The Whirlpool

by Brian Quirt (Adapted by), Jane Urquhart

It’s summer 1889, a season of reckless stunts and river casualities in Niagara Falls. Four lives become entangled by the whirlpool at the Falls and the woods surrounding it. Darker and more sinister currents gain momentum and ultimately release them from their obsessions.

Genres: Fiction, Canada, Historical Fiction, Canadian Literature

80 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

I almost gave up reading this dirge three times. Although the imagery is occasionally fascinating, it doesn't warrant 237 pages. All the references to Browning and Shelley, which initially seem to be integral to the narrative, disappear with no explanation, nor any apparent apparent intent as to why they were referred to in the first instance; aside from, perhaps, a pretentious need to name-drop much better writers.

[Derek Newman-Stille · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Whirlpool evokes Urquhart's characteristic exploration of the ways that landscapes can embody memory and the general power of Place. Taking on the iconic setting of Niagara Falls with its larger-than-life evocation of a sense of wonder, Urquhart tells a tale that is fundamentally about the beauty of people and their ability to shift and change like the whirlpool they live next to. Equally a physical space and a dreamscape on which characters project their fears, desires, and identities, the Whirlpool itself comes to suck in identities and concepts, taking on imagery of sexuality, freedom, and, as a potential killer, of course it takes on imagery of death.

Objects are never passive in Urguhart's work, always taking on memory, dreams, aspirations, and speaking to the personalities of the characters around them, and the beauty of the whirlpool, a swirling current of desire and the sublime, is a wondrous receptacle for Urquhart's imaginative vision.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Urquhart's characters always seem odd to me. Do people like hers really exist? Somehow I'm able to leave that question behind when I'm in her hands and this time was no exception. I was carried along very happily, especially enjoying the parts in the camp setting above the Whirlpool. We visited Niagara and the Gorge so many times when I was young and there really is a magic there. There is usually obsession in her stories, and obsession is always a fascinating condition, I find.

[Jack Coleman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This my first exposure to Jane Urquarts writing. An interesting novel set in the late 1890,s
Niagara Falls Ont. Canada. Ethreal quality of the prose like the mists off the river.I also liked
the Poetry.
Aquired book at library book sale.

[Ziggy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book to be too 'arty' for my taste.However, I'll never think of Niagara Falls the same way again. A 'dark' book. In Canada, this book is listed as by Jane Urquhart - no mention of Brian Quirt - and it's 258 pages long, not 80, Bizarre!
Also, it won her the Best Foreign book award in France in 1992. (?)

[Philippa Dowding · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Jane Urquhart, I particularly enjoyed Away and The Under Painter. The Whirlpool is her first novel, and while it's good, it didn't have the same depth for me as other titles. Although descriptive and vivid, and obviously well-researched, it didn't really pull together for me, perhaps because I was disappointed in the fractious relationship between the main characters. There are many vivid characters: an undertaker's widow and her autistic son, the old river man who collects bodies from the whirlpool, the poet, the young woman and her military husband living in their tent beside the whirlpool. There are also many vivid descriptions of battles, Laura Secord, Robert Browning, an ill-conceived bid to go over the Falls, and small town Ontario in the 1880s. There's much in this novel to appreciate, and if you like Urquhart, you should read it, but perhaps it is too much like a whirlpool for me: all the ensuing parts go round and round forever, never really connecting above or below the surface.

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

This a strange, and yet very poetic novel. I have read Jane Urquhart before and like her writing style. The novel begins with an aging Robert Browning - nearing death in Venice, dreaming of Shelley. The novel ends with him too, and this is possibly the strangest aspect to the book - and not all that easy to understand - although he and Shelley are poets as is one of the characters in the main body of the novel. Water is also a theme- Shelley of course drowned as a young man, and the main part of the novel takes place in Niagra where the poet Patrick and the woman he becomes obsessed with (Fleda) are both drawn to the whirlpool. Maud the undertakers widow is left to clear up the bodies the whirlpool throws up. She has a strange child - only ever knowsn as The Child, whose behaviour suggests autism - but as this is 1889 that word is never applied to him. Each of the characters is obsessed with something, in this peculiar story of obsession and immagination.

[Theresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A rather strange book set in the Niagara Falls area (a place I have wanted to visit) in the 1880's. It features a diverse cast of characters including the widow of the local undertaker who has taken over her husband's business. She has to deal with all the suicides at the Falls and the stuntmen who fail in their attempts to ride the Rapids or swim the Whirlpool. She has a son with autism who mutely observes everything going on in town. Then there is the Old River Man who constantly watches the Falls for victims and pulls them from the water to deliver to the undertaker for payment in the form of a bottle of whiskey. Other characters include a military historian who is obsessed with the War of 1812 and firmly believes that the United States rewrote the history of that war. His wife lives in a tent in the woods near the Falls and Whirlpool and spends her time reading Shelley and Wordworth poetry.
I can't say that I liked this book, but reading it was an interesting experience.

[Feathzzz · Rating 4 out of 5]

So readable, the translation of the words into your mind is so easy. I can hear, see, feel, touch everything, I felt thoroughly transported while reading. Is so refreshing to read because of the strangeness of the lyrics the story's voice intoned. Many books are wonderfully lyrical, but this book's lyrics weren't just good, but so different, so far apart, from any other book I've read.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying this negatively, it doesn't bother me in this case, but the book wasn't strong. It was too flowing, changing, as one of the main metaphors of the book. It doesn't leave a lasting impressions, instead infinitely moves your sprit in a single present moment. It's too artist to be strong, and that's the beauty of it.

[Frank · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mrs. Urquhart tells a haunting tale mostly through indirection and psychological action. The narrative connects four characters living in the Niagara Falls region of Canada, each of whom has a particular link to the region: a historian researching the War of 1812 and obsessed with Laura Secord, his wife, who loves Browning's poetry and staring at the whirlpool near where they are building a new house, a poet obsessed with the wife and the thought of swimming through the nearby whirlpool and a female funeral director whose work includes identifying and burying people drowned in the area's perilous waters. Their stories create a powerful picture of the evanescence of life and the power of repressed passion to drive our thoughts.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting novel dealing with the status of women in the late 19th century on the Canadian side of Niagra Falls. Two female characters seek their liberation in distinctly different ways. One begins by freeing herself from the materialism of living in a house (she lives in a large tent constructed by her husband, overlooking the whirpool)and immerses herself in Robert Browning. The other is the widow of the local mortician and she buries those who risk their lives going over the falls. Highlights the creative ways these two women see their way through the limit choices of their time.

[L Prunskus · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I could give this book another half star because I enjoyed it on so many levels. The language, the metaphors and the dreamy quality of the interwoven story made this book exceptional. Reading this novel felt like watching a classic foreign film. It was elusive.

[Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like The Underpainter, it does njot compare to Away. It's not bad - set in Niagara and gives a neat glimpse into its past history and explores people's various facinations with the falls.

[karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this. The writing was quite vivid and the metaphor of the whirlpool was interesting. I think my favorite character was The Boy.
This would probably make an interesting movie.

[Jody · Rating 3 out of 5]

The parallel stories had little to do with one another. Both were interesting in themselves though.

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm bumping my review from 3 to 4 stars because the book has stayed with me all these years. I was reminded of it recently when I was reading The Night Fairy of all things.

[Patricia Boyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good story; Jane Urquhart's stories are multi-dimensional.

[Lindsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I need to read this again to really get a grasp on it. The book was beautiful, but the whole thing seems to happen far away.

[Jane Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very strange story but very well written.