The Narrowing Stream

by John Mortimer

1st Penguin 1989 edition paperback vg+ book In stock shipped from our UK warehouse

Genres: Fiction, 20th Century

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1954

About the author

John Clifford Mortimer was a novelist, playwright and former practising barrister. Among his many publications are several volumes of Rumpole stories and a trilogy of political novels, Paradise Postponed, Titmuss Regained and The Sound of Trumpets, featuring Leslie Titmuss - a character as brilliant as Rumpole. John Mortimer received a knighthood for his services to the arts in 1998.

Series:
Rumpole of the Bailey
Rapstone Chronicles

Reviews

[Susan Oleksiw · Rating 4 out of 5]

This begins as a quiet novel about a family living along a river--three children and parents in the 1950s--but it soon becomes a tale of unsettling hints and suggestions and then death. The author draws us into a tale of deception in the suffocating fifties that lingers long after the last page. Called a quiet novel, this story has staying power.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

"At thirty-eight, Julia Swinton is a faithful wife and devoted mother. Her life is without mystery, without surprise...until a young actress is found murdered near her home. The dead woman's strange, attractive brother appears at Julia's door, and arouses long-dormant passions within her. But the young man also bears proof of a link between his sister and Julia's husband, and Julia finds herself compelled to take extraordinary steps to protect her family.

The Narrowing Stream is an intricately woven, beautifully told tale of a middle-class marriage whose shifts and changes, desires and fears are only vaguely understood or felt--and scarcely ever spoken of."
~~back cover

I was rather disappointed in this book. I dearly love John Mortimer -- who doesn't love Rumpole of the Bailey. But this was another of those "illuminating the things that lie just beneath the surface of our lives" style of books, wherein most of the characters wander about doing incomprehensible things for incomprehensible reasons. Luckily it's short, so I read it in a day to be done with it.

[Robert Bagnall · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had wanted to give this four stars, with comments centred on ‘inconsequential’ in the same way that your life, dear reader of my review, is utterly inconsequential to me, and mine is to you, but each of ours is of life and death significance to ourselves. (Unless you’re a family member checking in on my reviews, of course). Because this is inconsequential, in the sense that this single day in the Thames Valley in the 1950s doesn’t impinge on my life in the slightest, and I think I would not be in the slightest changed if I had never read this. But the prose is languidly beautiful, gentle like the river running past the Swintons’ house, and losing yourself in a (significant) day in the life of irrelevant people in this short novel is well worth the investment.

But - and this is where JM QC loses a star - I sense everybody speaks in one voice, and what characters say and do doesn’t always ring true. For example - not a spoiler because it happens early on - a body is found and a tramp appears sleeping rough, and Julia Swinton doesn’t join the dots, because not joining the dots is vital for the narrative that follows. Which is a shame, but shouldn’t spoil what is a very enjoyable but minor piece.

[David Watson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow, this is a dark work and not all like my only other experience of John Mortimer, the humorous Rumpole series. It is one of Mortimer's earliest novels, predating the Rumpole books. To sum it up succinctly, there's a river, a death, three children alternately bewitched and bored on a long, hot summer day and their parents going through a whole lot more. The river is one of my favourite characters - I like the way it flows through the story; Mortimer's descriptions of swans, riverside vegetation and riverside people help the plot tick along. At less than 200 pages The Narrowing Stream a short novel (a form I like) but its sometimes claustrophobic atmosphere meant I took several days to get through it, needing a few breaks. It speeds up towards the end as the loose ends are tied up. Overall a credible depiction of a tragic event and its ramifications in a riverside community in 1950s England. The Penguin edition I read had a great cover illustration by Matthew Cook that helped me visualise Mortimer's prose.

[Molly Powell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Basically forced myself- for the satisfaction- to finish it in one day. Found it very boring and far too slow moving. Had to take regular breaks to even read 20 pages.
Haven’t read any of his other books so don’t know how it compares as I know it was one of his first.
I liked the descriptions of the river and early on with the man in the boathouse.
Altogether I was confused with the plot and wasn’t engaged with the storyline at all.
Do not recommend.

[Anne Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought 'The Narrowing Stream' by John Mortimer was going to be a murder mystery / detective story. There is a dead body, but this is just there as a catalyst for the actual story which is more of a look at stifling middle class life in 1950's England. There's a constant feeling of foreboding, yet nothing actually happens. That nothing happens is probably more disturbing than if it did as it seems more relatable to real life.

[Larry Shackley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very early Mortimer novel which was re-released in the United States after the success of the Rumpole TV show. It is a quick read, and has some interesting twists and turns in it. It's a domestic story about a suburban couple who discover more about their relationship when a mysterious stranger, and perhaps a murder, intervene.

[Fatihah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its a little patchy as compared to the usual John Mortimer's fast paced, suave writing.

[Sami · Rating 2 out of 5]

I usually love John Mortimer's books but found this one only OK. There are some sharp and lovely observations in it and some well-crafted suspense-building but, although we are given a great deal of the internal thoughts of Julia, the chief protagonist, she seems oddly flat. The plot is good, the theme is rich and universal (late-thirty-something parents toying with ideas of what might have been had they followed their youthful dreams instead of marriage and family) but the characters don't quite chime and the resolution is too neat and uncharacteristically heavy-handed. Mortimer's Rumpole novels, the Titmuss novels, Felix in The Underworld, The Sound of Trumpets and his autobiography, Summer of A Dormouse are all much better and a good deal more fun.