The Diver
A Novel
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3.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
"A wonderfully melancholy, tight and precisely constructed novel." —Berliner Morgenpost
The Diver is a beautifully written and observed novel about Albert—eighty-two and suffering from Parkinson's, following the death of his beloved twenty-year-old daughter, Glorie, who disappeared during a scuba dive off the Cayman Islands. Glorie had suffered from a potentially inherited and untreatable depression, and her death effectively destroyed her father and his marriage.
The Diver is a tender and insightful look into Albert's struggle with faith, his attempts to come to terms with retirement, his failing health, and the difficulties in his ossified marriage to his wife. DuMont leads him on a journey to selfdiscovery, acceptance, and under-standing, as well as a fleeting glimpse of love with Glorie's best friend's mother, Lena, late in life.
This is a story about variations of love: the desperate love of an older man for this daughter, the stagnant love in a long-time marriage, and the surprising and rejuvenating love that can't last. DuMont has delivered a delicate and sure-handed debut, elements of which are based on his own life.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
DuMont, an icon in Germany, receives his first English translation with a novel laden with philosophy and despair. Albert suffers from Parkinson's, but that's the least of his worries. Two years ago, his clinically depressed daughter, Gloria, disappeared while scuba diving off the Cayman Islands, and he continues to grieve and suffer the ministration of his martyred wife, Ann. When Ann is called away on another family matter, Gloria's beloved friend Christie re-enters Albert's life, whisking him away to her mother's in the country. In an effort to heal her own grief over the loss of her friend, she reads to Albert from her diary; there's much talk of God, but little true belief, and the passages, intended to deepen our understanding and attachment, often ring false. Other sections reflect DuMont's theatrical background and would make powerful monologues, and the author elegantly captures the daily struggle against one's own aging body without sentiment or melodrama. Readers who enjoy literature influenced by European culture and thought will respond to the depth of both here, and to the alternate sensibility DuMont sheds on depression.
