Graham Swift’s 1983 novel Waterland is a contemporary classic that details three generations of a family in eastern England’s fens region. The narrative is complex, moving fluidly between present and past, and includes several story lines and curious digressions (like the sex life of eels). Some of the more serious topics the novel treats include insanity, murder, incest, abortion and suicide. Relying on the voice of his narrator, Tom Crick, a soon-to-be-fired history teacher, Swift’s storytelling in Waterland is utterly compelling.
The Atkins family that occupies much of the narrative builds their wealth through land reclamation in the fens and, yes, a brewery business. Eventually, the family becomes the most powerful in the community and their brewery is booming. But fortunes, as they do, eventually crumble. What does one do in tough times? Drink beer of course. And what does the Atkins patriarch tell his son to do in the event of a truly desperate moment? Drink the secret beer that he hands him. That moment will come.
The Beers for Books
47 Prefecture Challenge!
by Gary Bremerman
Wouldn’t it be cool if you could have a nice tasty craft beer in Japan and magically a book would appear in the hands of a child in places like Nepal, Cambodia or South Africa? Well, you can, thanks to something called Beers for Books: www.beersforbooks.org.
Beers for Books is a simple and fun fundraising idea created to raise money for Room to Read’s local language publishing program (www.roomtoread.org). Supportive bars around Japan donate 100 yen for every drink sold on a specific night and give that money to Room to Read. 100 yen buys one high quality children’s book made by Room to Read which delivers books and reading training to kids in seven countries in Africa & Asia. One beer = one book.
B4B started last year in Tokyo and the goal for 2010 is to have an event in every prefecture in Japan. So far 12 prefectures have hosted a B4B event, leaving 35 more to go. In just over one year B4B has created over 45,000 books for kids with lots of fun beer drinking events.
For those of you reading this article, please think about how you can make a B4B happen at your favorite bar because the U.S. has challenged Japan to a race to see who can reach 100% coverage the fastest! As of April 8th, the U.S. will have covered 6 of 50 states but they are moving fast to win the race.
To see which prefectures in Japan and which states in the U.S. have hosted an event, please see the map on our website. Let’s show them how Japan’s craft beer drinkers can do good while having fun drinking great beer!
This article was published in Japan Beer Times # () and is among the limited content available online. Order your copy through our online shop or download the digital version from the iTunes store to access the full contents of this issue.
