Amy Bloom, Silver Water

I love stories that dive headfirst into the messiness of life. I want to be challenged, as well as entertained. Silver Water by Amy Bloom ticked those boxes, taking me on a wild, nail-biting ride with all the feels. The story chronicles the life of a young girl, Rose, as she succumbs to mental illness. Bloom swings for the fences in the first paragraph when we see the Rose that could have been. Before everything to come. Standing in the parking lot after attending a performance of La Traviata, Rose throws her head back and sings, sings to the heavens for all she’s worth. Bloom writes, “Her voice (is) so crystalline and bright, that all the departing operagoers stood frozen by their cars, unable to take out their keys or open their doors until she had finished and then they cheered like hell.”

Violet, Rose’s younger sister, bears witness to all the ups and downs, sharing her sister’s descent into illness step by excruciating step. Through Violet we remember the moment in the parking lot as Rose is shuttled through a host of therapists, some good and some bad, and in and out the doors of one demoralizing institution after another. “I wanted them to know her,” Violet says, speaking of the therapists, “to know that who they saw was not all there was to see. That before the constant tinkling of commercials and fast-food jingles, there had been Puccini and Mozart and hymns so sweet and mighty, you expected Jesus to come down off his cross and clap. That before there was a mountain of Thorazined fat, swaying down the halls in nylon maternity tops and sweatpants, there had been the prettiest girl in Arrandale Elementary School, the belle of Landmark Junior High.”

Although we watch Rose grapple with schizophrenia, see how the illness impacts her parents and sister, there’s a bigger picture here, a teaching moment. Bloom shows that the Roses of the world are more than their illness, that they are individuals trying to get through the day, like everyone else. That they continue to have hopes and dreams. That they deserve to be seen, really seen. Somehow, we never feel sorry for Rose. Maybe because she never feels sorry for herself. Silver Water rings true. It feels right. By some miracle of storytelling, it’s not a downer. It’s joyful and life affirming. It’s funny in the way that humor helps us through dark moments in life. It will stay with me when other pieces of fiction are forgotten. It is that powerful.

Silver Water is part of Amy Bloom’s collection Come to Me: Stories, published in 1994. The collection is available on Amazon, at libraries and in bookstores. The story can also be found in anthologies and online.

Let me know what you think. I’d like that.