A review by notsoquietgrrl
Turning by Jessica J. Lee

emotional informative reflective relaxing slow-paced

4.0

A beautiful account focused on lake swimming as a means of connecting to self and rewriting place in the wake of personal heartache and historical trauma. This memoir deals with many subjects - home, language, lakes, Germany’s troubled past and present - and while the more academic observations did sometimes take me out of the personal story, it all gelled well together overall. I particularly love the way Lee captures the quiet of a place and that tingling feeling of fear being alone in a body of water can trigger. And the tender portrait of a budding friendship towards the latter quarter of the book really had my heart.