Judith's world is divided between Vermont and Nebraska. Her mother lives in Vermont while her father lives in Nebraska. Judith is always on her way to a different place. It happened with her parents. It will happen again when she becomes a woman. When she marries Malcolm, the chase continues for the missing person or place to make her world complete.There is only one man who can complete her. The man is Willy Blunt. She has the courage after twenty-seven years to search for him.
It's amazing how often in life she and Willy Blunt survived underwater. Although they loved one another, destiny led them away from one another. The departures begin with Judith going away to college leaving Willy Blunt in Nebraska. Then, she marries Malcolm while a year to the date Willy marries Deena.
Love is complicated. There were quite a few statements in Tom McNeal's to be sung underwater that are powerfully philosophical. For example, there is the stunning question asked at the end of the video above. In so many words if you had the chance to reunite with your first love, would you do it? Would you walk away from all you hold dear now to go after what might have been? Judy takes that chance. Tom Wolfe's title comes to mind, YOU CANT GO HOME AGAIN. Can you?
The novel to be sung underwater also examines the question whether two people ever love equally. Is it the norm for one person to love deeper than the other person? This is one of my favorite quotes in the novel. After they meet again, Willy tells Judith the facts of life, his facts of life. This is twenty seven years after their first meeting. Both Willy and Judith live in different places and are married to different people. Judith has a daughter named Camille. Willy has two sons. Willy says these poignant words to Judith while they are alone with one another.
"Here's the thing, Judy. Here's the thing we have to look at and accept. For you, I was a chapter--a good chapter, maybe, or even your favorite chapter, but still, just a chapter--and for me, you were the book."
Those lines blew me away. I think this happens often in relationships more than we care to know. Although I enjoyed every bit of the novel, I know why Judith chose to have the room.I felt the storage room was going to play a bigger part in the novel.
Other than that Tom McNeal wrote a beautiful and tragic love story. The ending shocked me. I will never forget the ending. Still, I felt Judith seemed too calm under the circumstances she had faced. I wonder if her life as a film editor took over her mind and body. Maybe for her you just edited out bad and extra material. If that's true, then her behavior at the end makes perfect sense. A film editor would have the ability to regroup quickly for the next scene. Judith almost lives her life like it is a film.
"They let their eyes settle into one another until at last she was afraid she would say something too big or too rich for the moment, so she said nothing and began to sort through the small cooler at her feet."
I especially enjoyed the way Tom McNeal included musical scores like La Traviata, La Boheme, Clair de Lune. Also, Jane Austen's books and Washington Square by Henry James. I can't wait to quietly listen to the musical pieces listed in the novel. I also want to read Washington Square by Henry James and reread The Portrait of a Lady. When I watched the to be sung underwater video, I had to read the book. Tom McNeal knows the right questions to ask about the complex emotion called love.
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