Coming of age stories are ripe for intense, passionate, and empowering narratives — hence why Réjean Ducharme’s novel Swallowed caught my eye.
Published in the 1960s, Ducharme’s novel follows a young girl and her brother who are stuck on a secluded island with an overly-affectionate and suffocating mother. As the daughter grapples with her own issues, both in reality and in her imagination, the two siblings make an effort to escape the neediness of their home life.
However, the girl is sent to live in New York with her father’s strongly-religious relatives, which only drives her to become more extreme and rebellious. All of which, when translated into a modern scenario, and with modern themes, makes perfect sense.
What interests me most about this novel is the focus on a difficult home life and a struggle to grapple with one’s parents whilst also approaching puberty. It’s the perfect storm of familial and personal issues to explore, and perhaps even more so through the eyes of a young girl in the middle of the twentieth century.
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