Dubi reviewed Swimming Lessons by Claire Fuller
Review of 'Swimming Lessons' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
In her second book, Claire Fuller solidifies her place as one of the most interesting voices in fiction today. Not bounded by any specific genre, Fuller's prose is enough to make Swimming Lesson a worthwhile read. The book is slim on plot, but very strong in both atmosphere and emotional punch, despite the basic story not being a very novel one.
The story takes place in three time periods: in 2004, Flora and her sister Nan take care of their ailing father, famed author Gil Coleman (who's described as incredibly charismatic, although this is more told, less shown), and they try to come to grips with the disappearance of their mother some 12 years earlier and the effects it had on their lives.
In 1992, Ingrid, Gil's wife, is writing letters to him while he's away, presumably on business, and hiding them in the books tucked away in his voluminous …
In her second book, Claire Fuller solidifies her place as one of the most interesting voices in fiction today. Not bounded by any specific genre, Fuller's prose is enough to make Swimming Lesson a worthwhile read. The book is slim on plot, but very strong in both atmosphere and emotional punch, despite the basic story not being a very novel one.
The story takes place in three time periods: in 2004, Flora and her sister Nan take care of their ailing father, famed author Gil Coleman (who's described as incredibly charismatic, although this is more told, less shown), and they try to come to grips with the disappearance of their mother some 12 years earlier and the effects it had on their lives.
In 1992, Ingrid, Gil's wife, is writing letters to him while he's away, presumably on business, and hiding them in the books tucked away in his voluminous library. Gil's hobby is collecting used books for the marginalia and the notes people leave in them (books, he taught her, only exist because of their readers, so reading them through the eyes of other readers is even more interesting than trying to understand them through the eyes of the author -- a bold perspective for an author!). So Ingrid is telling her husband of her days alone with their two daughters in the format he so dearly loves.
In the letters, Ingrid also unravels their shared history - from meeting each other in the 1970's, him a professor and her his students, through the courting (and the six children he predicted they will have), the pregnancy, the marriage proposal, and their married life, with its none-too-surprising revelations of Gil's character. Her retelling of their life together slowly catches up to her present day, explaining the reason for the letters she leaves in Gil's books.
The two plots - the sisters and their mother's letters - never actually directly interact, even as they reveal new aspects of each other. The story is well crafted in doing so (Fuller used the same narrative trick in her previous book - I'm curious to see her handle a narrative that's not dependent on this back-and-forth between two times). But while little is actually happening throughout the book, I found myself drawn to find out more about the characters and their stories, to find out how they will react to the small revelations. As the book reached its conclusions, without any great twists or big denouement, I nevertheless felt satisfied. The story has ended, but Flora and Ingrid will stay with me for a while longer.
