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Swim to Me (Bantam Discovery)
 
 
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Swim to Me (Bantam Discovery) [Mass Market Paperback]

Betsy Carter (Author)
3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)


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Book Description

August 26, 2008 Bantam Discovery
Sometimes to be who you really are, you have
to pretend you’re already who you want to be.

At two, Delores’s mother dropped her into the shallow end of a lake, trusting instinct would teach her daughter to swim. From then on, the water is where Delores Walker feels most at home. Now, nearly seventeen, she’s boarding a Greyhound bus leaving the Bronx for sunny Weeki Wachee Springs, a tacky roadside attraction in the shadow of Walt Disney’s new Florida phenomenon.

With a hundred silver dollars left behind by her runaway dad, Delores is chasing her dream of being a mermaid with a group of other aquatic hopefuls—girls just as awkward and uncertain out of water as they are beautiful and graceful in it. And in this make-believe world of sequined tails and amphibious fantasy, Delores will learn some very real lessons about growing up and surviving in a world where everyone sometimes feels like a fish out of water.

A heartfelt novel of coming-of-age no matter what age you are, populated with characters offbeat, outcast, and thoroughly lovable, Swim to Me is filled with the kind of wise magic that’ll have you believing in the impossible before the final page.




From the Trade Paperback edition.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Carter follows her plucky New York journalist's memoir Nothing to Fall Back On and first novel The Orange Blossom Special with another sweet story of self-reinvention. Delores Walker, 17, leaves her troubled home in the Bronx of 1973 to become a mermaid at Weeki Wachee Springs in Tampa, Fla. There, in a series of fortuitous events, ugly duckling Delores becomes the star of the show, a local hero, the most popular girl in town (although she remains unfailingly nice) and the catalyst for an unlikely family reunion. Carter jumps from head to head without providing much insight into her characters, including the slimily manipulative and ambitious TV producer, Alan Sommers, and the gentle circus giant, T. Rex, who's little more than a vehicle for folksy wisdom. But Carter is less interested in character development than in storytelling, which she does with aplomb, as Delores faces fame-related conflicts, and resort owner Thelma Foote has wisdom to spare. The results are sensationalist, predictable and satisfying. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Teenage Delores Walker is determined to make something of her life, motivated, in part, by her sad-sack Brooklyn family. After her father walks out, her embittered mother is forced to work two jobs. Delores, eager to escape her dismal family life, heads to Florida, where she is hired as a mermaid for an operation that has fallen on hard times, losing business to the recently opened Walt Disney Resort. Weeki Wachee is run by Thelma Foote, a lonely but tough businesswoman who is all too aware that the tattered, kitschy costumes and tired swim routines are in need of a touch of pizzazz. When Delores and her fellow mermaids cook up a routine they dub The Merfather (a play on The Godfather), the crowds show up in droves. A stint as a TV weather girl and an unexpected family reunion all contribute to Delores' grand reinvention of her life. In her warm, appealing second novel, Carter (The Orange Blossom Special, 2005) displays a sure feel for her 1970s Florida setting, right down to the aqua color schemes. Wilkinson, Joanne --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

  • Mass Market Paperback: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Bantam Discovery; Reprint edition (August 26, 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0553591487
  • ISBN-13: 978-0553591484
  • Product Dimensions: 4 x 0.9 x 6.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,032,110 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

17 Reviews
5 star:
 (5)
4 star:
 (6)
3 star:
 (5)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.9 out of 5 stars (17 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Visions of mermaids in Weeki Wachee, August 2, 2007
This review is from: Swim to Me: A Novel (Hardcover)
What a delight this book is! I was transported to the muggy sweltering landscape of Weeki Wachee Springs near Tampa FL by Carter's descriptions of mermaid life. The story of young Delores Walker's transformation into the star mermaid, Delores Taurus, is inspirational. Her decaying life in the Bronx in the early 70's leaves her hopeless and yearning for more. Remembering one very happy moment in her childhood while visiting "the only live mermaid show in the world", she decides to leave her needy mother and little brother to pursue her dream of becoming a mermaid herself. Carter draws us in with exotic characters, each with their own story of how they came to Weeki Wachee, and why they are still there. Little snippets of history come through to remind us of the period (Buicks were big, Nixon was in office), and several references to the just opened Disney World in Orlando point out how different our perceptions of fantasy and reality can be. [...] for a fascinating peek at this institution that has managed to survive in spite of America's shifting views on entertainment. And read this book - you may want to become a mermaid yourself.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Set in the early 1970s, October 30, 2007
This review is from: Swim to Me: A Novel (Hardcover)
With an engaging premise and a spunky teenaged main character like Delores, I hoped this title would appeal to high school students, but it doesn't pass muster. Perhaps some adult readers would enjoy the walk down memory lane with nostalgic references that abound from the 60s and 70s including Danny Kaye songs, the NY Yankees, Dairy Queen and popular Florida tourist attractions. Unfortunately, not all the history is correct. In the story Disney World in Orlando has just opened which places the story in 1971 or 1972, but there's a mention of Walt Disney walking into a conference room. Mr. Disney passed away in 1966. Besides historical inaccuracies, the story line is only a notch above average so it isn't a book I would highly recommend.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Book With "Can't Put Down Appeal", January 20, 2008
This review is from: Swim to Me: A Novel (Hardcover)
"She was two years old when her mother dropped her into the shallow end of a lake...Delores Walker always claimed she had a vivid memory of this incident...Her body moved with the flow of it, the most natural thing in the world. From then on, the water was where Delores felt most at home." Thus begins the story of Delores Walker, a young girl from New York who leaves home to follow a dream.

On a family vacation to Florida, Delores is introduced to the world of real live mermaids at Weeki Wachee Springs. She knows right away that this is what she wants to do with her life. But the realities of her dysfunctional family make the realization of that dream seem impossible until the day Delores discovers a stash of gold coins left behind by her estranged father. Using some of the coins to fund her trip to Florida, Delores sets out to join the ranks of the Weeki Wachee mermaids.

Carter has crafted a cast of characters who are as charming as they are eccentric. What gives this book its "just can't put it down" appeal is the way in which Carter intersects the lives (both past and present) of the girls of Weeki Wachee, a newsroom manager from nearby Tampa, the dysfunctional family members from the Bronx, and Thelma Foote, who runs the Weeki Wachee Springs Mermaid attraction.

With careful attention to detail, Carter has incorporated some of the very real attractions and issues of central Florida during the 1970s. There are the rumbles of the economical impact of Walt Disney World on other nearby, smaller attractions. There is the strong desire to preserve the heritage of the area in such endeavors as the Mermaids of Weeki Wachee and the home base for circus acts, even a hurricane threatening the Tampa Bay area of the western gulf coast. Readers are treated to delightful characters, the power of keeping dreams alive, the real possibility of hopes come true, and the importance of friends and family.

by Lee Ambrose
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women
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Inside This Book (learn more)
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First Sentence:
SHE WAS TWO YEARS OLD when her mother dropped her into the shallow end of a lake. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Weeki Wachee, Thelma Foote, Blonde Sheila, Delores Taurus, New York, Teen Girl, Scary Sheila, Roy Walker, Gail Walker, Hurricane Claudia, Dave Hanratty, Miss Taurus, Delores Walker, Aqua Zoo, Chuck Varne, Lee Alexander, The Godfather, Hanratty's Circus, Miss Foote, Boca Raton, Belleair Beach, Alan Sommers, Lester Pogoda, Orchard Beach, Connie Corleone
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Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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