The Deep (Critical Overview)

Critical Overview

Swan's work has received limited critical attention. Swan published about a dozen stories in various literary magazines across North America and had no books published before she won the 2001 O. Henry Award with her story "The Deep." Some journals in which her work was published are high caliber publications, such as Harpers and the Ontario Review. "The Deep" was republished in Swan's first book, a collection of short stories, The Deep and Other Stories. This collection was short-listed for the 2003 Commonwealth Writer's Prize "Best First Book" category.

In her introduction to Swan's story in the official O. Henry award volume, Mary Gordon, one of the judges for the 2001 O. Henry Award, commended Swan and "The Deep":

I chose this story as first among so many strong others because of its utter originality, its daring to assert the primacy of complexity and mystery, its avoidance of the current appetite for ironic anomie and thinness.

Reviews of the "The Deep" have mostly been praiseworthy. Harvey Grossinger, writing for the Houston Chronicle, considers Swan's win to be "deserving." Charles May, writing for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in a broader article about judging "best" stories, says that Swan's story "nicely embodies all three of the criteria of poetry, mystery, and large truths urged by short fiction writers over the years."

However, an anonymous reviewer for M2 Best Books is less taken with "The Deep" than most people, describing the story as beautiful but too distant for readers to sympathize with the characters. Yet a Publishers Weekly anonymous review describes The Deep and Other Stories as "an intense, accomplished first collection." A review in Kirkus Reviews states that the collection is "wonderful." Prudence Peiffer for Library Journal also celebrates Swan's rich prose, writing that Swan has a "strong command of metaphorical language." Marta Segal for Booklist describes Swan's collection as "graceful" and concludes that "Swan has a calm, almost resigned voice."

Unfortunately, Swan's other work has not received the same admiration as her award-winning story. Grossinger acknowledges this disappointment, stating that none of the other stories in her collection The Deep and Other Stories "displays either the mastery of craft or the intellectual reach of 'The Deep.'" Reviews of Swan's second collection Emma's Hands are mixed at best.