Reviews with content warning for Terminal illness - The Swimmers

Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka

30 reviews

knkoch's review

mysterious relaxing sad slow-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated

2.75

Again, something experimental! But not all experiments work, and this one didn't for me. It felt like the first and second half were two separate ideas stitched together and I wasn't fully convinced that it worked. I liked the first half better, though it still felt too light: not enough characterization or strong senses of people to really deepen things. There were so many people, pool-goers, listed early on that it became clear that all but one were just set decoration, tossed-off quirks fit for only a sentence. There was a strong vibe with the setting in the first half, but even for a short book it felt like it carried on a bit too long.

The second half felt quite different, and while I appreciated the deeper characterization and focus on Alice, it felt jarring to shift away from the pool and what Otsuka seemed to be building earlier in the book. I guess the best interpretation I could see for these two very different halves coming together is

that I could see how the routine of the pool community, and the anxiety over the crack and pool closure could be read as the sort of slow decline and degradation of Alice's mind and life as her dementia progressed. Her life, the pool and everything else, splinters and comes apart. But then I guess I'm left wondering, did the pool really close or is the story so set in Alice's mind that it just closed for her? Unexpectedly, without clear rational reasons, because that's how confusing and disorienting dementia may feel for those experiencing it? I suppose, but then the detailed reactions of everyone else in the community reacting to the pool closure doesn't make sense. Maybe they're reacting to her leaving?

I did like that Otsuka had a strong sense of style in her writing, and that she went to unexpected places in the story. I liked the use of second person, and in general the shifting sense of both vague and character-specific narration. I think I would try another book by her, as I'm finding that more compelling these days than sheer plot.

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bon_xx's review

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challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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peggymay's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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mollyb13's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

This is a very different book than I expected it to be. I would describe this as a fictional, non-technical study on dementia from many points of view - daughter, a dementia care home, the dementia patient herself. I think the multiple POVs really added to the story and the writing was beautiful. Really a tough subject though and hard to read if you've had loved ones suffering with memory loss.

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kers_tin's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

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bookmaddie's review

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emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

2.75

Echoing some other reviews that found this book repetitive (it is indeed a giant list). The second half does get a bit better, but I still found myself skimming. Not for me!

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just_one_more_paige's review

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emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

This is not a book that was originally anywhere on my radar, but after seeing how much @thestackspod loved it (and she is pretty discerning in the fiction books that get her recommendation), I decided to give it a try. Plus, it's just so small - so definitely worth the short reading time to see what it was all about.

The swimmers all know each other by the traits and styles they use at the pool, the one place where they all find solace and escape from their outside lives. When a crack appears at the bottom of the pool and the facility shuts down, they are thrust out into the world without their normal outlet. For one pool-goer in particular, Alice, this swimming routine was the last tether holding her strong in the face of encroaching dementia. And as she starts to lose herself in the confusion and turmoil of memory loss, her adult daughter narrates the observation of her stark and difficult decline.

Reading this almost felt like reading two different stories, which was an interesting reading experience since it was already such a short book. The first two chapters bring the reader right into the world of the swimmers, all of them, in a style similar to that of Brown Girls, as a sort of survey of a population, their categorizations and differences despite this one (pool-going) similarity. This "survey" device is carried through the second chapter as well, as we see the myriad reactions of the swimmers to the crack(s) that appear(s). This chapter was actually my favorite, as the personification of the crack in the pool, everyone’s interpretations of its causes and motives and explanations, is both poignant and a bit amusing. What a way to showcase the breadth of humanity and our reactions to any event/situation, from the realistic to the absurd, the accurate to the extreme, the immediate and long term, in a sort of lightly satirical way.

From there, the story-telling takes a pretty big turn, as we move to focus on Alice, now being talked about in her daughter's voice, as all the details of her expanding memory loss are detailed in an incredibly poignant and emotional way. The minute detailing of the absolute arbitrariness of what dementia/Alzheimer’s “let’s” a person remember or causes them to forget, and the same arbitrariness of the disease itself, and the details of diagnosis, prognosis, what life looks like now, etc. is similarly affecting. The complete lack of judgement dementia has - the way there's no telling and preventing its arrival and your past and person are irrelevant in the face of it - holds a simultaneous universality and individuality to it that is quite affecting.

Stylistically, this was so creative in its portrayal of a life, a listing of what one remembers versus what one forgets, and how that’s not static and changes over time, but it’s all a part of who one is. It was tough to read because it was so aesthetically great, but when considered in terms of what it's communicating, in reality, about what a person loses as they lose their memories, it is heartbreaking. The daughter's incessant and excessive questioning of what caused the dementia, and what could have been done differently to prevent it, is a deeply recognizable hypothetical impossibility and manifestation of guilt and grief that humans cannot help but dwell within. And the reflection on the mother's lost memories mixed with the memories seared into the daughter's brain, along with a categorizing of what is left behind (both in memories and in possessions) as remnants of a person after a life ends, is equally touching.

I have some mixed feelings after finishing this novel. I thought that literally it was spectacular, with the crack in the pool as a metaphor for the crack through one’s reality when memory loss hits, as well as the irony of memory, in the way that one can lose it while alive but that's all that remains when they're gone. I was, however, thrown by the jarring shift in the writing style and perspective about halfway through. And while that, too, may have been a literary device to portray the jarring life changes experienced by Alice and her daughter as a result of her dementia, it was too much of a change, pulled me too much out of the flow, as a reader. However, overall, Otsuka really hits the reader in the emotions, in the way Alice's daughter speaks about her worsening condition and the reflections she has on what is taken from her versus what she retains. If you have ever experienced a loved one dealing with memory loss, there is a lot in these pages that will stir a variety of familiar responses, and a lot that will, perhaps, make you feel less alone in your loss and heartache.

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