Customer Reviews

The History of Swimming: A Memoir

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As the story begins, Kim Powers receives a call from the boss of his twin brother Tim, reporting that he has not reported to work and appears to be missing. After dealing with such instances most of his life, Kim at 28 is tiring of his role as big brother (he is five minutes older) and caretaker to his identical twin, who suffers from bouts of chronic depression and tends to substance abuse and suicide attempts.

Kim and Tim were essentially raised by their older brother, "Porky", no thanks to their alcoholic, abusive father and a mother whose mental illness eventually led to suicide when the twins were seven. All three boys grew up to be gay, although their sexual orientation is not an intergral part of the story. Following college, which was perhaps the most stable time of the twins' lives, Kim and Tim moved from their native Texas to Manhattan, not living together but continuing to be an intergral part of each others' lives. Kim was attuned to his brother's fragile emotions and tried to be there for him as much as possible, eventually resenting the intrusion on his own life and the impact on his own mental health.

Knowing that Tim had seemed to be getting worse and worse before his disappearance, Kim imagines the worst and frantically sets out to look for him. He reads Tim's doodles on his appointment calendar, as well as past letters Tim wrote to Kim and himself, trying to determine where he might have gone to (as he said on his dayplanner) "go swimming," a euphemism he often used for getting his life back on track. Kim concludes that he must have gone back to their almamater, Austin College, which was a time of relative stability in their lives, despite Tim's nervous breakdown. On arrival at the college, he meets a young undergrad who reminds him of he and his brother at that age, and together they search the campus and a rural art colony that also had memories for them. Along the way, Kim rereads more of Tim's letters, triggering so much guilt and depression of his own that the young accomplice becomes his caretaker of sorts.

This is an extremely emotional, complex story, and the reader can't hope to experience it in the same way as the author. Perhaps that is the one fault of the book, in that the interaction between the brothers (primarily through the letters between them, which make up a large and tedious part of the book, serving as the way in which the author flashes back to fill in details about themselves) is too unique and dysfunctional to be interpreted easily by the average reader. Nevertheless, the book is a powerful, intelligently-conceived and written memoir about brotherly love, guilt, responsibility, finding laughter in a lifetime of pain, hope and love. Four stars out of five.

Sibling relationships can be very difficult - especially close ones. Not being a twin, I can't relate to the whole "twin" thing, but I can relate to loving, hating and competing with my sister - all at the same time. What I love about this book is that it is so clear about portraying humanity - gifts and flaws at the same time. While Tim is a gifted writer and I loved reading his letters, it's easy to see how he would have driven Kim insane. I disagree with the previous reviewer re: the letters - I thought they were one of the best parts of the book. I agree that there are a couple of slow spots, but I really really liked the book.

Named Kim and Tim by their twelve-year-old brother Porky (wise parents vetoed Porky's first choice of Joe Bob for Tim) the Powers twins were separated in birth by only five minutes. They grew up together, attended the same college, and in many ways were inseparable, even once giving each other the same book, THE HABIT OF BEING, Flannery O'Connor's letters, for birthday gifts. ("Twins always know.") They also, as well as their older brother Porky, eventually figure out that they are gay. ("What was it in the water we drank as children?") Tim, however, becomes a suicidal alcoholic; Kim goes to graduate school in the East and becomes successful-- at least professionally. Much of this unflinchingly honest memoir is about Kim's attempts to find his suicidal brother when Kim learns that Tim has not shown up for work and has disappeared. Powers intersperses throughout the book his brother Tim's letters ("my older brother [Porky] taught me to swim when I was five years old"), letting his brother's own voice speak of his nervous breakdown, his sorrows, his craziness, but also his joy: ("Keep remembering. Keep coming out. Write. Live. Love. It's yours to do.")

Although Mr. Powers can be at times a bit tedious and self-indulgent, his prose is as transparent as the water about which he writes so eloquently. I almost didn't finish this book. That would have been my great loss for the last 30 or so pages of this memoir will break your heart; they contain so much sadness but so much more love.

I confess I cannot be objective about this book. I too am a twin (being forever the older by 15 minutes) and see so much of my brother and me in these two men: never being photographed alone as children, being forever "the twins," should we live to be a hundred (At least we were not saddled with rhyming first names), and knowing that we are in many ways so close and love each other so much, yet so different as my twin is straight.

The New York Times listed THE HISTORY OF SWIMMING as one of the notable nonfiction books of 2006, an honor it richly deserves.

I picked up this book because it received a lot of hype. For most of the book, however, I couldn't figure out why. Most of the book is filled with a histrionic recitation of the author's search for his missing brother, coupled with flashbacks and memories of their early lives and the life of their older brother. Although the author's sense of desperation comes through well and is understandable, it doesn't make for a compelling read. Most of this portion of the book feels relevant for the author, but is difficult for the reader to identify with. I would have rated the book 2 or 3 stars if the story had, as I had expected, ended there. But it didn't, and it's in the book's "Afterward" -- the last 30 pages or so -- where the story takes a twist that makes everything comes together in an incredibly moving and powerful way. The change in the story comes almost from left field (although the author gave us hints all along). Perhaps it's for that reason that the change is so powerful, and why everything then makes sense. It's those final few pages that will stick in your heart and mind. I haven't stopped thinking about them for weeks now. I won't give any details here (and notice that none of the other reviewers have -- they also saw that it's so important to the power of the story that the turn of the plot comes seemingly out of nowhere), but it makes for an incredibly stirring, emotional, and satisfying "five-star" end.

The book is about what it means to be a twin, a brother, a survivor -- when your twin, who you love as dearly as you love yourself, is out of control. It was so moving, I had to stop periodically to have a good cry. Beautifully written.

I was exhausted by all of the drama in one person's life - both real and manufactured. Undeniably the Powers Twins were sensitive youths, products of their dysfunctional family, subject to the pressures of the time and place, prone to addictive behaviors, and filled with self-loathing. How they dealt with all of this and their twinship, as young adults, could be a case study for clinical practitioners.

The writing style is underwhelming. The use of swimming as the central metaphor is weak. The repetitive whine of self absorption is overwhelming.

But, in the end, Kim Powers becomes the lifeguard for both of his brothers. In the Afterword - the aftermath of his search - his writing has depth, clarity, and a genuineness that rescues the intent of the book and can satisfy most readers.

I loved this book. I was sad when it was over. It's about a special sibling relationship, addiction and compulsion to try to fix the problem. A very unique story.

Kim Powers is a truth-teller and a truth-seeker. I know this because I first met Kim when he was nine-years old. I was his fourth grade teacher, and his quest for answers began before I ever knew him.
THE HISTORY OF SWIMMING brings raw emotion with every word. The author's powerful 'in the moment' writing is clearly the most potent I've ever experienced. Kim's search through waters both cloudy and deep makes the reader gasp and seek the answers with him.
Kim swam from his mother's womb five minutes before his twin, Tim. He was a reluctant leader, but he felt it his duty to enter the world first. Kim held hands with his brother until Tim's death at thirty-three...oh, the painful bond of twins. Oh, the painful family secrets and the answers we all seek.
This is a book of love, frustration, and ultimate forgiveness written by a tender, truthful man.

Okay, this is a memoir, right? I've read plenty of memoirs before, but has there ever been one that makes you so dubious? I'm sorry for Mr. Powers, and he seems to have led a perfectly awful life, but he is not a good enough writer to make me credit the amazing narrative contrivances and coincidences he tries to pull off here.

I do understand that the problem of gay twins is a pretty basic one to the human condition, and that such boys (and possibly girls) are more sensitive and needy than the rest of us, with reason. The three stars I give to this book are because Powers dares to bring a hitherto ignored social condition to light, and notwithstanding the japes of the ignorant, he includes photos of himself and his brother defying the conventional wisdom in gay publishing that, if you're not especially good looking, nor your brother either, then skip the photos, do some imaginative line drawings instead. There's no photo of "Porky" however, and that makes me curious about who got the good looks in the gang.

When Tim goes missing, Kim pulls out all the emotional stops, and yet he encounters the human kindness of a number of male strangers who defy belief. The chatty bartender at "Charlie's" in the Village, who lets on that, yeah, I saw your brother, he tipped me good and said he was going to go swimming! The two New York cops who bend the rules to bring Kim some closure. Most insubstantial of all, "Stanley," the Texas acting student with the "surprisingly shapely" backside, an otherwise slight ingenu who drops everything to play Sal Paradise to Kim's broken down Dean Moriarty, prompting his flow of memory whenever things seem to be drying up. "Stanley" is singlehandedly responsible for the book's worst rhetorical flourishes. When Kim and Stan break into a barn, one of them murmurs, "Don't cut yourself." The narrator then breaks into more anguish: "Don't cut yourself. If only someone had said those three little words to Tim."

I feel sorry for Kim and I'm glad he is finding some healing, but his book is a sorry piece of overwriting. However because it tells the truth about twins and their intimate relations with each other, it is an important steps in the long voyage of human understanding.

This is a fantastic book! I was hooked by the first few paragraphs. I couldn't put it down. Stayed up all night hanging on the edge of my seat. READ IT!