they came like swallows sparknotes

Our book club had an interesting discussion of the complex book, which at first glance we expected to be similar to our previous month’s read ("Crow Lake"), but which was really very different. Astonished to have found gold when he now needs it least, Timon speaks of the awful power of wealth, how gold, "this yellow slave" (IV.iii.34), makes or breaks religion, makes thieves into senators, and convinces aged widows to wed again. Three perspectives of the First World War.

He gives it to the bandits and urges them to rob Athens--but he makes them so rich that they consider quitting their profession!

Told from the point of view of 8 year old Bunny, 13 year old Robert, and James, the father of the family, it centers around the boys' mother, Elizabeth, who dies of the flu. <> He admits that there is one honest man among the villains of the world, and he is but a servant. Reading it was like walking into the warmth of beautifully loved parlor, full of polished furniture, a ticking clock, thick rugs, and a mother, hemming diapers, whose smile could heal all your wounds.This is a gorgeous book. Yet the two pause in their insult slinging long enough to have a reasonable conversation about their fates, how Timon's fall is harder because he had been raised so high.

Reading it was like walking into the warmth of beautifully loved parlor, full of polished furniture, a ticking clock, thick rugs, and a mother, hemming diapers, whose smile could heal all your wounds.I love William Maxwell's writing. Maxwell is one of these.

Why does Apemantus hate mankind, Timon asks, when men have never flattered him? December 27th 2001 (Yes, Fionnuala, the I see that a number of Goodreads friends have enjoyed this book.

How vile is friendship, he says, that it has made Timon fall so far. He gives it to Alcibiades to help in his campaign against Athens and to the prostitutes to urge them to infect as much of the population as they can. Set at the time of the Spanish Flu outbreak it focuses on the Morison family and how they are directly affected by it. <>

Apemantus dares Timon to try to get the creatures of nature to flatter him now. But they decide to head to Athens before giving up their trade, and exit.Flavius arrives, speaking sadly about his fallen master. But Timon suspects they are thieves, and gives them gold, urging them on to do villainy to men, to steal money and take lives. SO my kind of book. The prostitutes ask for gold too, and he gives it to them, urging them to continue in their profession, spreading illness among all their patrons. Apemantus says it's only fair that Timon has sunk to this, for his wealth was frittered away in generosity to unworthy people, all villainous rascals. The final chapter is from the father's perspective, and it is a study in grief.This is an extremely dreary and subtle novel that touched upon (though didn’t quite fully develop) the loss a child feels when he loses his mother, and the emptiness one feels when a spouse dies.This is an extremely dreary and subtle novel that touched upon (though didn’t quite fully develop) the loss a child feels when he loses his mother, and the emptiness one feels when a spouse dies.One British, one French, one German. This little book is beautiful and compulsive reading (I got through it in just over 2 hours), despite its tragic subject matter. Timon introduces himself as Misanthropos, a hater of mankind. The fifth main character in They Came Like Swallows is the house itself.

It never stops amazing me that "time" without any attendant thunder or ceremony, can do so much. Alcibiades says he would like to help Timon, but he has little gold to offer him, yet gives him a small amount. When Timon sees him, he asks if he recognizes him.

The Spanish Influenza is rampant, and the Morison family copes the best they can. Little external action -- the story is more poignant through its complete naturalness and skillful portraiture. Timon would have hated all mankind, but one man escapes his curses. ���Uon*�Gam�e�e%$�k0�R�

Genius without excess.William Keepers Maxwell Jr. was an American novelist, and fiction editor at the New Yorker.

He desperately loves his mother and is afraid of his stern father.

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I nod in agreement. A simple but also elegant portrait of a young Midwestern family, father, mother, and two boys, Bunny aged 8 and Robert aged 13, They Came Like Swallows shows us a brief glimpse into the Morison’s life in the days surrounding the end of World War I, the Armistice and the coming of the Flu.

endobj You are cored here within the eyes of the youngest, the oldest son, the father.

Timon is astonished, and thinks that the kindness of his servant is nearly enough to make him change his mind about abandoning mankind. I haven't read anything quite like it. He published six novels, three… If Apemantus had lived Timon's life, he would have wasted himself away without reaching respectability. I picked it up at random the other day.

They realize Timon advises them thus out of hatred for mankind, not out of enthusiasm for thievery. Like Pale Horse, Pale Rider, it is literature from the 1917 Spanish Flu pandemic. This novel is about the effect of the Great Pandemic of 1918 upon a midwestern family...I think when you read it you feel like it was written last week. They Came Like Swallows by William Maxwell review — Julian Barnes on a forgotten classic. Alcibiades is surprised, saying he never harmed Timon.