When to Go Into the Water: A Novel

by Lawrence Sutin

Spanning over two centuries, this inventive novel follows fictional writer Hector de Saint-Aureole and his novel, and includes imaginary responses from his imaginary readers. It is an intrepid, whimsical read that delights with its sense of play and twisting narrative. Lawrence Sutin is the author of two memoirs, Jack and A Holocaust Story of Love and Resistance and A Postcard Memoir ; two biographies, Divine A Life of Philip K. Dick and Do What Thou A Life of Aleister Crowley ; and a historical work, All Is The Two Thousand Year Journey of Buddhism to the West . He lives in Minneapolis.

Genres: Fiction

132 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2009

Reviews

[Zack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Please click here for my review of this excellent novel: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-83...
and here for my conversation with its author: http://www.mightymercury.com/home/289...

[Shellie · Rating 5 out of 5]

have to go back and note beautiful sentences. Really thought the character was a real author!

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

You won’t be sure, but you will think you’ve read this book before. There’s something familiar about it, something you can’t place, and that, dear reader, is because it’s all familiar. You have read it all before, in different places and at different times in your life. And yet, this book seems to be something new. Lawrence Sutin’s new novel When to Go into the Water contains a rich fusion of influences and it wears these influences unabashedly. When to Go into the Water tells the tale of Hector de Saint-Aureole, a Dickensian protagonist that meanders through his life and across the globe, writing a book of meditations on the nature of the world and his place in it. This narrative is interrupted sporadically throughout by descriptions of the responses of his imaginary readers, some of whom exist long after Saint-Aureole’s death. Sutin’s use of this framework allows him to playfully shift between characters and styles, alternating fluidly between whimsical fancy, coy nostalgia, and a sense of stark poignancy. Part Dickens, part Plascencia, and part Fitzgerald, When to Go into the Water is a meditation on the subtle erosions of existence and the unintentional effects of simply participating in life. And while you may find its pieces eerily familiar, the whole will be something wholly original and affecting.

[Annemarie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lyrical and lovely writing. This book is not long at 132 pages, and the structure of short vignettes (1 to 4 pages each) made it seem to go even faster. Yet I found myself going back over some sections again and again to make sure I had savored all the emotional and sensual notes in Sutin's descriptions.

[Tami · Rating 5 out of 5]

absolutely lovely.

[Tuck · Rating 3 out of 5]

extremely weird.

[Brigitte · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unbelievably stupid

[Laura Nowlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect.