The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka

The swimmers are unknown to each other except through their private routines (slow lane, fast lane), and the solace each takes in their morning or afternoon laps. But when a crack appears at the bottom of the pool, they are cast out into an unforgiving world without comfort or relief. 

One of these swimmers is Alice, who is slowly losing her memory. For Alice, the pool was a final stand against the darkness of her encroaching dementia. Without the fellowship of other swimmers and the routine of her daily laps she is plunged into dislocation and chaos, swept into memories of her childhood and the Japanese internment camp in which she spent the war. Narrated by Alice’s daughter, who witnesses her stark and devastating decline, The Swimmers is a searing, intimate story of mothers and daughters, and the sorrows of implacable loss, written in spellbinding, incantatory prose. 

Now that we’re into summer, I made sure to pick a slim book as per tradition. I figure people are busier in the summer, and the heat can be tiring, and a thinner book is easier to bring to the beach and won’t take as much time. But that doesn’t mean this is a light read. The main character does have developing dementia and that does not lend itself to a breezy story. 

Still, I found this book very readable. The style is easy and grabbed me from the beginning. The framing of the swimmers’ lives is also interesting, almost creating the idea of a science fiction setting when discussing their dual lives in the above world and the below of the pool. I’ll be brief here, as so much of the appeal of this novel is in the prose itself. There are a lot of interesting ideas, like starting with dual identities and moving on to losing one’s self through dementia. But there’s also humor mixed in with the strange and sometimes dark ideas at play. There’s a lot happening in this book. You might find yourself thinking about it for longer than it took to read. 

Review by Adam

This Bird Has Flown by Susanna Hoffs

Remember the 80’s pop group The Bangles? The songs “Walk Like an Egyptian”, “Manic Monday”, “Hazy Shade of Winter” and “Eternal Flame”? This is the debut novel by Susanna Hoffs, the co-founder of that band.  Recognize the name Susanna Hoffs?  Nope, I didn’t, even though I know who The Bangles were and know all of their popular songs.  Maybe some people will know who Susanna Hoffs is, but more will recognize the name of the band, and even if you have never heard of The Bangles, my bet is you have probably heard at least one or 2 of their top hits.  And that’s just like the main character in this book – a former popstar whose claim to fame is her one-hit wonder (though The Bangels had more than just one hit) and not her own persona.  Hoffs can write really well about music, and she’s funny. The novel is a romantic comedy written by a former popstar about a former popstar who needs to get her musical mojo back.  While reading this book, it’s hard not to pull up Spotify and revisit The Bangles’ classic hits. I snatched this book up as soon as it came in because the book I had planned on reviewing this month, Symphony of Secrets by Brendan Slocumb, was already checked out with a holds queue.  I grabbed Hoffs’ book for a fun, quick read to start off the summer.  I enjoyed it!  Now this book has a holds queue in our consortium. Personally, I don’t read a lot of rom-coms, I tend to like watching rom-com movies instead and hey, apparently this one is already in the works to become a movie. Instead of a bookstore owner in Notting Hill, the love interest of an American  popstar music celebrity is an English professor at Oxford where most of the story takes place, toggled mostly between there and London.  The book is loaded with musical, literary and cultural references that are a joy to pull up on a smartphone by your side as you read.  My only complaint in Hoffs’ debut novel-writing effort is more for her editor.  Too many italicized words. For the first half of the book, they add to the comedic, lyrical timing of the author’s voice.  But like a repetitive pop music beat, italicized words on almost every other page became annoying to me.   The story, the characters and the humor kept me reading. And humming along!