Swimming

Full disclosure: I picked up Swimming because I do, in fact, love swimming. To me, it has always been one of the most enjoyable activities, a way to fly and to move, a place where having broad shoulders is actually helpful.

As a child, I never considered it to be a "real" sport (probably because it's only taken seriously every few years when a Janet Evans or a Michael Phelps does their thing), but I did like those medals from local swim meets. I am constantly amazed when I meet people who either don't know or don't like to swim.

Luckily, even for those who were not water babies, Swimming is a powerful look at family, grief and how one survives. Philomena Ash, the middle of four girls, is always a gifted swimmer, but living a relatively show more normal life in Kansas flanked by nuns. As tragedies hit the Ash family, the tall and unwieldly Philomena finds escape in swimming and ascends to the top of the Olympic pool, so to speak, cheered on by the ghosts of dead relatives. Since the novel is told entirely through Philomena's eyes - even the quotes are in Italics, and thoughts are reflected through peoples' eyes - you are always on her side, especially when dealing with her agoraphobic mother who is a direct descendent of Charlotte in The Little Friend.

It would have been easy for Keegan to make her debut your standard triumph-of-the-human-spirit story, with the Olympic medal podium as the pinnacle of Phil's life. Keegan's writing is clear and often quite funny when Phil is describing her thoughts about, for example, her coach. "Olympic drama is starting to excavate sleeping Catholic ceremonial practices planted in my mind long before I could think, and I now have to fight the urge to bow or genuflect with the Mankovitz speaks. He looks at me and nods and I have to restrain myself in order not to genulfect or cross myself in response," she writes. But after Phil's athletic career is over, Keegan allows her the last chunk of the novel to figure out where her life is headed. Phil's epiphany - that feelings don't actually kill - seems simple, but is quite powerful.

This would be a great choice for a book club, and I suspect that most people who enjoy good writing with strong female heroines, from Speak: 10th Anniversary Edition to Little Bee: A Novel would enjoy it. And for younger readers who like female swimming protagonists, I remember loving In Lane Three, Alex Archer , which is about a teenage swimmer who dreams of the Olympics. I plan on seeing if I can hunt it down, as it's now out of print. show less

Loved this book until the last 20 or so pages. Pip's inner voice was amazing and the depth of the family's dysfunction was riveting. You knew that it would end painfully, all that time in the pool prevented (sometimes on purpose) Pip from confronting her "ghosts" and when she finally did the whole novel sank in her despair. Still and all, a great book mainly because of the excellent writing.

A well-written but depressing look at a woman's rise to Olympic gold-medal fame and downward trajectory into "retirement" at age 28. Keegan is an original writer with a strong Irish voice (at times, I found it hard to believe that the book was set in the United States), but her oblique style was sometimes confusing and the post-retirement part of the book could have used some editing.

Slightly melodramatic but a very good story of about a family. Interesting back story re swimming for the Olympics. Good read but then I enjoy stories about dysfunctional families.

Adult fiction. The narrative dawdles and skips and speaks in thought fragments. I got 50 or so pages in and decided that I didn't want to follow the story anymore, despite likeable and realistic characters.

Swimming by Nicola Keegan

If I can tell you one thing and only one thing about this novel; it is that it has nothing to do what so ever with the product description.
The product description is the reason I chose this novel; that and the topic sounded very interesting. Learn in a fictional way what it takes to become an Olympian swimmer.

Then I started to read.

I found no witticisms in it. I’m not all that sure that it is original as claimed, since its main theme is about dysfunctional families and has been done to death. Catholic schooling is usually portrayed as this group of Nuns was. And if you count in just the first half of the book the two tragic human deaths and the two unfortunate animal deaths, we can be depressed for the rest show more of the book. We learn that poor Pip (Philomena) was a cranky baby that only came to life when she was in the water. Growing up she was cruel and snarky, introspective and selfish, disinterested and mean and shallow. She had a sister who was sick, another who turned to drugs, a mother who was mentally unfit and somewhat abusive, a father who loved his job more than his family…in other words; not unlike a lot of the readers had while growing up The only thing she had going for her is her ability to swim fast.

I learned early on that this was going to be a well written, important work of literature. It has long, lovely run on sentences with beautiful words, a flowing writing style and left me utterly depressed, disenchanted and disheartened. I expected much more with the raves that this book is getting.

While I didn’t hate this book I would encourage anyone thinking about buying this book based on what the product description says, to step back read what the real readers are saying and then if you still want to give it a go and think you want to own it…wait until it’s in paperback. show less

A portrait of a character who must do what she must do...didn't like the ending, which fell flat.