A review by annakh16
Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski

emotional reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

I had never seen you before - not consciously anyway. Yet my mind felt strangely relieved, as if it had recognised someone.

This book markets itself as “If Call Me By Your Name was set in communist Poland“. I think this is accurate - to the extent that in my opinion, the books suffer from similar problems. The writing is good. There are some beautiful, emotional standout quotes, as well as a transformative, almost transcendental love. But I was hoping for more substance.

Which is to say: I would have liked more elaboration on key aspects of this indeed quite short book. I don’t think it offered much new in terms of story arc, which is fine as such. But in my opinion, it developed neither the romance nor the historical setting enough to make up for this. I think we needed much more time with Ludwik and Janusz at the lake, where their relationship really blossomed. Cutting this made it hard to root for the romance (together with the fact that it’s unclear how invested Janusz actually is in the whole thing - although maybe we‘re only meant to root for Ludwik anyway). It would have also been interesting to delve a little more into the place/time the book is set in. 

I know this book is important to many people, and for good reason. I recognise that in that sense, it wasn’t written for me and I definitely respect its impact. But I do think it had a lot more potential story-wise.

The odds had been stacked against us from the start: we had no manual, no one to show us the way. Not one example of a happy couple made up of boys. How were we supposed to know what to do? Did we even believe that we deserved to get away with happiness?

To my own surprise, I was unable to accept the shame he wanted me to feel. It was too familiar to be imposed: I had produced it myself for such a long time that, right then, I found I had no space left for it anymore.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings