resaunders26's review against another edition
3.0
Couldn't finish it. She seems like a lovely person who lived an interesting life, but I just couldn't relate and it all fell a little flat for me.
readrunsea's review against another edition
4.0
Give me a story about a queer lady athlete and I'm almost guaranteed to be into it. The bonus with this book is that Carolyn Wood is a pretty great writer. The book tracks two stories in parallel: Wood's childhood from age three to adolescence, mainly building up to her participation (and gold medal) in swimming in the 1960 Olympics in Rome; and the long solitary walk she took on the Camino de Santiago in 2012 after the end of her decades-long relationship with her partner Rose. Both threads make for wonderful reading, and enhance each other by illustrating the similarities and differences between intense athletic training and a slower, longer, more deliberate journey to walk a very long way and work through the pain of a devastating breakup. The book also stays the course of the story it's trying to tell: it's not an exhaustive account of her entire life (though I would definitely read that if she were to write it), but rather about these two specific chapters in her life (with a few more details/context thrown in at the end for good measure). That's a real strength of this memoir- the reader doesn't get lost, and it makes for a more powerful and potent narrative. Highly recommend!
emmkayt's review
4.0
I really enjoyed this thoughtful, well-written memoir. Carolyn Wood was a champion swimmer in her youth in the 1950s, leading up to a trip to the 1960 Rome Olympics. She writes engagingly about her training experiences, as well as her developing sense of self as a young person. Interspersed amongst those chapters is her more recent experience walking the Camino de Santiago alone, a journey undertaken in retirement after her wife leaves their relationship. She’s never preachy or facile, but there’s a lot in there about how to live, how to persist and keep going, how to let go.
It was also very interesting reading about her time as a young swimmer. For example, it was back before women’s sports in the US were required to be funded equally at the College level, so the expectation was that a girl’s competitive career ended after high school. One Olympics and done was the aspiration, for the most part. Wood was a sassy kid with a penchant for pranks - as she was growing up in Portland, it made me think of Beverly Cleary, and perhaps a slightly more potty-mouthed Ramona. She was also growing up as a young lesbian amidst all the gender structures of the 1950s. Even in the 1970s, she lost custody of her young son due to her sexual orientation, though she and her wife maintained a meaningful, enriching relationship. Overall, a really good read.
It was also very interesting reading about her time as a young swimmer. For example, it was back before women’s sports in the US were required to be funded equally at the College level, so the expectation was that a girl’s competitive career ended after high school. One Olympics and done was the aspiration, for the most part. Wood was a sassy kid with a penchant for pranks - as she was growing up in Portland, it made me think of Beverly Cleary, and perhaps a slightly more potty-mouthed Ramona. She was also growing up as a young lesbian amidst all the gender structures of the 1950s. Even in the 1970s, she lost custody of her young son due to her sexual orientation, though she and her wife maintained a meaningful, enriching relationship. Overall, a really good read.
More...