Graham Swift, Wish You Were Here

Catherine Pesso-Miquel (Université Lyon II)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of Glasgow), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication Jun 2011

Places

United Kingdom (Publication/ performance)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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Wish You Were Here

, Graham Swift’s ninth novel, was published in 2011. As in

Last Orders

and other novels by Swift, the narrative in

Wish You Were Here

is built like a puzzle: it tells the story in a disjointed, fragmented fashion, shunning linearity and chronology, going backwards and forwards between present and past. Typically, the time span of the framing action covers a single day, from morning to night, but most of the story takes place in the past (distant or very recent), as refracted through the memories of the two main characters (with a few additional points of view now and then). The reader is constantly expected to fill in blanks, to link the dots, to reconstruct causality and logical sequence. Therefore, although the reading experience may be perceived as uncomfortable…

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2525 words

Citation: Pesso-Miquel, Catherine. "Wish You Were Here". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 October 2012 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=33490, accessed 24 April 2024.]

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