Customer Reviews

Swimming: A Novel

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Nicola Keegan's irrepressible first novel tells the story of a young girl's rise from a tall Kansas hick to world- famous Olympic swimmer.

I loved the book for its dissection of the competitive spirit, the details of training (including the motivational speeches and the required diets) and the mentality of the super athlete. The analysis of the opposition was both snarky and sympathetic.

I loved this book for its depiction of swimming as escape from the burdens that life places upon families through illness, through dysfunction, through grief and loss and difference and plain old growing up. "Swimming" also gives us the friendship of Philomena and the Cocoplat with warmth and grace as the two change, grow, grow apart, reconcile.

I loved this book for the voice of the narrator, Philomena, her honesty, exuberance, humor, "eye talk," nun-parodies, and self-doubt.

"Swimming" is a funny, heart-breaking, wild, detailed, luminous, shattering, and wonderful book. It is absolutely my favorite book in years.

Brava, brava, brava, Ms. Keegan! "Swimming" is "Ulysses" without the intellectual pretense. The esteemed Harold Bloom of Yale may not agree, but I have "nunnerisms" straight from Philomena to tell him what I think of all that literary blather. This is a book for the ages and the people, not just the ivory-tower crowd.

This novel is about an Olympic swimming champion, but there is relatively little about the Olympics. Only one of the character's swimming races is presented in any detail at all. We see her punishing training routine. But the build-up to the specific races, the suspense about whether or not Pip, our protagonist, will break a world record or win the eight gold medals she aims at, is almost nonexistent, a sort of afterthought. This is not remotely a female, aquatic "Chariots of Fire."

What does the novel focus on? Mainly, the effects of Pip's tragic family history and, to a considerably lesser extent, her relationships with fellow swimmers. At one point, Pip says that something is wrong with every swimming champion--some grief or deficiency is driving them. Pip is driven to swim to escape unhappiness at home. To me the most involving part of the novel concerns her older sister's struggle with cancer. No one will speak honestly to this unfortunate young girl. She emerges as a vivid character about whom the reader truly cares. It's harder to care about Pip's mother, who suffers from a severe anxiety disorder which prevents her attending any of her daughter's swim meets, or Pip's two other sisters, one an almost-nun, the other struggling with drug addiction.

The writing is beautiful. This is a first person account, told in the present tense, and with italics substituting for quotation marks. Stylistically, all this works, bringing us very close to Pip. As a reader, you feel you are meeting a real human being and become truly involved with her story.

This is the kind of book in which, if the protagonist gets a dog, you assume it will meet a sad fate. Misery is piled upon misery in the early part of the novel. Happiness is rare and fleeting. No family member ever expresses pride in Pip's achievements. We get a sense of the sacrifices endured by an Olympic champion, not of the triumphs.

Pip's true struggle is less to win Olympic gold than to first evade and then finally confront grief and depression: I get this. Still, I wanted the other part of Pip's story--the thrill of competition, and ultimately of victory. This aspect is stinted. I found the novel absorbing--I admire the writing enough to give it four stars--but I felt a piece was missing.

Swimming tells the story of Philomena, a tall sturdy midwesterner who transcends a dysfunctional family to become an Olympian gold medal swimming champion. I have no idea if the premise is plausible, but author Nicola Keegan writes so powerfully that I didn't care.

Reading Swimming is like seeing a car wreck. It's brutal but often hard to look away. I found myself wanting to read more and more. The pages kept turning. But as other reviewers have noted, Philomena rarely gets to enjoy a positive experience. Good things get taken away or overshadowed by the aftermath.

Perhaps there's just so much going on it's hard to keep track, whether you're living the life or just reading about it. Philomena's father chose an eccentric career path, yet the family seems to have unlimited money. Each of Philomena's three sisters battles her own demons. Then there's the whole backdrop of the Catholic church and the parade of fellow swimmers, most of whom seem one-dimensionally mean.

The ending goes on for a long time. Both the author and heroine seem to have lost their way. Philomena doesn't seem to have moved emotionally beyond her scarred family. Perhaps a star athlete necessarily becomes too involved to remain connected with life. But Philomena had a superb college education. She had experiences that must have contributed to her growth. And yet she seems to be back where she was at the beginning of the novel: out of place, confused and rudderless. I keep thinking of a rocket that escapes gravity, only to fizzle and fall back to earth, a hollow shell of its former self.

Throughout the book, I kept wanting to shake the heroine and say, "Move on. Get over it." Of course if she did, the genre would be more like chick lit or women's fiction. It's the constant battle with adversity, combined with the flawless writing, that keeps Swimming in the realm of literary fiction.

This is a poet's novel: lyrical, profound, disturbing, enriching. A work of courageous honesty and depth. A first novel, but a master-work.

Swimming is the first-person narrative story of the character "Pip" (Philomena). It starts with her learning that she can swim before she can walk or talk. Pip's early childhood is revealed in a series of "snapshot" chapters that reminded me of the spottiness of childhood memories. Then she provides a more connected narrative from early teens, through the critical point where she transitions to a serious competitor, through intensive training to world-class triumph, and beyond.

The book's style and tone are remarkable, though I may struggle to describe them. The story flows easily: it becomes compelling, an unusual kind of page-turner. It is told in an intimate yet detached way. I didn't know what year it was for more than 100 pages, nor her last name for nearly 200; but Pip, her family, her friends are spotlighted with a clear, penetrating insight that is non-judgmental but merciless and somehow warmer for that. I felt that I knew these people, and I ached for their sorrows even as their story evoked memories of my own.

Pip's key transition is sharply drawn, and leaves the clear impression that things could have gone otherwise: rather than "champion" she might have earned any of a dozen lesser titles; there aren't many judgmental labels in the book, but I might call some of the alternatives "stoner", "town pump", "couch potato". Pip's experiences are so very particular that the deeper truth of her story becomes universal. We understand a "champion" as a state in a continuity with the varied conditions of those around Pip, a condition that seems "special" more due to media attention than anything else.

There were a few things that bothered me a little about the book as I was reading it. The opening chapter, in first-person by a nine-month-old girl, struck me as a bit off (unrealistic? pretentious?) in places as I first read it. But I decided later that it had to be written as it was, to set up the book's overall tone. And I felt some doubts in some early chapters as to how they would contribute to the story: was the book wandering? Perhaps a little, but at the critical point I felt I knew Pip well enough to understand what she was doing.

This is a remarkable book. After reading it I feel I know more about what it is to be human than I did before, and some of my own memories have a currency that I have not felt for many years. I highly recommend working through any doubts such as those I had in the early parts of the book: you will be well rewarded.

I was intrigued by the hope of learning how an Olympic swimmer is shaped and formed; the role of coaches and parents; the mental and physical challenges endured and conquered; and the loss of a normal adolescent social life to focus on training.

I was disappointed that in this book, swimming is overpowered by the craziness of the main character and her family (which includes an agoraphobic mother, drug-addicted sister, alcoholic babysitter and possibly suicidal father).

The main character's trains of thought can be exhausting to read. For example, the following begins a chapter, "Skating drill. Shark drill. Turtle drill. Ancient dull dead men say: One day is, the next isn't. Breathing drill. Two-beat rocking drill. Rock body. Rotate shoulder. Shift. Ancient dull dead men say: O courage. O sorrow. Watching clock tick drill. Feeling water flow drill. Body spearing focal point, mind lasering forward. Time whips everything we know into foam."

I love to read but had to struggle to finish this book. It is definitely not a light read for the beach.

Plot: Philomena "Pip" Ash is a swimming prodigy who, despite not being given rigorous training until relatively late in her career and a dysfunctional family that even Dr. Phil might throw up his hands and admit defeat at helping, becomes an international contender and Olympic champion. Eventually, injuries and past trauma start to catch up to her, and she must decide whether to retire and then where to go from there.

Pros: Very well-written. Fresh, engaging voice that grips the reader from the start and doesn't let go.

Let you suspend disbelief (how much could a nine month old really remember?) easily. Storyline about terminally ill sister well done; the kind of thing I think "My Sister's Keeper" was going for but failed to achieve.) Although there aren't a lot of descriptions about what it actually feels like to be an elite swimmer, those that are work.

Cons: Humor that is amusing when characters are young becomes annoying as they mature.

Family is a little too dysfunctional; instead of feeling that there's any hope that they will get past their issues; you expect that any progress will meet with a setback. It even gets a bit cartoonish when the dog dies, although I'm sure that was not the author's intention.

Heroine is too passive - She's spunky until college and then suddenly lets everyone else make her decisions, even the non-swimming ones. She even gets an abusive boyfriend and tolerates him. What the heck happened?

Swimming story unrealistic- Is it really possible to have a "normal" education all the way up to college, AND be an Olympic champ? Don't world class athletes have to postpone or sacrifice such things in order to win? (One character even simultaneously goes to med school, while training at an elite level, though she does eventually quit swimming.)

Oddly paced narrative - It takes about a hundred pages before Pip gets to train at an elite level, until then, it's mostly about her goofing off with her friend and dealing with family trauma. Original way to do things, but caused me to wonder when the "real" story was going to begin.

Pip's family falls apart when her older sister Bron dies of cancer at the age of 18. Shortly after that, her father crashes while flying his small plane - a possible suicide. Her mother becomes a recluse completely unable to take care of Pip and her 2 sisters, Roxanne and Dot. Their Catholic community tries to help but eventually give up and the family is left to drift along as best they can.

For Pip her salvation comes in swimming. It makes her calm and suspends thought. She's one with the water and soon she attracts the attention of outside coaches who think she can become an Olympic winner.

Through it all - the training, the rivalries, friendships and competitions, Pip is haunted by her past.

When the competitions and the toll put on her body catch up with her, Pip is left to face what she has become and what she has lost.

I'm giving this 4 stars because I agree with the other reviewers who feel that the story could have been more fleshed out. But in spite of that, Pip is far from a dull character and her story makes for a very good read.

I finished this book a couple of days ago and had to give it some thought and reflection before I commented on it.

This novel, about a girl who lives to swim and swims to live, has a lot of ambition but somehow it falls short and sort of left me depressed. It's an incredibly complex tale of a young girl's sad coming of age and her relentless pursuit of Olympic gold in swimming. The story is set in the 70s through the 90s and weaves just enough fact about previous Olympics, medalists, and other current events to set the scene of an earlier, different time period.

Philomena, raised in Glenwood, Kansas, attends a Catholic school and has a love/hate relationship with the nuns and the church. After a series of very tragic deaths, Philomena (nicknamed Pip, to her chagrin) begins training in earnest. Six feet tall with huge feet and incredible flexibility, she travels first to Colorado to live with the Peggys and train with the famous swimming coach E. Mankovitz and then ends up with a scholarship to Stanford where she receives more intense preparation and grueling training in and out of the pool.

The novel flits back and forth to her childhood and to her present, never quite putting her THERE for the reader to understand. I found her a very difficult character to know as her emotions run the gauntlet, never quite ringing true as she spends most of the book trying to figure who she is -- if she's not a swimmer, or what else she is besides a swimmer. This is a character that totally goes "with the flow" and, as she points out, "has really never made a single decision in her life." Even though she's a sister and a daughter -- from a very dysfunctional family of course -- a friend and a lover, she is unable to deal with her relationships and has some larger than life psychological issues that she almost drowns in.

Nevertheless, I liked the book though I found it very difficult reading at times. This is not a book you probably should read in one day, it's one to savor and contemplate. The author has incredible command of a turn of phrase and writes elegant, descriptive prose.

I guess I was hoping for more of the "thrill of victory and the agony of defeat" type story, but that's really not this book.

I agree with the reviewer that said they were very excited to read this book but it was slightly tedious to get through. I loved the concept and it was much different than pretty much every other books I normally read (romance) so I thought that I would have been able to easily read this. I was wrong. I just wanted a little bit more humor or lightness than was delivered. I felt that there was too much written about her awful family life and it made me depressed and want to stop reading. I may be in the minority here but I just wanted the book to end so I could curl up in a ball and die. Sorry folks, this just wasn't the book for me.

I give Nicola Keegan an A for originality and the ability to write in first person with such profound interpretation of her surroundings. Philomena Ash is over 6 feet with an obsessive love and talent for swimming. She overcomes many obstacles to reach the Seoul Olympics and collect 8 gold medals. The story of her training and those who trained her is told with nuance and objectivity.

Philomena often called Pip, which she dislikes, comes from a Catholic family in Kansas. The role of Catholicism in her life is prominent and saturates her family and personal ambitions. Keegan creates an poignant, tragic family beset with cancer, death, agoraphobia and extremist behavior. Pip is one of four daughters brought up in a family which centers much of their existence on their religion. It is fascinating to note how the Church influences Pip throughout her life.

Pip moves through her training, family tragedies, physical and emotional vicissitudes with great insight. She becomes to own her family's fragilities and cannot create a solid relationship with her angry sisters or mother who perpetually has a "nervous breakdown" with every task she endeavors. Keegan portrayed this family in exact terms, there was no getting away from the anger or lack of mainstream socialization of the sisters, mother and the father, Leonard, who is bat expert and shows his sorrow at the death of one of his daughters with defined grief.

I found Keegan's only weakness in the end of the book when Pip, whose Olympic career is over, borders on mental illness and desperately tries to find some sanity with the help of a psychiatrist in France and, of course, the church. Her sadness was overwhelming and the plodding search for some normalcy was too long and took away from the fascinating "go for the gold" plot.