantic Age. Now Landis tells a haunting story set amid a sylvan cluster of towns, villages, and graveyards in New England— nestled in a valley that would be purposely flooded in the late 1930s to create the Quabbin Reservoir. Communities would be destroyed, lives uprooted, connections to places of birth severed, and the dead would be exhumed and reburied.
The fate of Swift River Valley holds a strange fascination for seventeen-year-old Sarianna Renway, a wayward student obsessed with the life and work of poet Emily Dickinson. Sarianna finds herself drawn to this little world whose end is predetermined and whose time is drawing near. In the small hamlet of Greenwich Village—abandoned, beautiful, doomed—Sarianna takes a job tutoring a minister’s son.
A man of deep faith, Jeremy Treat strives to instill hope into a town destined to be taken and lost forever. He vows to be the last one in the valley to ensure his remaining flock leaves safely. Eleven-year-old Jimmy, “the perfect representation of God on earth,” is a curious and compassionate child prodigy. The matriarch of the household is twenty-six-year-old Una, a voluptuous eccentric who embraces scandal—and pines for the one true love who disappeared almost twelve years ago on the day she became Jeremy’s wife. When the mysterious Ethan Vear resurfaces, none will emerge unchanged—especially Sarianna, who finds herself ensnared in a triangle of shifting identities and warring passions.
In lush, evocative prose, J. D. Landis takes these vivid characters—their secrets, their temptations, their desires—and creates a stunning New England gothic novel of sexual awakening, profound loss, and thwarted love.
The fate of Swift River Valley holds a strange fascination for seventeen-year-old Sarianna Renway, a wayward student obsessed with the life and work of poet Emily Dickinson. Sarianna finds herself drawn to this little world whose end is predetermined and whose time is drawing near. In the small hamlet of Greenwich Village—abandoned, beautiful, doomed—Sarianna takes a job tutoring a minister’s son.
A man of deep faith, Jeremy Treat strives to instill hope into a town destined to be taken and lost forever. He vows to be the last one in the valley to ensure his remaining flock leaves safely. Eleven-year-old Jimmy, “the perfect representation of God on earth,” is a curious and compassionate child prodigy. The matriarch of the household is twenty-six-year-old Una, a voluptuous eccentric who embraces scandal—and pines for the one true love who disappeared almost twelve years ago on the day she became Jeremy’s wife. When the mysterious Ethan Vear resurfaces, none will emerge unchanged—especially Sarianna, who finds herself ensnared in a triangle of shifting identities and warring passions.
In lush, evocative prose, J. D. Landis takes these vivid characters—their secrets, their temptations, their desires—and creates a stunning New England gothic novel of sexual awakening, profound loss, and thwarted love.
- GenresHistorical Fiction
400 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2003
53 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
didn-t-finish
March 28, 2016Much to my husband's chagrin, I recently became a little obsessed with the lost towns of the Swift River Valley and the creation of the Quabbin Reservoir. So I was super excited when I found a novel in the library catalog that took place in the last days of Greenwich Village. The reviews were iffy, but I figured it was worth a try.
Fourteen pages in, the line "...who sought the greater heat of both a southern clime and a Protestant woman's blonde and milky loin" gave me pause, but I love the setting so much I figured I'd keep going.
I made it six more pages before I was too bored to carry on. I'm sure there's other novels that take place in the Swift River Valley, so I'm going to set this one down and move on.
Though if you're looking for a good story that explains what happened and you don't mind a children's book, read Jane Yolen's Letting Swift River Go. It's a great look at a fascinating and heartbreaking time through a little girl's point of view.
Fourteen pages in, the line "...who sought the greater heat of both a southern clime and a Protestant woman's blonde and milky loin" gave me pause, but I love the setting so much I figured I'd keep going.
I made it six more pages before I was too bored to carry on. I'm sure there's other novels that take place in the Swift River Valley, so I'm going to set this one down and move on.
Though if you're looking for a good story that explains what happened and you don't mind a children's book, read Jane Yolen's Letting Swift River Go. It's a great look at a fascinating and heartbreaking time through a little girl's point of view.
March 2, 2021
A lot happened in this book (a lot of death, and very confusing love) and I missed most of it! There were too many unanswered questions and sentences that were more like paragraphs that turn around and negate themselves. Forgive me if I lost interest in playing hide and go seek with this book.
I still don't have a good picture of the male lead after reading the whole thing, or know the reason for the title. Feel free to enlighten me!
I still don't have a good picture of the male lead after reading the whole thing, or know the reason for the title. Feel free to enlighten me!
June 25, 2012
This book was a struggle for me to get through. The plot was interesting and could of been good but the writing was sooooo tedious. I think the author wanted to make this a poetic and literary work of fiction and all it did was make the book boring and hard to get through. The main character Sarianna is obsessed with Emily Dickinson and it seemed with every thought she had she would compare herself to Emily. I found my mind drifting off everytime the Word Emily was in this book and its in there alot. I say its not a total waste of time but it could have been so much better if he elaborated on the story and not on trying to make this some work of literary genius.
January 25, 2013
Landis has written a fairly compelling, Bronte-ish gothic mystery, complete with governess, walking ghosts, and creepy heads of households with grudges to bear. Oddly, he has set it in 1930s Massachusetts during the flooding of the Swift River Valley and the 2 stories seem to compete rather than complement. I was drawn in by the prologue, and I found the characters interesting and compelling. But I kept picturing them in 1820s England, and I anted to read a lot more about the building of the reservoir. So I got a dinner I didn't order, which may be delicious, just not what I was hungry for.
October 18, 2009
mega bleah!
February 10, 2016
http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/4...
The subject matter left me cold & I couldn't finish it.
The subject matter left me cold & I couldn't finish it.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews