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BOOKS I READ: Waterland by Graham Swift (1983). A tale spanning generations of Fenmen who tame the marshlands of eastern England, draining, dredging, and rerouting rivers. Henry Crick, a veteran, a widower, and a lock-keeper, lives by the River Leem, minding the sluice. He sets eel traps by night, for the mystery that’s in it, although we learn the real mystery is how the eels arrive from origins unknown to fill the rivers of Europe. Henry has two sons, a potato head and a future history teacher. The latter, Tom, is our narrator. He captures his students’ attention with his family’s tale of curiosity, incest, power, and murder. He reminds them of the futility of the French Revolution—how they ended up with an emperor. Tom’s girlfriend, Mary, visits Martha Clay, the witch of the Fens, for some heavy potions.
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