All the Water I've Seen Is Running: A Novel
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4.0 • 7 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Former high school classmates reckon with the death of a friend in this stunning debut novel.
Along the Intracoastal waterways of North Florida, Daniel and Aubrey navigated adolescence with the electric intensity that radiates from young people defined by otherness: Aubrey, a self-identified "Southern cracker" and Daniel, the mixed-race son of Jamaican immigrants. When the news of Aubrey’s death reaches Daniel in New York, years after they’d lost contact, he is left to grapple with the legacy of his precious and imperfect love for her. At ease now in his own queerness, he is nonetheless drawn back to the muggy haze of his Palm Coast upbringing, tinged by racism and poverty, to find out what happened to Aubrey. Along the way, he reconsiders his and his family’s history, both in Jamaica and in this place he once called home.
Buoyed by his teenage track-team buddies—Twig, a long-distance runner; Desmond, a sprinter; Egypt, Des’s girlfriend; and Jess, a chef—Daniel begins a frantic search for meaning in Aubrey’s death, recklessly confronting the drunken country boy he believes may have killed her. Sensitive to the complexities of class, race, and sexuality both in the American South and in Jamaica, All the Water I’ve Seen Is Running is a novel of uncommon tenderness, grief, and joy. All the while, it evokes the beauty and threat of the place Daniel calls home—where the river meets the ocean.
Customer Reviews
Breathtakingly Beautiful
In his debut novel, ALL THE WATER I’VE SEEN IS RUNNING, Elias Rodriques explores themes of identity and memory. After learning that his best friend, Aubrey, died in a car accident, Daniel breaks up with his boyfriend and travels back to the town where he grew up. Exploring the eastern coast of Florida, he visits friends from school and searches for the cause of his friend’s death. Daniel is between worlds and can’t seem to find space for himself. He’s the descendants of African’s brought to Jamaica as slaves, Indians who were shipped by the British to the Caribbean when slavery ended, and Lebanese immigrants. Daniel searches the coast for explanations about his friend’s life, and his own.
This book is poetic and moving. While not plot driven, this book is centered around tone, emotion, setting. The waters of Florida are characters themselves in this novel. As the novel progresses, secrets are revealed among friends. The story builds to a reckoning; a local who escaped to New York City and has returned.
Jumping between present day, Daniel recounts aspects of his life in Jamaica, New York City, Florida. He recalls events between his family that he seems to have repressed for years. As he returns to the “Redneck Riviera,” the memories flow back to him, years of abuse and trauma.
Race and class are also dissected in this novel of black and white characters. All of the friends are poor and lack the opportunity to leave for a better life. Some resent being stuck there, while others have accepted the place as their home.
This book does not have a strong plot, but the mood drives the reader to continue with Daniel’s journey. The author doesn’t use quotation marks which add to the poetic, atmospheric quality of the book. I really enjoyed this novel and thought it was a beautifully written exploration of trauma and identity.
This is narration, not a novel
I had to abandon this book halfway through but wish I had long before that. I kept wishing it would switch from just narrating a life to showing the reader that life in a way we could get to know the characters and have some feeling for them and what they were going through. That never happened, unfortunately, and I found I just didn’t care.