A review by ellen_ingrid
Turning, by Jessica J. Lee

3.0

I read this book bit by bit over several months--not my usual reading style--so it simultaneously felt like an old friend and a slog. The action of the story, Lee prepping for, traveling to, and swimming in and observing 52 lakes, obviously got redundant. But Lee's writing is poetic and melancholic, and her trips to the lakes were interspersed with reflections on her life. We learn about her past marriage, her multicultural family, her struggles, her longing. I sometimes felt disoriented and apathetic when her focus shifted from the landscape of Germany to her ex-husband to her bike ride down to the lake to thinking about her dissertation all in one chapter, but by the end of it I felt at peace. It is beautiful, just different from what I'm used to reading.