What do you think?
Rate this book
Swallowed by the Cold: Stories
The intricate, interlocking stories of Jensen Beach's extraordinarily poised story collection are set in a Swedish village on the Baltic Sea as well as in Stockholm over the course of two eventful years. In Swallowed by the Cold , people are besieged and haunted by disasters both personal and a fatal cycling accident, a drowned mother, a fire on a ferry, a mysterious arson, the assassination of the Swedish foreign minister, and, decades earlier, the Soviet bombing of Stockholm. In these stories, a drunken, lonely woman is convinced that her new neighbor is the daughter of her dead lover; a one-armed tennis player and a motherless girl reckon with death amid a rainstorm; and happening upon a car crash, a young woman is unaccountably drawn to the victim, even as he slides into a coma and her marriage falls into jeopardy. Again and again, Beach's protagonists find themselves unable to express their innermost feelings to those they are closest to, but at the same time they are drawn to confide in strangers. In its confidence and subtle precision, Beach’s prose evokes their reticence but is supple enough to reveal deeper passions and intense longing. Shot through with loss and the regret of missed opportunities, Swallowed by the Cold is a searching and crystalline book by a startlingly talented young writer.
176 pages, Paperback
First published August 24, 2015
9 people are currently reading
476 people want to read
About the author
Jensen Beach
7 books66 followersJensen Beach is the author of two story collections, most recently SWALLOWED BY THE COLD (Graywolf). He holds an MFA in fiction from the Program for Poets and Writers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, as well as an MA and BA in English from Stockholm University. He teaches in the BFA program at Johnson State College, where he is the fiction editor at Green Mountains Review. He’s also a faculty member in the MFA Program in Writing & Publishing at Vermont College of Fine Arts. His writing has appeared recently in A Public Space, Cincinnati Review, Fifty-Two Stories, Ninth Letter, the Paris Review, and The New Yorker, and online at Tin House, N+1, Kenyon Review, and American Short Fiction, among others. He’s received scholarships from the Napa and Sewanee Writers’ conferences, and is one of the webeditors at Hobart. He lives in Vermont with his wife and children.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
February 27, 2016
Kinda like if Alice Munro wrote a linked "What We Talked About..." story collection set in Sweden? Maybe? Unless that doesn't sound good, then not like that at all.
July 11, 2016
From Graywolf Press comes this second collection by author Jensen Beach. Though Beach hails from (appropriately enough) California, the stories in this collection all take place in Sweden, where Beach briefly lived.
In its way, Swallowed by the Cold mimics the design of Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio. Although there is no central character who shows up in many stories (George Willard-like), many of the characters we meet in one story surface again in another--frequently seen this time from another character's point of view.
Beach's characters are often sad and searching like Anderson's, too. I wouldn't quite call them "grotesques" but it doesn't go quite as far as old Sherwood did, but there's a definite subliminal beat to the song "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For."
It's an eclectic mix of Swedes here. No, you probably won't become attached to any one, but you'll be intrigued. Fair warning, too. Beach loves for his stories to just end. If you like knots, bow-ties, and tinselly packaging, pass...
In its way, Swallowed by the Cold mimics the design of Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio. Although there is no central character who shows up in many stories (George Willard-like), many of the characters we meet in one story surface again in another--frequently seen this time from another character's point of view.
Beach's characters are often sad and searching like Anderson's, too. I wouldn't quite call them "grotesques" but it doesn't go quite as far as old Sherwood did, but there's a definite subliminal beat to the song "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For."
It's an eclectic mix of Swedes here. No, you probably won't become attached to any one, but you'll be intrigued. Fair warning, too. Beach loves for his stories to just end. If you like knots, bow-ties, and tinselly packaging, pass...
August 29, 2015
You may read online here.
Opening lines:
Louise knew by the new name on the call box that someone had moved in. She’d seen lights and movement in the apartment, which was across the courtyard from her and Martin, for the past few days. The new name confirmed it. Someone had finally bought the place. The name had been typed on a small piece of green paper and taped to the call box beside the apartment’s number. Louise had once known a man with the name Jahani.
Opening lines:
Louise knew by the new name on the call box that someone had moved in. She’d seen lights and movement in the apartment, which was across the courtyard from her and Martin, for the past few days. The new name confirmed it. Someone had finally bought the place. The name had been typed on a small piece of green paper and taped to the call box beside the apartment’s number. Louise had once known a man with the name Jahani.
February 26, 2021
Set primarily in Sweden, these stories aren't so much connected, as that various of the characters reappear, as a secondary character in one story, a primary character in another. In all, there is the desire for connection, which remains fraught, in lives otherwise comfortable. Strong, quiet, and intriguing stories.
June 21, 2017
2017.6.21
Her speaking to Sara was surreal and kinda ruined it for me. The sentiment of the story was so subtle that her visit to the newcomer was totally out of character (no matter how drunk she was) and made me cringe. The ending was awkward too. The flow is not right.
While I guessed Arman was her lover's first name, it was very confusing when it first appeared and good writing should never sacrifice clear meaning for creating a fictitious mystery. But I liked the general idea of the story and many shrewd observations and witty details -- I especially liked the details of how the apartment evolved and that babysitting story with the neighbor with two kids.
I just think this story needs to be worked on a little more. Let it sit around for a bit longer, and you can replace those awkward plots with something else to make it perfect.
Her speaking to Sara was surreal and kinda ruined it for me. The sentiment of the story was so subtle that her visit to the newcomer was totally out of character (no matter how drunk she was) and made me cringe. The ending was awkward too. The flow is not right.
While I guessed Arman was her lover's first name, it was very confusing when it first appeared and good writing should never sacrifice clear meaning for creating a fictitious mystery. But I liked the general idea of the story and many shrewd observations and witty details -- I especially liked the details of how the apartment evolved and that babysitting story with the neighbor with two kids.
I just think this story needs to be worked on a little more. Let it sit around for a bit longer, and you can replace those awkward plots with something else to make it perfect.
April 25, 2016
Beach's stories are some of the best I've read. Set in Sweden, these linked short stories delve deeply into the relationships between men and women, particularly husbands and wives. I feel like I've been wandering around in the skin of his characters because he does such a great job depicting inner turmoil, self-doubt, resentment, attraction, repulsion, and pretty much every emotion adults encounter as they navigate they way through the rocky shoals of marriage and intimate relationships.
Beach also has a real knack for detail. He's clearly a master of observation and at writing about the conjunction between inner and outer worlds. Can't recommend this book highly enough. It blew me away.
Of course, it's another Graywolf publication!
Beach also has a real knack for detail. He's clearly a master of observation and at writing about the conjunction between inner and outer worlds. Can't recommend this book highly enough. It blew me away.
Of course, it's another Graywolf publication!
September 14, 2016
funnily enough i read this for a one-credit class on book reviewing. i'm not going to irradiate you with the actual review i wrote, but: lovely control, careful clean prose, but a really sour and sad vibe draped over a cast of unlikeable characters like shitty tinsel. it's new yorker fiction in a k hole. actually no it's not even that weird. fair play to the craft but this is not my cup of tea or any type of beverage.
April 23, 2016
Swallowed by the Cold takes place in a fjord dreamscape of whiskey, secrets, and accidental death. The structure of the collection loops back on itself, so the stories don't so much end as continue with new narrators and different perspectives. Beach is a narrative wizard. Can't recommend it highly enough.
November 2, 2017
Jensen Beach is a masterful writer- from a technical standpoint. The language is exquisite and sparse, sentences an phrases are perfectly constructed. But his characters in this collection are tepid, unlikeable, and difficult to care about or cultivate an interest in
October 20, 2016
Fine collection of linked stories, this time located in Sweden, proving once again that thanks to globalization, people in today's world are facing the same challenges.
July 16, 2017
Beach’s characters are all suffering from something but they do so in such a beautifully haunting way that they come to life in this collection of short stories. Really enjoyed this book.
March 22, 2018
It’s very uncharacteristic of me to hastily purchase a book from a bookstore shelf. This book is a good example of the reason I shouldn’t.
First the positive. The chapters are separate stories that are all linked in one way or another and the reader can appreciate the variety. The stories are decent but don’t always have a good conclusion or plot. I felt personally that I could connect with the characters, but not due to a good character development. The reader will inevitably feel as though something is missing. The characters seem vague.
In anticipation of my time reading each day was I was reluctant until I got a few paragraphs into the story and was never eager to know what the next story would bring.
The only other insight is that there are too many characters to keep track of. With better character development I might have had more success in remembering characters from multiple stories.
Unfortunately, the experimental quality of the book ended up not being enticing enough to search for another book from this author. He’s no Faulkner.
First the positive. The chapters are separate stories that are all linked in one way or another and the reader can appreciate the variety. The stories are decent but don’t always have a good conclusion or plot. I felt personally that I could connect with the characters, but not due to a good character development. The reader will inevitably feel as though something is missing. The characters seem vague.
In anticipation of my time reading each day was I was reluctant until I got a few paragraphs into the story and was never eager to know what the next story would bring.
The only other insight is that there are too many characters to keep track of. With better character development I might have had more success in remembering characters from multiple stories.
Unfortunately, the experimental quality of the book ended up not being enticing enough to search for another book from this author. He’s no Faulkner.
October 14, 2023
Okay… not necessarily stores I found super memorable but the prose was nice and I enjoyed the depictions of life and thoughts and memory all woven into a history of a place. It felt deeply personal while also providing an overview of a specific class and community in a small town in Sweden (as well as some of their escapades abroad). Mostly, it makes being an adult seem pretty bleak… marriage, infidelity, death, dying, randos you hook up with in California. This was a lonely dude. Overall enjoyed but not necessarily a stand-out per me.
October 25, 2019
The stories in this collection are all loosely connected. Many revolve around a tragedy of some kind or its effect on people at the moment of the tragedy or memories of it later. Some stories ended abruptly without resolution and others answered the questions left by the earlier story but from a different perspective. Mixed bag for me.
May 16, 2020
This collection of short stories won the 2017 Vermont Book Award, with one of the stories published in The New Yorker. The setting is Sweden and the characters move about and intermingle in the stories. The stories are impactful and I appreciated his writing style.
January 11, 2018
Some really great moments in this, and the stories all related together nicely.
April 2, 2018
In case you need a reminder that humans are pathetic, fickle mortals.
February 5, 2021
These a beautiful, crystaline stories - written with the precision of a nordic wind by a wonderfully humane writer.
July 22, 2021
It was good but I felt like I missed something as the ending didn’t seem to wrap up the stories.
November 24, 2020
I bought this book in the summer, but found myself wanting to read about this cold Swedish landscape during the polar vortex here in Buffalo.
Beach's characters are as flawed, familiar and likable, as people in real life, especially Henrik. Often their flaw is the cold land itself, a culture that freezes themselves cold: characters who are unwilling to stop for each other, unwilling to connect with their chosen partners, always searching for something else, never quite finding it, never quite meeting their own eyes in the mirror, never seeing themselves as they really are. I think about Henrik and Helle and oh God, poor Rolf, while I'm running, actually having to remind myself they are not really moving throughout the book when I'm not reading it.
When I return from my own cold city, I find them again in their cold white Swedish spaces. I think I am reading it now because I find total satiation from beautifully deliberate lines like, "They left at ten, taking with them a picnic of sandwiches and freshly boiled new potatoes, which they ate cold with sour cream." As a writer, Beach erases himself and finds the starkest noun, the most precise syntax, creates a clear path between reader and image.
Lastly, I love the form of this book--short stories that connect and intertwine with each other, as well as leave spaces in between. Beach uses the short story book form inventively, further making these characters, this setting, feel real--they are no longer characters and setting, but rather a real city, real Stockholm, real people fumbling and making mistakes and finding the dreamy ideal can never quite live up. The short story form encourages us to believe that these lives are happening always, and these stories are just the moments when we, the silent, passerby-reader, happen to see them, moving in kitchens that are not their own, at night, throwing beers in a net over the side of their boats that they will never return to enjoy. Somehow Beach opens this place up to the point we are there, standing in their 5 am driveways, just as they leave each other's houses, illuminated for a moment in the guilty early morning light. We try to stop them, tell them to turn the ship around, to forget about Helle, to risk the warm vulnerability of love and friendship and self-realization, but, we can't.
Beach's characters are as flawed, familiar and likable, as people in real life, especially Henrik. Often their flaw is the cold land itself, a culture that freezes themselves cold: characters who are unwilling to stop for each other, unwilling to connect with their chosen partners, always searching for something else, never quite finding it, never quite meeting their own eyes in the mirror, never seeing themselves as they really are. I think about Henrik and Helle and oh God, poor Rolf, while I'm running, actually having to remind myself they are not really moving throughout the book when I'm not reading it.
When I return from my own cold city, I find them again in their cold white Swedish spaces. I think I am reading it now because I find total satiation from beautifully deliberate lines like, "They left at ten, taking with them a picnic of sandwiches and freshly boiled new potatoes, which they ate cold with sour cream." As a writer, Beach erases himself and finds the starkest noun, the most precise syntax, creates a clear path between reader and image.
Lastly, I love the form of this book--short stories that connect and intertwine with each other, as well as leave spaces in between. Beach uses the short story book form inventively, further making these characters, this setting, feel real--they are no longer characters and setting, but rather a real city, real Stockholm, real people fumbling and making mistakes and finding the dreamy ideal can never quite live up. The short story form encourages us to believe that these lives are happening always, and these stories are just the moments when we, the silent, passerby-reader, happen to see them, moving in kitchens that are not their own, at night, throwing beers in a net over the side of their boats that they will never return to enjoy. Somehow Beach opens this place up to the point we are there, standing in their 5 am driveways, just as they leave each other's houses, illuminated for a moment in the guilty early morning light. We try to stop them, tell them to turn the ship around, to forget about Helle, to risk the warm vulnerability of love and friendship and self-realization, but, we can't.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 14, 2016
Wonderful, rich, careful stories of people encountering everyday tragedies and disappointments, and moving through them. I read this in a heat wave, yet felt the cold in my bones.
Beach interweaves his characters gently, making their relationships seem natural between the stories. Though dark, in many there is a moment of hope, or grace, very human moments where we can see ourselves more truly.
Beach interweaves his characters gently, making their relationships seem natural between the stories. Though dark, in many there is a moment of hope, or grace, very human moments where we can see ourselves more truly.
June 27, 2016
I'm in two minds about reading short stories. On the one hand, if I don't love it, then it will soon be over; but if I enjoy it, i'm left wanting more, wanting to know what happened next. That's where this collection of short stories by Jensen Beach was great in that the stories or characters often connected, intertwined or overlapped and gave you a sense of completion or totality that would otherwise be missing.
Memorable Quotes
Memorable Quotes
"He knew that he would be unable to keep himself away from her. She was an unknown shape in a dark room he couldn't help but reach his hand out toward."
June 12, 2016
Mr Beaches stories are about life and death. About marriage and infidelity. About the desperation of the human not knowing what they are doing nor why. The characters are interconnected and the stories merge. Have been drawn to this novel foe awhile and finally picked it up yesterday. Am so glad I did. Loved the writing and look forward to more of Jensen Beach. Thanx to Goodreads.
July 6, 2016
*I received this book for free through Goodreads giveaways*
Swallowed by the Cold is a beautiful collection of short stories. I thoroughly enjoyed Beach's writing. The stories are connected, and each adds a new layer to the growing overall picture.
Swallowed by the Cold is a beautiful collection of short stories. I thoroughly enjoyed Beach's writing. The stories are connected, and each adds a new layer to the growing overall picture.
May 30, 2016
This is an elegantly engaging book. The links between the pieces are intriguing, providing the depth to wonder at the story itself as well as the relationship to the whole. Very moving, human. Beach is definitely a talented writer.
September 14, 2016
Luminous stories of Scandinavian death, betrayal, longing, aging, ineptitude. Not one admirable character, but I loved them all.
January 3, 2017
"The ship was remarkable in size, but only because it was indoors and so old."
August 16, 2018
I’m surprised this was selected for The New Yorker. It’s an interesting concept and central metaphor, but the ending chooses melodrama over honesty. I think there’s a gem here, but it’s clouded.
March 26, 2017
The spare prose of this sharply honed book of stories carried me relentlessly through their world like a brisk walk on a cold day. I loved the way characters deal cope with the unexpected in ways that constantly surprise the reader. I don't always love books of interlaced short stories...just give me a damn novel. But in this one the delicate combination of independent little worlds and woven connections was nothing but a pleasure to unfold. Loved this book.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews