NOVEL THOUGHTS
………
LITTLE, BROWN, 1997
(available in paperback from Back Bay, 1998)
JEAN, the narrator of The Weight of Water, is a photographer assigned to shoot a photo essay at the site of an 1873 double ax-murder on Smuttynose Island, ten miles southeast of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. In her background research for the assignment, Jean discovers a long-neglected translation of an account of the murders written twenty-five years after the event by survivor Maren Hontvedt. As Jean immerses herself in Maren’s century-old story, she also personally struggles to cope with her increasing suspicions that her husband, Thomas, is having an affair.
In this emotionally gripping novel based on an actual crime, Anita Shreve tells a double tale, masterfully alternating between Jean’s voice and that of Maren Hontvedt. In both the “then” and “now” scenes of the novel, we find a small group of people confined to small quarters in an atmosphere of intensified emotions—love, hate, jealousy—all ultimately leading to violence.
To help with her project, Jean’s brother-in-law, Rich, invites her to sail to Smuttynose in his forty-one-foot sloop, docking there for the duration of Jean’s project. Rich’s new girlfriend, Adaline, joins the crew, along with Thomas, a celebrated poet and alcoholic, and Thomas and Jean’s five-year-old daughter, Billie. The tension on the boat grows, as Jean finds herself attracted to Rich, threatened by Billie’s reverence for Adaline, and suspicious that Thomas may be cheating on her.
Maren’s accounts of events a century earlier, interspersed with scenes on the boat, form the text of the novel. Maren describes the desolate small house on barren Smuttynose Island where she and her husband, John, live after emigrating from Norway. After three years alone in America, Maren and John are joined by John’s brother, Matthew, Maren’s sister, Karen, and her brother, Evan, with his new wife, the lovely Anethe.
As the shocking story of murder on the island unfolds, the relationships on the boat also evolve painfully. The tone of The Weight of Water is tense and unsettling throughout, as old relationships founder on secrets newly revealed. “The weight of water,” remarks Jean, “causes pressure to increase with depth.” In this novel, the depth of feelings and the pressures within relationships build to untenable levels, with violent and sad consequences.
The food in The Weight of Water reflects the story’s varied settings. Maren and John Hontvedt have recently emigrated from Norway. Maren attempts, through her cooking, to re-create tastes of her beloved Norwegian homeland in her New Hampshire island home. She offers Louis Wagner, a mate on John’s boat, some home-baked konfektkake, or chocolate cake, which he eats steadily until it’s gone. Upon hearing that her brother, Evan, will soon be arriving on the island, Maren jubilantly prepares delicacies that she “knew he loved in Norway and probably thought never to have again:” rommegrot (sour cream porridge), krumkake (a thin, crispy wafer), and skillingsbolle (cinnamon buns).
Many of the foods mentioned in The Weight of Water reflect the book’s New England coastal setting. On Rich’s boat, the group prepares a typical New England clambake, with lobsters, mussels, and corn, as well as salad and garlic bread. A century before, Maren also cooks with the harvests of the sea, serving dried salted cod and fish chowder, a soup she believes has “a wonderful aroma.”
Like the seafood prepared by both Jean and Maren in The Weight of Water, pancakes transcend time and place. Thomas and Billie make pancakes—“kidney shaped, oil glistened, and piled high upon a white platter”—for breakfast on the boat, and Jean takes a series of photos after they eat that captures the essence of their relationship at that moment.
Pancakes, made by mixing ground grains with water or milk, have been around for thousands of years, and almost every culture has its own version of this classic. In tribute to the Scandinavian characters in The Weight of Water, we offer below a recipe for a simple and delicious Swedish pancake.
At www.wutheringbites.com, their website featuring book reviews and recipes, the Seattle-area Wuthering Bites Book Club suggests pairing this recipe for Swedish pancakes with The Weight of Water. “The characters would have enjoyed these tasty pancakes on a cold, bleak winter’s morning,” the website states.
Stephanie Koura, a former chef and longtime member of Wuthering Bites, posted the recipe, which came from her husband’s half-Swedish, half-Norwegian great-grandmother. “She learned to cook on a farm in Minnesota, where she grew up, and is remembered fondly in the family for her kindness and wonderful cooking,” says Koura.
The pancakes have an eggy texture, similar to a thick crêpe. Koura’s husband, Paul Ehlen, makes them for breakfast or brunch and serves them dusted with powdered sugar and drizzled with lemon butter. For your book club meeting, try these pancakes spread with jelly or lingonberries, Swedish preserves similar to cranberry sauce, and rolled up.
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3 eggs 1¼ cups milk ¾ cup sifted all-purpose flour |
1 tablespoon sugar ½ teaspoon salt |
Beat the eggs in a medium-size bowl. Whisk in the milk. Add the remaining ingredients and stir until mixture is just smooth.
Heat a griddle or skillet over medium heat. Grease lightly with butter or cooking spray. Ladle enough batter onto the warm griddle to make a thin pancake of desired size. Cook on both sides, turning once, until pancake is golden brown. Enjoy immediately with syrup, jam, or powdered sugar and lemon butter.
Yield: 10 to 12 pancakes
NOVEL THOUGHTS
The Bookenders of Lee’s Summit, Missouri, enjoy close reading and analysis of interesting texts, and they found ample opportunity in The Weight of Water. Group discussion took place on the group’s annual pontoon boat ride, when they usually discuss a water-related book.
The Bookenders especially liked the book’s subtlety as it moved between two different time periods. “At times, the switching between the past and the present seemed confusing,” says Kathy Hayes. “But then you discover that she switches from the past to the present because Jean, the photographer doing the story about the murders, is reading or thinking about the past, but is brought to the present by an interruption of her thoughts with present life. It’s very skillfully done.”
Members agreed that group discussion of the book greatly enhanced their appreciation for the complexity of the book’s plot and characters. “The more we discussed the characters, relationships, and actions in The Weight of Water, the more we realized how subtle the author was in crafting these,” says Hayes. “It was as if we were peeling away a layer at a time. There is much more to this book than meets the eye. That’s why we felt it should be read more than once and discussed in order to be fully appreciated.”
Members enjoyed reading a fictionalized account of an actual event and left the meeting curious about the truth. “Reading this book made me want to research the actual documents myself,” says Hayes. “No one will know the real truth, but I would like to believe that the author’s version is the true source.”
More Food for Thought
Chef Julia Shanks of Interactive Cuisine in Cambridge, Massachusetts, creates menus to match literary selections for book clubs in the Boston area. For The Weight of Water, she suggests a Norwegian menu: gravlax with mustard-dill sauce, spinach soup, Norwegian meatballs with spiced cream sauce, potato pancakes, and kringles (almond coffee cake) for dessert.
Wuthering Bites book club member and former chef Stephanie Koura of Seattle posts food ideas and recipes to pair with books on her group’s website.
For The Weight of Water, she lists three recipes that, while not intended as a meal, provide culinary inspiration for book clubs: her husband Paul’s Swedish pancakes (see recipe); Scandinavian spice cookies, a recipe she found on a Norwegian genealogy recipe page; and Jansson’s Temptation, a “classic Scandinavian side dish” of potatoes, onions, and anchovies. “Don’t let the anchovies turn you off,” Koura advises. “They meld wonderfully with the cream to give this dish a sea-tinged saltiness.”