Reviews

Swimming Lessons looks at a toxic relationship between an academic and a student, and the impact it had on their two daughters. The story unfolds via two main timelines. In the present Gil, has had an accident which results in younger daughter Flora returning home and learning he is dying. It also rekindles her desire to find out exactly what happened to her mother, who disappeared, presumed drowned, when Flora was a child. The past relationship between Gil and Ingrid is told via a series of letters Ingrid has written and hidden in some of the many books around the house. TW for miscarriage. Know that the ending is ambiguous.

Content Warnings

jerrica's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

I picked this book up initially for its a) beautiful cover (which I'm told by a friend in publishing is a real thing, a book cover signifies how much the publisher believed in the book) and b) description of book collecting. You're telling me that this book takes place in a house with thousands of books in it? Sign me up! What I got, however, was quite a different story.

Of course, the books factor in, but the story that Fuller tells is a dark one. Gil and Ingrid's marriage, on the book's jacket, says it is "passionate and troubled." They really should've stopped beating around the bush and called it abusive. Gil starts out as Ingrid's professor, and is twice her age. He pursues her without the faintest thought in his head that she'll say no, and acts accordingly. Bookish Ingrid may think she's getting into a Jane/Rochester kind of situation minus Bertha, but what she gets is Bluebeard, 100 percent. I won't give too much away, but he does, right off the bat, have a room that she's not allowed to go in. Maybe if she'd read the Bluebeard folktale instead of the dross that Gil gives her during his office hours, she could've avoided this whole situation.

Fuller's writing is nimble, and the story that wraps around the epistolary one of Gil and Ingrid's marriage is their children, Nan and Flora, returning to their childhood oceanside home after Gil falls and can't get up under the weight of all of his sins. Even though it was less scandalous, their story was more interesting to me as they walk around the house, more full of books than ever. Flora, from whose point of view this side of the narrative is told, realizes how little she knew about her parents' marriage and the horrible things her father did. This, to me, was the most human part of the novel compared with Gil's inhuman abuses. Flora, being a daddy's girl, was blinded by her love for her father and saw none of the signs around her that something might be wrong.

I'm wavering between 3 and 4 stars on this book, but I'm thinking 3 because the ending falls apart and there are a few twists that seemed over the top and were not expanded enough to be worth including in the first place. The novel has great atmosphere, and there's a lot of swimming, which I'm missing rn as I've been in Deep Winter since October 1st.

xyzalice's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.25

katielynngrant's review against another edition

Go to review page

2.0

Maybe it’s because I struggled to get into the book. Maybe it’s because it also took me a long time to read. But I’m so confused and wish I wouldn’t have wasted my time trying to read this one.

kathedron's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional medium-paced

Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

jtlars7's review against another edition

Go to review page

2.0

Ok. The story was well-constructed (if you accept the premise that Ingrid really recorded her marriage in letters in that degree of detail) but I kept questioning whether I should bother finishing it. I disliked several of the key characters and overall it was depressing.

More...