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Swimming Lessons
Ingrid Coleman writes letters to her husband, Gil, about the truth of their marriage, but instead of giving them to him, she hides them in the thousands of books he has collected over the years. When Ingrid has written her final letter she disappears from a Dorset beach, leaving behind her beautiful but dilapidated house by the sea, her husband, and her two daughters, Flora and Nan.
Twelve years later, Gil thinks he sees Ingrid from a bookshop window, but he’s getting older and this unlikely sighting is chalked up to senility. Flora, who has never believed her mother drowned, returns home to care for her father and to try to finally discover what happened to Ingrid. But what Flora doesn’t realize is that the answers to her questions are hidden in the books that surround her. Scandalous and whip-smart, Swimming Lessons holds the Coleman family up to the light, exposing the mysterious truths of a passionate and troubled marriage.
Twelve years later, Gil thinks he sees Ingrid from a bookshop window, but he’s getting older and this unlikely sighting is chalked up to senility. Flora, who has never believed her mother drowned, returns home to care for her father and to try to finally discover what happened to Ingrid. But what Flora doesn’t realize is that the answers to her questions are hidden in the books that surround her. Scandalous and whip-smart, Swimming Lessons holds the Coleman family up to the light, exposing the mysterious truths of a passionate and troubled marriage.
350 pages, Hardcover
First published February 7, 2017
1924 people are currently reading
43468 people want to read
About the author
Claire Fuller
14 books2,496 followersClaire Fuller is the author of six novels: The Memory of Animals; Unsettled Ground, which won the Costa Novel Award 2021, and was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction; Our Endless Numbered Days, which won the 2015 Desmond Elliott prize; Swimming Lessons, shortlisted for the Encore Prize; Bitter Orange longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award; and forthcoming in May 2026 Hunger and Thirst.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 3,085 reviews
February 9, 2017
“It’s difficult to live with both hope and grief.”
I didn't really know what to expect when going into Swimming Lessons. I haven't read the author's previous work - Our Endless Numbered Days - and I couldn't decide from the synopsis whether I was going to get myself into another thriller spawned by the Gone Girl craze, or a quiet contemporary like, say, Everything I Never Told You. I can say confidently now that it's more the latter.
Swimming Lessons is a character-driven novel about a family, a love, a marriage, and how hope can be the worst thing sometimes. Here, the hope of Gil Coleman and his daughters, Nan and Flora, has haunted the family for twelve years, ever since Ingrid Coleman (Gil's wife and the girls' mother) disappeared and was never found.
Though Ingrid presumably drowned, the lack of a concrete answer plagues the family: could that woman disappearing around the corner be her? Could the phone ringing in the middle of the night be their mother finally wanting to return home?
The opening chapter sees Gil suffering an accident after seeing his long lost wife standing below his window. His daughters rush home to be with their father, but are perturbed by Gil's claims that he saw Ingrid and that she is alive. Mysterious phone calls in the middle of the night from withheld numbers make Nan and Flora even more anxious, especially when Gil claims their mother was on the phone.
It's a beautiful, quiet, sometimes eerie novel. On the one hand, it's simply a compelling story of people's lives - from Flora's perspective in the present, and through Ingrid's letters that reveal the history of her relationship with Gil - but on the other, it constantly has the reader wondering what is real. Did Gil really see Ingrid that day? Or is it the delusions of an old man keeping Ingrid alive?
The best parts of the story are Ingrid's letters. They weave a tale of a young woman who gets caught up in a love affair with her enigmatic college professor, before becoming pregnant and settling into a troubled marriage. Secrets emerge and tragedy arises, all in the author's straight-forward, non-manipulative style.
All books are created by the reader.
I really loved, perhaps most of all, the running theme of how the reader brings their own interpretations and experiences to a book. Early on, we see a young Gil collecting used books with notes in the margin, because he believes these are special little insights into the readers themselves. And then, of course, Ingrid's story and all the answers Gil, Nan and Flora seek are hidden within the books of Gil's collection. Ingrid leaves her letters - and little pieces of herself - behind in the books scattered around the house, meaning the answers were always right there, within reach.
The author leaves us with this thought-provoking message: books contain the stories of the readers, are defined and interpreted by the readers; no two readers ever read the same book, or leave the same things behind in it.
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July 12, 2022
Update …WOW! This is $1.99 Kindle download today. It’s one of my favorite books. And if you haven’t read it… The price is ridiculously a terrific steal! 🤗
Beautiful - Beautiful - BEAUTIFUL!!! I'm excited to share this book. It's another wonderful book I've read this year - with many terrific qualities!!!
......The gorgeous writing pulled me in immediately.
"Shielding her eyes, Flora look in the direction of the fading headlights: hundreds of creatures lay across the road, a handful of flapping feebly. They may have been baby mackerel. The wind pulled at the open door and Flora yanked it shut, climbed back over the driver seat, and sat staring. She wasn't sure she could bear to drive forward. She closed her eyes and turn the ignition. The engine clunked and wheezed twice, and when she tried again it produced an old man's cough--slow, painful, phlegmy. She pulled the choke out, although Richard has said she wouldn't need it when the engine was warm, but this time the car wouldn't start. On the fourth try, the headlights went out and she was sitting in the dark".
........The mystery was incredibly thought provoking.
Ingrid Colman disappeared from Dorset beach 11 years ago. She often went swimming alone - but her body was never found. Did she die? Or did she leave on her own?
........There is a charming 'BOY-meets-GIRL' - ( 1976), creative heartwarming scene in the beginning -- a love affair between Gil Colman ( Professor --later he becomes a famous author), and Ingrid....( student -- later becomes his wife for 16 years and mother of Nan and Flora, who is 5 1/2 years younger than her sister).
However -- this scene I liked so much becomes a huge eye-opener in my final interpretations of this tale at the end of the story.
.......The Tension unfolds...
The story is told in duel perspectives.... and duel timelines. Flora never believed her mother died. She was only 10 when she disappeared...so when she gets a call from her older sister, Nan that their father had an accident ( he is alive), but that he thought he saw Ingrid, Nan thought he was just senile...but Flora believes he 'did' see her and is on a mission to get to the truth once and for all about her mother's disappearance.
The other part of the story --are letters from Ingrid that she wrote to Gil - stashed away in books - hidden -expressing her deepest thoughts - before she disappeared -about her unhappy marriage -- the mishaps - the decline - his infidelity - his selfishness -and his aloofness from the family as both a husband and father.
........My final thoughts - feelings and conclusions
I enjoyed this book very much. It's not that I liked the characters - but I loved
all the thoughts that ran through my head while reading it.
In one of the letters Ingrid writes - (one of her early letters) - she was describing the way Gil, as the Professor, was talking to the students. I felt it was a little harsh - parts of it --- in the way he delivered his message -- at the same time, I liked thinking about the message.
Here is the example: "You've missed the essence of literature and reading. Who gives a fuck about Jackson and her intentions? She's dead, literally and metaphorically. This book"--you snatched Elizabeth's copy from her lap and flapped it in the air --"and all books are created by the reader. And if you haven't realized that and what it means to your work, you know shit about writing and you're never going to, so you might as well stop now". OUCH!
The letters have insight to things that were not working in the marriage... they were powerful to read.....but....I was left thinking of ALL THE MANY FAILED RELATIONSHIPS--because of lacking effective positive communication skills.
There was regret - lies - secrets - betrayal - ALL of which are products of the lack of power, and skill, to fully communicate. Well, it may not be the complete problem - but it's sure a big problem in a failed marriage.
Two more things to say:
It was enjoyable to me that the author named the BOOKS that Ingrid stashed the letters in. I became interested in the books I hadn't read. One of those books is
"The Swimming-Pool Library", by Alan Hollinghurst It's been on my TBR list for some time now anyway!
Last: I mentioned that the 'BOY-meets-GIRL' scene which I adored so much at the beginning of this novel became an eye-opener at the end....
Well, without giving anything away... Ingrid's and Gil's relationship - from the start - was founded on non- communication messages....so why would it be surprising that things would be any different for the next 16 years?
Swimming Lessons offers great lessons!!!!
Love this CLAIRE FULLER!!!! .....looks like I need to read more books by her!! I like her writing VERY MUCH!!!!
Thank You Tin House Books, NetGalley, and Claire Fuller
Beautiful - Beautiful - BEAUTIFUL!!! I'm excited to share this book. It's another wonderful book I've read this year - with many terrific qualities!!!
......The gorgeous writing pulled me in immediately.
"Shielding her eyes, Flora look in the direction of the fading headlights: hundreds of creatures lay across the road, a handful of flapping feebly. They may have been baby mackerel. The wind pulled at the open door and Flora yanked it shut, climbed back over the driver seat, and sat staring. She wasn't sure she could bear to drive forward. She closed her eyes and turn the ignition. The engine clunked and wheezed twice, and when she tried again it produced an old man's cough--slow, painful, phlegmy. She pulled the choke out, although Richard has said she wouldn't need it when the engine was warm, but this time the car wouldn't start. On the fourth try, the headlights went out and she was sitting in the dark".
........The mystery was incredibly thought provoking.
Ingrid Colman disappeared from Dorset beach 11 years ago. She often went swimming alone - but her body was never found. Did she die? Or did she leave on her own?
........There is a charming 'BOY-meets-GIRL' - ( 1976), creative heartwarming scene in the beginning -- a love affair between Gil Colman ( Professor --later he becomes a famous author), and Ingrid....( student -- later becomes his wife for 16 years and mother of Nan and Flora, who is 5 1/2 years younger than her sister).
However -- this scene I liked so much becomes a huge eye-opener in my final interpretations of this tale at the end of the story.
.......The Tension unfolds...
The story is told in duel perspectives.... and duel timelines. Flora never believed her mother died. She was only 10 when she disappeared...so when she gets a call from her older sister, Nan that their father had an accident ( he is alive), but that he thought he saw Ingrid, Nan thought he was just senile...but Flora believes he 'did' see her and is on a mission to get to the truth once and for all about her mother's disappearance.
The other part of the story --are letters from Ingrid that she wrote to Gil - stashed away in books - hidden -expressing her deepest thoughts - before she disappeared -about her unhappy marriage -- the mishaps - the decline - his infidelity - his selfishness -and his aloofness from the family as both a husband and father.
........My final thoughts - feelings and conclusions
I enjoyed this book very much. It's not that I liked the characters - but I loved
all the thoughts that ran through my head while reading it.
In one of the letters Ingrid writes - (one of her early letters) - she was describing the way Gil, as the Professor, was talking to the students. I felt it was a little harsh - parts of it --- in the way he delivered his message -- at the same time, I liked thinking about the message.
Here is the example: "You've missed the essence of literature and reading. Who gives a fuck about Jackson and her intentions? She's dead, literally and metaphorically. This book"--you snatched Elizabeth's copy from her lap and flapped it in the air --"and all books are created by the reader. And if you haven't realized that and what it means to your work, you know shit about writing and you're never going to, so you might as well stop now". OUCH!
The letters have insight to things that were not working in the marriage... they were powerful to read.....but....I was left thinking of ALL THE MANY FAILED RELATIONSHIPS--because of lacking effective positive communication skills.
There was regret - lies - secrets - betrayal - ALL of which are products of the lack of power, and skill, to fully communicate. Well, it may not be the complete problem - but it's sure a big problem in a failed marriage.
Two more things to say:
It was enjoyable to me that the author named the BOOKS that Ingrid stashed the letters in. I became interested in the books I hadn't read. One of those books is
"The Swimming-Pool Library", by Alan Hollinghurst It's been on my TBR list for some time now anyway!
Last: I mentioned that the 'BOY-meets-GIRL' scene which I adored so much at the beginning of this novel became an eye-opener at the end....
Well, without giving anything away... Ingrid's and Gil's relationship - from the start - was founded on non- communication messages....so why would it be surprising that things would be any different for the next 16 years?
Swimming Lessons offers great lessons!!!!
Love this CLAIRE FULLER!!!! .....looks like I need to read more books by her!! I like her writing VERY MUCH!!!!
Thank You Tin House Books, NetGalley, and Claire Fuller
April 29, 2021
This is my second book by Fuller and it confirms that she writes the kind of books that I LOVE to read.
SWIMMING LESSONS is a family drama/mystery spanning over decades.
The present timeline follows Flora, who's returned to her childhood home to care for her ailing father. Her mother Ingrid disappeared when Flora was ten years old. Everyone believes Ingrid drowned herself at sea but Flora has never accepted that her mother committed suicide and through Ingrid's POV, written as letters to her husband leading up to her disappearance, her truth is slowly revealed.
It's very character driven and gorgeously written.
The ending is partly ambiguous, which is frustrating - give me closure! - but I think that's the point. Since the book is about Flora, her sister, and her father searching for answers. Having the reader also looking for answers in the end makes them part of the family 4.5⭐
I'd like to thank the COVID vaccine for allowing me to finish this book so quickly, since I've felt too crummy to do anything but read for the last couple days 😅🤒
SWIMMING LESSONS is a family drama/mystery spanning over decades.
The present timeline follows Flora, who's returned to her childhood home to care for her ailing father. Her mother Ingrid disappeared when Flora was ten years old. Everyone believes Ingrid drowned herself at sea but Flora has never accepted that her mother committed suicide and through Ingrid's POV, written as letters to her husband leading up to her disappearance, her truth is slowly revealed.
It's very character driven and gorgeously written.
The ending is partly ambiguous, which is frustrating - give me closure! - but I think that's the point. Since the book is about Flora, her sister, and her father searching for answers. Having the reader also looking for answers in the end makes them part of the family 4.5⭐
I'd like to thank the COVID vaccine for allowing me to finish this book so quickly, since I've felt too crummy to do anything but read for the last couple days 😅🤒
February 7, 2017
3.5 We first meet Flora when she is driving home through the night, a night it rains fishes. Having heard her father has had an accident, she is trying to get to him to make sure he is alright, her sister Nan is there, but Flora has been a daddy's girl, and needs to see for herself. Her mother presumed dead from drowning, though Flora who shared her love of swimming with her mother, never believed her mother had drowned.
I was drawn to this book because of the synopsis, a woman who hides letters in books, letters to her husband, and this house has more books in it than even mine does. Way more. An interesting premise though and it is through these letters that we learn the story of Ingrid and Gil. This was also my favorite part and Ingrid is the most fleshed out character in the book.
This book was intriguing and frustrating, I really wanted to know what had happened to Ingrid. Kept reading, more story, no answers, when and would this be known? Not saying, but enjoyed the read. Different, somewhat quirky, Gil though easy to feel sorry for, I didn't much like after reading some of the letters. Easy to form opinions with this one, which I did. What a strange family, strange lifestyle. Hooked me though, enjoyed reading this and so, glad this is not my family.
ARC from Netgalley.
Release date: February 7th by Tin House books.
I was drawn to this book because of the synopsis, a woman who hides letters in books, letters to her husband, and this house has more books in it than even mine does. Way more. An interesting premise though and it is through these letters that we learn the story of Ingrid and Gil. This was also my favorite part and Ingrid is the most fleshed out character in the book.
This book was intriguing and frustrating, I really wanted to know what had happened to Ingrid. Kept reading, more story, no answers, when and would this be known? Not saying, but enjoyed the read. Different, somewhat quirky, Gil though easy to feel sorry for, I didn't much like after reading some of the letters. Easy to form opinions with this one, which I did. What a strange family, strange lifestyle. Hooked me though, enjoyed reading this and so, glad this is not my family.
ARC from Netgalley.
Release date: February 7th by Tin House books.
February 28, 2017
A few years ago somebody told me that in any relationship there is always an "Ernie" and a "Bert" (from Sesame Street, you know?). I am always the Bert and I used to not particularly like that - because being the Ernie is more fun and people tend to like the Ernie's of the world more. Even at 17, I was always the person to tell others to be more quiet at parties as to not disturb the neighbours, I was the one blowing out candles when the drunkest person in the room decided having candles would make the party more intimate (that did happen on more parties I went to than you would believe), and teenagers tend to not appreciate this person at parties.
Why am I telling you this?
Because Flora - one of the main characters of this book and the focus of most chapters - is such an Ernie and her poor older sister had to take on the role of Bert when their mother disappeared. Flora drove me up the walls; she is so unbelievably self-centered and just refuses to grow up and then has the nerve to be annoyed at her sister for being responsible. I think that was not the emotional response I was supposed to take from this book and it made this at parts really difficult to read for me.
The story is told both in the present when Gil had an accident and his two daughters come to look after him and in the past through a series of letters that their mother Ingrid left for her husband to find in different books all over the house. I love stories framed in an unconventional manner, so this structure worked extremely well for me. I like how the two story lines were woven together and how Claire Fuller uses this device to show how memory can be deceiving.
Ingrid was by far my favourite characters and I so wanted her to be happy. She is also the most convincing, fully fleshed out character out of this family and I would have liked to spend even more time with her.
It is a pretty great book, but in the end, I couldn't ignore my emotional response to it. But this is pretty much a me thing and I am sure lots of others will love this book more than me.
___
I received an arc of this book curtesy of NetGalley and Penguin Books, Fig Tree in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for that!
Why am I telling you this?
Because Flora - one of the main characters of this book and the focus of most chapters - is such an Ernie and her poor older sister had to take on the role of Bert when their mother disappeared. Flora drove me up the walls; she is so unbelievably self-centered and just refuses to grow up and then has the nerve to be annoyed at her sister for being responsible. I think that was not the emotional response I was supposed to take from this book and it made this at parts really difficult to read for me.
The story is told both in the present when Gil had an accident and his two daughters come to look after him and in the past through a series of letters that their mother Ingrid left for her husband to find in different books all over the house. I love stories framed in an unconventional manner, so this structure worked extremely well for me. I like how the two story lines were woven together and how Claire Fuller uses this device to show how memory can be deceiving.
Ingrid was by far my favourite characters and I so wanted her to be happy. She is also the most convincing, fully fleshed out character out of this family and I would have liked to spend even more time with her.
It is a pretty great book, but in the end, I couldn't ignore my emotional response to it. But this is pretty much a me thing and I am sure lots of others will love this book more than me.
___
I received an arc of this book curtesy of NetGalley and Penguin Books, Fig Tree in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for that!
December 10, 2018
"Swimming lessons" by Claire Fuller tells the story of the marriage between the literary proffesor Gil Coleman and the 20-year-younger student Ingrid. The novel tells the story of mother and daughter in two stories in different times. Ingrid's story is told by Ingrid herself in a letter form, which she hides in His Library. A family history and a nice piece of literature. The end unfortunately disappointed me, here I would have at least a clear attitude wished.
PS: Also worth mentioning is the cover with yellow and waves simple and very beautiful to the original title.
PS: Also worth mentioning is the cover with yellow and waves simple and very beautiful to the original title.
February 7, 2017
Dull, undeveloped cookie-cutter characters, boring plot, poorly paced, and lacks tension. It was very readable, somehow, yet I could've stopped at any point without wondering what happened next. Disappointingly mediocre.
April 5, 2017
There's not much new in the plot of an older professor seducing a young student, who could have easily been his daughter and then through debauchery and a decadent lifestyle pushed her out of his life. She left him with two children, allegedly disappearing after a swim, never to be heard from again.
Ingrid Coleman was the realist, and Gil, her husband, the dreamer. He hanged onto imagination as a prerequisite for his existence, like a tick on a dog. But it is Ingrid, writing their life story in sequalled letters, hidden in his thousands of books he hoarded over the years, who confronted him with his own god-worship of himself.
As he slowly discovered the letters, the mother became alive, real and present in the story. She became one of the two main protagonists, with her youngest daughter being the second one.
I did not bond with anyone in the story, but found the writing soothing and charming. Enough to keep me going and losing myself in the ambiance of a family unable to, or unwilling to, escape their own choices. Like everyone else in life, they were defined and felt safe in the lifestyle that was created by the egocentric, narcissistic husband and father. It was a comfort zone that made them feel safe enough to hide in despite the pain it has caused them. For Gil and his youngest daughter, Flora, the future was willingly the same as their past. An emotional optimism kept their dream, to maintain the status quo of their former family life, intact.
As long as they refused to move on, there was a chance that Ingrid did not really drown and might show up one day. For eleven years they never stopped looking for her, although it was never admitted. As long as new possibilities existed, there was a renaissance lurking for those who desperately believed in forgiveness and new beginnings.
Nan, the oldest daughter, and a realist like her mom, who understood why Ingrid made swimming a daily routine, chose to move on and grab onto a better tomorrow. She experienced what Flora either refused to acknowledge, or was too young to see. However, she was the umbilical cord between her sister, her father and life.
Ingrid created a Renaissance landscape by leaving them. The day she left, she took over control of their destiny. Gil was unable to escape it. He could not stop looking for her next letter. Nan acted as Ingrid's alter ego and forced reality onto imagination for her sister Flora.
Descriptive, detailed, slow moving, extremely repetitive, absolutely cinematic, predictable, atmospheric, but beautiful literary prose. The carnal interludes defining the professor's existential crises left a nauseous taste in my throat, and almost derailed my good intentions to continue. Enough was enough. Skilled writing, only made possible through an MFA program. Multi-layered and rich in context. Sometimes too many distracting detail. Too much of a good thing.
However, although it was a tough experience, and really annoying at times, it was also just as difficult to put down. A love-hate relationship. As reader I felt as trapped by this man as his daughters. Every time I wanted to put this book down, I felt like failing two young women in their quest for escape. That confirms the potency of the connection between reader and narrative. There were also the surprises at the end, which made the journey through the imagination-gone-wrong, absolutely worth it.
I ... know.w.w.w.w... that I am going to change my mind about this book the longer I think about it. I'm annoyed but fascinated. Bored but mesmerized.
I actually would have loved to sit down and discuss this book with someone. There is a lot to talk about. Ingrid was a fascinating, complex character. Lovable and despicable, detached, but involved, weak and strong, flawed but intriguing. A woman scorned ... and therein lies the hidden surprise of this mystery! A gobsmacking surprise!
The intriguing ending could have been anything. And it was. My goodness, the impact only hit me several hours later.
It's a literary experience. Reality on mysterious steroids.
Thank you to Claire Fuller, Tin House Books, and Netgalley for providing this book for a review.
Ingrid Coleman was the realist, and Gil, her husband, the dreamer. He hanged onto imagination as a prerequisite for his existence, like a tick on a dog. But it is Ingrid, writing their life story in sequalled letters, hidden in his thousands of books he hoarded over the years, who confronted him with his own god-worship of himself.
As he slowly discovered the letters, the mother became alive, real and present in the story. She became one of the two main protagonists, with her youngest daughter being the second one.
I did not bond with anyone in the story, but found the writing soothing and charming. Enough to keep me going and losing myself in the ambiance of a family unable to, or unwilling to, escape their own choices. Like everyone else in life, they were defined and felt safe in the lifestyle that was created by the egocentric, narcissistic husband and father. It was a comfort zone that made them feel safe enough to hide in despite the pain it has caused them. For Gil and his youngest daughter, Flora, the future was willingly the same as their past. An emotional optimism kept their dream, to maintain the status quo of their former family life, intact.
As long as they refused to move on, there was a chance that Ingrid did not really drown and might show up one day. For eleven years they never stopped looking for her, although it was never admitted. As long as new possibilities existed, there was a renaissance lurking for those who desperately believed in forgiveness and new beginnings.
Nan, the oldest daughter, and a realist like her mom, who understood why Ingrid made swimming a daily routine, chose to move on and grab onto a better tomorrow. She experienced what Flora either refused to acknowledge, or was too young to see. However, she was the umbilical cord between her sister, her father and life.
Ingrid created a Renaissance landscape by leaving them. The day she left, she took over control of their destiny. Gil was unable to escape it. He could not stop looking for her next letter. Nan acted as Ingrid's alter ego and forced reality onto imagination for her sister Flora.
Descriptive, detailed, slow moving, extremely repetitive, absolutely cinematic, predictable, atmospheric, but beautiful literary prose. The carnal interludes defining the professor's existential crises left a nauseous taste in my throat, and almost derailed my good intentions to continue. Enough was enough. Skilled writing, only made possible through an MFA program. Multi-layered and rich in context. Sometimes too many distracting detail. Too much of a good thing.
However, although it was a tough experience, and really annoying at times, it was also just as difficult to put down. A love-hate relationship. As reader I felt as trapped by this man as his daughters. Every time I wanted to put this book down, I felt like failing two young women in their quest for escape. That confirms the potency of the connection between reader and narrative. There were also the surprises at the end, which made the journey through the imagination-gone-wrong, absolutely worth it.
I ... know.w.w.w.w... that I am going to change my mind about this book the longer I think about it. I'm annoyed but fascinated. Bored but mesmerized.
I actually would have loved to sit down and discuss this book with someone. There is a lot to talk about. Ingrid was a fascinating, complex character. Lovable and despicable, detached, but involved, weak and strong, flawed but intriguing. A woman scorned ... and therein lies the hidden surprise of this mystery! A gobsmacking surprise!
The intriguing ending could have been anything. And it was. My goodness, the impact only hit me several hours later.
It's a literary experience. Reality on mysterious steroids.
Thank you to Claire Fuller, Tin House Books, and Netgalley for providing this book for a review.
March 15, 2017
I was so mad after I read this book. The writing was good and moved well, but it was smoke and mirrors disguising the fact that the book was pointless.
Basically, the book alternates chapters between the present, in which daughter Flora comes home to care for sick/aging father Gil, and past, which tells the story of Ingrid (Flora's mother) and Gil's relationship (told through letters, which is usually, and is here, a lazy, flat, and overly-cute way to tell a narrative). Ingrid disappears on a swim when the children are young and this is supposed to be an underlying mystery.
Basically, the book alternates chapters between the present, in which daughter Flora comes home to care for sick/aging father Gil, and past, which tells the story of Ingrid (Flora's mother) and Gil's relationship (told through letters, which is usually, and is here, a lazy, flat, and overly-cute way to tell a narrative). Ingrid disappears on a swim when the children are young and this is supposed to be an underlying mystery.
April 3, 2017
"Gil...This is what happened–the facts, the reality. I've always found that reality is so much more conventional than imagination. And over the years I've imagined far too many things..."–Ingrid
This is such a beautifully, heartbreaking book! It's also cathartic and hopeful. If I had known the premise of the book, I more than likely wouldn't have been too inclined to read it. Ingrid's letters to her husband kept me turning pages until the very end. What a dear, dear woman.
I won't spoil this review with too many plot details, but the gist of it revolves around Ingrid's account of her marriage to her famous writer husband, Gil. She writes a series of letters and places them in corresponding books from her husband's personal library to be found at some point in the future. Shortly afterwards, she disappears leaving behind her two daughters and so many unanswered questions.
Alternating between present day and 1970s London, this is a wonderful character study about the choices people make, and the effects these decisions have on their futures and those of subsequent generations. Fuller's depiction of motherhood and its various challenges and joys was also so spot on!
"The world had become harder, more abrasive; sheets scratched, clothes irritated, and people grated. It was when I was underwater or in the garden that I felt relief. But precise moments of grief, like the pangs of childbirth, are hard to recall after the most intense pain has passed: nature's trick to ensure we survive and continue to reproduce."
So glad to have read something like this. So deep and poetically written!
April 18, 2017
5 Stars - Oh my, I loved this book. Didn't want it to end.
February 2, 2017
I had a review copy of this book, but still selected it as my pick when it came around as an option for Book of the Month. I read her earlier novel and liked it, and was curious to see what would happen next. This is a little more ordinary of a storyline, about a marriage, the effect of infidelity, the impact of a missing parent on a child even after they are adults. Some of the setting and characters made me think of Fates and Furies (anyone else?)
The novel alternates between chapters in the current day, with adult daughters returning home to deal with their father after he has an accident, and letters the mother wrote to the father before leaving him. Each letter is the story of their marriage and move pretty much chronologically through time. Each letter also includes the name of the book the wife placed it in, so of course I was stopping to think of shared themes and hidden messages in the book pick when it was a book I knew. I liked that the entire novel wasn't letters but that they were used consistently to tell one whole part of the story.
I thought it was interesting to observe how my own loyalties shifted as a reader, particularly to the two parental figures. What was less effective to me was the ending, a somewhat halfhearted attempt to bring some mystery into a story that really had been pretty straightforward. I think I would have tried to bring more of that into the novel or just ended it differently, as it seemed out of place.
On a personal note, I recently purchased books from the Dorothy Project, and one of the books was Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead by Barbara Comyns. I had never heard of the author or the book. So there it was, on my shelf, and then the mother in this novel places a letter inside the very same title! Either it is better known in the UK or I just had another book synergy moment. So of course that was the next book I read!
The novel alternates between chapters in the current day, with adult daughters returning home to deal with their father after he has an accident, and letters the mother wrote to the father before leaving him. Each letter is the story of their marriage and move pretty much chronologically through time. Each letter also includes the name of the book the wife placed it in, so of course I was stopping to think of shared themes and hidden messages in the book pick when it was a book I knew. I liked that the entire novel wasn't letters but that they were used consistently to tell one whole part of the story.
I thought it was interesting to observe how my own loyalties shifted as a reader, particularly to the two parental figures. What was less effective to me was the ending, a somewhat halfhearted attempt to bring some mystery into a story that really had been pretty straightforward. I think I would have tried to bring more of that into the novel or just ended it differently, as it seemed out of place.
On a personal note, I recently purchased books from the Dorothy Project, and one of the books was Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead by Barbara Comyns. I had never heard of the author or the book. So there it was, on my shelf, and then the mother in this novel places a letter inside the very same title! Either it is better known in the UK or I just had another book synergy moment. So of course that was the next book I read!
February 8, 2018
Swimming Lessons was an extremely heavy read. Heavy in the sense of the plot, the characters, the grief they were facing due to the fact that the mother went missing and that there's been no closure for years. The only form of sense we have of the mother is through a series of letters she's left behind in different books for her husband. Thus, we get two perspectives: that of Ingrid (the mother) through those letters and her daughter, Flora who is in present time, looking after her father with her sister, since his accident.
This book as morbid and harrowing from beginning to end. It's a character driven story and Claire Fuller really delves into the psyche of the family and the trauma they faced due to the missing mother, the hope that never wavered and has kept them somewhat going, but never really finding any closure since they held on to the belief that the mother would return.
It was messy. It was ugly. The parents marriage was toxic. This then carried on till they had children and had an effect on their upbringing, since it was not dealt with in a healthy manner and this then translated into their character terribly, affecting their lives.
The pain, the ugliness, vulnerabilities of each character mentioned were well explored and dived into. There was just too much morbidity for me to fully fall in love with the story and that hindered me rating this book higher. It was almost too real and too vivid.
Nevertheless, it was an extremely thought-provoking read. It was engrossing and really questioned the concept of hope.
This book as morbid and harrowing from beginning to end. It's a character driven story and Claire Fuller really delves into the psyche of the family and the trauma they faced due to the missing mother, the hope that never wavered and has kept them somewhat going, but never really finding any closure since they held on to the belief that the mother would return.
It was messy. It was ugly. The parents marriage was toxic. This then carried on till they had children and had an effect on their upbringing, since it was not dealt with in a healthy manner and this then translated into their character terribly, affecting their lives.
The pain, the ugliness, vulnerabilities of each character mentioned were well explored and dived into. There was just too much morbidity for me to fully fall in love with the story and that hindered me rating this book higher. It was almost too real and too vivid.
Nevertheless, it was an extremely thought-provoking read. It was engrossing and really questioned the concept of hope.
July 16, 2021
4.5★
Wonderful writing, great story, interesting style. The book opens in 2004 with Flora rollicking in bed for two days with her current young man when she gets a call from her older sister to come “home” because Dad’s had an accident and is in hospital. Nanette (Nan) is 5 and a half years older and is a stable, reliable nurse.
We learn that their mother, Ingrid, disappeared 12 years ago.
Flora’s chapters are written third-person, as are her father’s. Dad is Gil Coleman, a former professor and now famous author of a sexually explicit best-seller he wrote some years ago. He said once in class:
Which is exactly what he did. He was known for seducing pretty students, but that didn’t stop Ingrid from falling for him, too. He was twice her age, but who’s counting when it’s 1976 and you’re 20? He takes her to his family’s “home”, which used to be the Swimming Pavilion overlooking a beach, and they rollick all summer. Ingrid remembers:
They party with friends, friends of friends and anyone who wants to get out of London, drinking copious amounts of whiskey and swimming naked. You can see where Flora gets it, eh? But it isn't Gatsby-like, since nobody has money and people are camped out in the yard.
Ingrid’s best friend, Louise, tries to discourage her from marrying Gil when Ingrid discovers she’s pregnant. She refers to him angrily as "that man". But Ingrid is besotted and Gil is devoted to her and the new baby.
We know all of this because immediately after our introduction to Flora, we begin reading letters which Ingrid, wrote to Gil in 1992 before she "left", and placed between pages of appropriate books for him to discover. A memory about fish and chips is left in a copy of Goodbye, Mr. Chips: To You, Mr. Chips
He has collected books almost to the point of madness, noting what readers have written or drawn in the margins and the scraps of paper or cards or napkins people have left as bookmarks.
Chapters switch between Ingrid’s first-person account of their life together and the current situation with people worrying about Gil and gossiping about the past and tripping over an inordinate number of books in the house. His explanation for his collection:
We suspect Gil is still looking for more of Ingrid’s letters, but his daughters know nothing about that. The letters are all dated, but not numbered, and they lead right up to the day she left. Did she drown on one of her long ocean swims? On purpose, if she did? We don’t know and neither does the family. As various secrets are revealed, we learn more as the characters learn more. Nobody is blameless.
Ingrid was a free spirit, tied down with kids, a mermaid who used to slip down to the beach and swim at midnight, her only escape from a stifled domestic existence with a husband who keeps her barefoot and pregnant and stays away for long periods, possibly womanising again.
This was such a far cry from her intended life of travel and adventure. Only in the water did she feel truly at home, truly alive, and it’s also about the only thing she and Flora, her youngest daughter, had in common.
Ingrid was a reluctant mother but she managed with Nan. Flora was what my own mother would have called “a difficult child”, but reading the short descriptions of her behaviour – always naked whenever possible, didn’t like various foods touching each other on her plate, troublesome at school, preferred to be in the water alone – today we’d have “diagnosed” her as “on the spectrum”.
But her father adored Flora – a wild mermaid like her mother in so many ways. He and Flora have never really accepted that Ingrid might be dead. Flora is adamant that she isn’t.
We meet Gil just before his accident, when he’s sure he’s seen Ingrid standing in the rain looking up at his window.
The weather– rain, storms, winds, heavy surf – is a major backdrop, and Fuller paints it wonderfully. The rocky, slippery terrain at the point of the beach was so treacherous that I was cold, muddy, and miserable a good deal of the time. (I did get slightly impatient with some repetition of certain words, but overall, it's excellent.)
Gil goes out in the heavy weather to hunt for his lost wife. He spotted her headed for an area below where he is.
And that's where I'll leave you, back at the beginning to read and enjoy yourself.
There is some explicit sex but not a lot and certainly nothing I found offensive.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Books for the preview copy from which I have quoted (and hope I'll be forgiven for). Quotes may have changed, but trust me, it's a good book!
Wonderful writing, great story, interesting style. The book opens in 2004 with Flora rollicking in bed for two days with her current young man when she gets a call from her older sister to come “home” because Dad’s had an accident and is in hospital. Nanette (Nan) is 5 and a half years older and is a stable, reliable nurse.
We learn that their mother, Ingrid, disappeared 12 years ago.
Flora’s chapters are written third-person, as are her father’s. Dad is Gil Coleman, a former professor and now famous author of a sexually explicit best-seller he wrote some years ago. He said once in class:
“Secret truths . . . are the lifeblood of a writer. Your memories and your own secrets. Forget plot, character, structure; if you’re going to call yourself a writer, you need to stick your hand in the mire up to the wrist, the elbow, the shoulder and drag out your darkest, most private truth.”
Which is exactly what he did. He was known for seducing pretty students, but that didn’t stop Ingrid from falling for him, too. He was twice her age, but who’s counting when it’s 1976 and you’re 20? He takes her to his family’s “home”, which used to be the Swimming Pavilion overlooking a beach, and they rollick all summer. Ingrid remembers:
"We must have spent most of that time without clothes when we were indoors; do you remember me surprising the postman as he stood at the front door with a letter to be signed for? After I returned to bed I told you how his gaze had started on my face and slid downwards at the same rate as his eyebrows went up.
. . .
The envelope stayed where you dropped it, unopened on the floor, another document marking time with the rings of coffee cups. (Later I found burned pieces of it amongst the nettles, and it was years before I understood its significance.)"
They party with friends, friends of friends and anyone who wants to get out of London, drinking copious amounts of whiskey and swimming naked. You can see where Flora gets it, eh? But it isn't Gatsby-like, since nobody has money and people are camped out in the yard.
Ingrid’s best friend, Louise, tries to discourage her from marrying Gil when Ingrid discovers she’s pregnant. She refers to him angrily as "that man". But Ingrid is besotted and Gil is devoted to her and the new baby.
We know all of this because immediately after our introduction to Flora, we begin reading letters which Ingrid, wrote to Gil in 1992 before she "left", and placed between pages of appropriate books for him to discover. A memory about fish and chips is left in a copy of Goodbye, Mr. Chips: To You, Mr. Chips
He has collected books almost to the point of madness, noting what readers have written or drawn in the margins and the scraps of paper or cards or napkins people have left as bookmarks.
Chapters switch between Ingrid’s first-person account of their life together and the current situation with people worrying about Gil and gossiping about the past and tripping over an inordinate number of books in the house. His explanation for his collection:
“Forget that first-edition, signed-by-the-author nonsense. Fiction is about readers. Without readers there is no point in books, and therefore they are as important as the author, perhaps more important. But often the only way to see what a reader thought, how they lived when they were reading, is to examine what they left behind. All these words’ – Gil swung his arm out to encompass the table, the room, the house – ‘are about the reader. The specific individual – man, woman or child – who left something of themselves behind.”
We suspect Gil is still looking for more of Ingrid’s letters, but his daughters know nothing about that. The letters are all dated, but not numbered, and they lead right up to the day she left. Did she drown on one of her long ocean swims? On purpose, if she did? We don’t know and neither does the family. As various secrets are revealed, we learn more as the characters learn more. Nobody is blameless.
Ingrid was a free spirit, tied down with kids, a mermaid who used to slip down to the beach and swim at midnight, her only escape from a stifled domestic existence with a husband who keeps her barefoot and pregnant and stays away for long periods, possibly womanising again.
This was such a far cry from her intended life of travel and adventure. Only in the water did she feel truly at home, truly alive, and it’s also about the only thing she and Flora, her youngest daughter, had in common.
Ingrid was a reluctant mother but she managed with Nan. Flora was what my own mother would have called “a difficult child”, but reading the short descriptions of her behaviour – always naked whenever possible, didn’t like various foods touching each other on her plate, troublesome at school, preferred to be in the water alone – today we’d have “diagnosed” her as “on the spectrum”.
But her father adored Flora – a wild mermaid like her mother in so many ways. He and Flora have never really accepted that Ingrid might be dead. Flora is adamant that she isn’t.
We meet Gil just before his accident, when he’s sure he’s seen Ingrid standing in the rain looking up at his window.
The weather– rain, storms, winds, heavy surf – is a major backdrop, and Fuller paints it wonderfully. The rocky, slippery terrain at the point of the beach was so treacherous that I was cold, muddy, and miserable a good deal of the time. (I did get slightly impatient with some repetition of certain words, but overall, it's excellent.)
Gil goes out in the heavy weather to hunt for his lost wife. He spotted her headed for an area below where he is.
“Gil slowed but continued to shuffle, head lowered, along the promenade until below him the sand ended and the breakwater boulders and the massive concrete blocks began, wet with leaping spray. The rain flew in his face and the wind buffeted him, pushing him into the metal railing at the edge of the walkway, tilting him over it as though he were being passed from hand to hand in a violent dance.”
And that's where I'll leave you, back at the beginning to read and enjoy yourself.
There is some explicit sex but not a lot and certainly nothing I found offensive.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Books for the preview copy from which I have quoted (and hope I'll be forgiven for). Quotes may have changed, but trust me, it's a good book!
January 14, 2022
Much to like about Swimming Lessons but even more to dislike.
Pros:
*Fuller's way with words.
Cons::
*I just spent four days with unlikeable characters:
Ingrid: Wife and passive doormat.
Gil: Husband who betrays Ingrid et al in multiple ways (though I might have betrayed Ingrid myself).
Flora: Daughter - strange. Affected by her mother's disappearance. Well, yeah, but strange before that also.
Nan: Older daughter - caretaker of the family because she has to be but other than that, nothing.
Richard: Flora's boyfriend, who should run for the hills.
Jonathan - Gil's friend and a decent character. He drops on and off the pages.
Louise - Ingrid's best/only friend. The less said the better.
Gabriel -
Comments: A bit A.J. Fikry-ish in that Ingrid leaves letters detailing her unhappy life with Gil stuck in his books. I haven't read any of the books so it probably means less to me than to a reader who has. And
The book reeks with symbolism - water/fish/swimming - any subtlety absent.
I truly don't understand why people like to read about the dissolution of a marriage and family, even if the writing shines.
Recommend: I just can't.
Pros:
*Fuller's way with words.
Cons::
*I just spent four days with unlikeable characters:
Ingrid: Wife and passive doormat.
Gil: Husband who betrays Ingrid et al in multiple ways (though I might have betrayed Ingrid myself).
Flora: Daughter - strange. Affected by her mother's disappearance. Well, yeah, but strange before that also.
Nan: Older daughter - caretaker of the family because she has to be but other than that, nothing.
Richard: Flora's boyfriend, who should run for the hills.
Jonathan - Gil's friend and a decent character. He drops on and off the pages.
Louise - Ingrid's best/only friend. The less said the better.
Gabriel -
Comments: A bit A.J. Fikry-ish in that Ingrid leaves letters detailing her unhappy life with Gil stuck in his books. I haven't read any of the books so it probably means less to me than to a reader who has. And
The book reeks with symbolism - water/fish/swimming - any subtlety absent.
I truly don't understand why people like to read about the dissolution of a marriage and family, even if the writing shines.
Recommend: I just can't.
January 30, 2022
[4+] Reading this book was like being swept up by a gentle wave and tossed about - buoyant but never sure where I was going to land. The novel is anchored by Ingrid's letters to her husband, tucked in the books of their library. She disappeared years before and her daughters and their aging father are grappling with the void. The mystery is much more than what happened to Ingrid. It is the puzzle of her relationship with Gil and the unraveling of their marriage. I was transfixed by this eloquent novel and can't wait to read more by Fuller.
January 13, 2023
This book is a slow-moving narrative about 2 sisters, a dying father, and a mother who disappeared 11 years ago and the letters she left behind. The back of the book says it is the story of a marriage. Sort of. There is so much about this story that is ambiguous and so many questions it presents that I never found clearly answered. Yet I found it a story that says so much and gave me hints and information from which I had to draw my own conclusions and I’m still wondering if I got the right answers or even if there are right answers. In mysteries it seems one always gets them at the end, who did it, why and how. There is a mystery in these pages and even a missing person but there the similarity ends. This story is not about finding answers, it's about giving evidence.
The story begins with Gil in a bookstore. Gil a professed writer (he wrote one book he is known for) who buys secondhand books to find the pieces of paper or notes left behind. He thinks he sees his wife, who disappeared 11 years ago, pounds on the window (think Dr. Zhivago pounding on the streetcar window trying to get Lara’s attention) and then takes off after her, a short run in the rain that ends with him losing this mystery woman and falling, ending up in hospital.
The story goes forward from there for the first narrative. In every other chapter are letters Ingrid, the missing wife, wrote to Gil during their marriage, her feelings about what was happening. She left each letter in an old book in the house perhaps imagining Gil will find them.
The letters reveal the marriage, how it came to be (Gil is 20 years older than Ingrid) and the various events and problems that occur during the next 15 years). The reader can only wonder: Did Gil read these letters? What really happened to Ingrid? Will the daughters find the letters and how will it affect them? The storyline gives lots of information about the sisters and how they respond to life and crisis to begin to understand who they are. I don’t feel Fuller wants to give you any clear answers and for that I loved this book. It was just so good. The ending a little troubling and one I am still trying to decipher.
What I will say if that Fuller has a new fan. I am anxious to read another of hers as soon as I get done pondering this one.
The story begins with Gil in a bookstore. Gil a professed writer (he wrote one book he is known for) who buys secondhand books to find the pieces of paper or notes left behind. He thinks he sees his wife, who disappeared 11 years ago, pounds on the window (think Dr. Zhivago pounding on the streetcar window trying to get Lara’s attention) and then takes off after her, a short run in the rain that ends with him losing this mystery woman and falling, ending up in hospital.
The story goes forward from there for the first narrative. In every other chapter are letters Ingrid, the missing wife, wrote to Gil during their marriage, her feelings about what was happening. She left each letter in an old book in the house perhaps imagining Gil will find them.
The letters reveal the marriage, how it came to be (Gil is 20 years older than Ingrid) and the various events and problems that occur during the next 15 years). The reader can only wonder: Did Gil read these letters? What really happened to Ingrid? Will the daughters find the letters and how will it affect them? The storyline gives lots of information about the sisters and how they respond to life and crisis to begin to understand who they are. I don’t feel Fuller wants to give you any clear answers and for that I loved this book. It was just so good. The ending a little troubling and one I am still trying to decipher.
What I will say if that Fuller has a new fan. I am anxious to read another of hers as soon as I get done pondering this one.
March 20, 2018
"Writing does not exist unless there is someone to read it, and each reader will take something different from a novel, from a chapter, from a line.
It is true that no two people read the same book; everyone takes something different from what they have read. One thing that is certain, however, is that beautiful writing is beautiful writing.
Swimming Lessons opens with Flora, dressing hurriedly while her boyfriend watches on, having received word from her older sister, Nan, that her father is in hospital. Flora hurries to catch a ferry back to the small island she grew up on. As she drives from the ferry to her childhood home in the dark and the rain, baby mackerel rain down and cover the road in front of her (a strange phenomenon that is never explained to us but stands as a symbol of the things in life we cannot know, raining down on us at unexpected moments). And it sets up the premise for the novel.
Flora's father is writer Gil Coleman, a man most famous for a bestselling and scandalous novel and a disappearing wife. Now aged and lonesome for his wife, Ingrid, he has taken a stumble from a seafront wall after believing he has seen her walking in the street. Worried for his state, Nan and Flora assemble in the house where they grew up, an old swimming pavilion, where the ghosts of the past lie between the pages of books that have been piled high in every room by their grieving father. From the point where she returns home, Flora’s narrative interweaves with letters written by her mother, revealing details of the story of her parents’ first meeting and subsequent life together. The letters have all been hidden within the pages of different books in the house: stories within stories, quite literally, and as the book moves on, the secrets start to emerge urgently from the pages.
Ingrid, a lover of the sea, disappeared 12 years before the book opens. We don't know what happened to her but soon understand that Flora doesn't believe she is dead. In the interposed chapters, we learn about Ingrid's life with Gil and her passing into motherhood; her young, naive infatuation with Gil; her departure from her old life and her movement into Gil's world, one humming with his desire for a big family and a house full of books and words. The back-and-forth style of narration can feel a little confusing at the start, in that the tone of Flora's and Ingrid's pieces feel similar, but it is never off-putting, and it certainly doesn't deter from the desire to find out when the mystery around Ingrid's disappearance and her relationship with Gil will be untangled.
Swimming Lessons is stunning for so many reasons. The writing is truly mesmerising; Claire Fuller creates characters with such depth and vivaciousness, and stories with such richness. It is a gentle book, with a perfect pace and subtle power, but it is so effective in capturing the wonder of human connection and communication. The poignancy in the realisation that we may never truly know the people we love the most is heart-wrenching, and the multifaceted layers in love and loss are presented masterfully.
A beautiful and moving story about family dynamics, disappearances and what people choose to believe. It is a vivid and sensitive portrayal of marriage, motherhood, sibling relationships and female friendships, as well as a compelling portrait of a woman trapped. It is beautifully evoked. The prose is arresting and the premise compelling; five very enthusiastic stars.
It is true that no two people read the same book; everyone takes something different from what they have read. One thing that is certain, however, is that beautiful writing is beautiful writing.
Swimming Lessons opens with Flora, dressing hurriedly while her boyfriend watches on, having received word from her older sister, Nan, that her father is in hospital. Flora hurries to catch a ferry back to the small island she grew up on. As she drives from the ferry to her childhood home in the dark and the rain, baby mackerel rain down and cover the road in front of her (a strange phenomenon that is never explained to us but stands as a symbol of the things in life we cannot know, raining down on us at unexpected moments). And it sets up the premise for the novel.
Flora's father is writer Gil Coleman, a man most famous for a bestselling and scandalous novel and a disappearing wife. Now aged and lonesome for his wife, Ingrid, he has taken a stumble from a seafront wall after believing he has seen her walking in the street. Worried for his state, Nan and Flora assemble in the house where they grew up, an old swimming pavilion, where the ghosts of the past lie between the pages of books that have been piled high in every room by their grieving father. From the point where she returns home, Flora’s narrative interweaves with letters written by her mother, revealing details of the story of her parents’ first meeting and subsequent life together. The letters have all been hidden within the pages of different books in the house: stories within stories, quite literally, and as the book moves on, the secrets start to emerge urgently from the pages.
Ingrid, a lover of the sea, disappeared 12 years before the book opens. We don't know what happened to her but soon understand that Flora doesn't believe she is dead. In the interposed chapters, we learn about Ingrid's life with Gil and her passing into motherhood; her young, naive infatuation with Gil; her departure from her old life and her movement into Gil's world, one humming with his desire for a big family and a house full of books and words. The back-and-forth style of narration can feel a little confusing at the start, in that the tone of Flora's and Ingrid's pieces feel similar, but it is never off-putting, and it certainly doesn't deter from the desire to find out when the mystery around Ingrid's disappearance and her relationship with Gil will be untangled.
Swimming Lessons is stunning for so many reasons. The writing is truly mesmerising; Claire Fuller creates characters with such depth and vivaciousness, and stories with such richness. It is a gentle book, with a perfect pace and subtle power, but it is so effective in capturing the wonder of human connection and communication. The poignancy in the realisation that we may never truly know the people we love the most is heart-wrenching, and the multifaceted layers in love and loss are presented masterfully.
A beautiful and moving story about family dynamics, disappearances and what people choose to believe. It is a vivid and sensitive portrayal of marriage, motherhood, sibling relationships and female friendships, as well as a compelling portrait of a woman trapped. It is beautifully evoked. The prose is arresting and the premise compelling; five very enthusiastic stars.
February 6, 2017
This was a good read but it wasn't quite what I was expecting. I was expecting a mystery but I wouldn't really consider this to be a mystery novel. There's certainly a mystery in the story - Is Ingrid alive or dead and what happened to her that caused her disappearance? The whole story focuses on that mystery but predominantly this book is about people and different relationships. There were quite a few complex relationships at play in this book and every relationship was different. I really enjoyed reading about all of the relationships especially the relationship between Ingrid & Gil. I also really enjoyed reading Ingrids letters. Her letters were insightful, heartbreaking, honest and I really liked how she put her letters in books that related to the specific topic of a letter. Her letters were by far my favourite thing about this book and they were the main reason why I liked this book so much. The present day story was alright but not as good as the letters.
This book has a very authentic feel to it. The characters are unlikeable for the most part but they feel so real. The book is also interesting because there are quite a few gaps in the story, Claire Fuller leaves things quite open-ended so the reader has to fill in the gaps. I really enjoyed the open-ended aspect BUT I did not enjoy the ending. Once I finished this book, I was shocked. I didn't know what to make of that ending because it was open to interpretation. I thought I missed something but I didn't. Once I had time to reflect on the ending, I didn't like it that much. I like getting closure and there were too many questions left unanswered in my opinion.
I would recommend this and I would read something else by Claire Fuller. Her writing is pleasant and it flows very nicely. She was very subtle with her hints so it wasn't a predictable read.
*I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Writing does not exist unless there is someone to read it, and each reader will take something different from a novel, from a chapter, from a line."
This book has a very authentic feel to it. The characters are unlikeable for the most part but they feel so real. The book is also interesting because there are quite a few gaps in the story, Claire Fuller leaves things quite open-ended so the reader has to fill in the gaps. I really enjoyed the open-ended aspect BUT I did not enjoy the ending. Once I finished this book, I was shocked. I didn't know what to make of that ending because it was open to interpretation. I thought I missed something but I didn't. Once I had time to reflect on the ending, I didn't like it that much. I like getting closure and there were too many questions left unanswered in my opinion.
I would recommend this and I would read something else by Claire Fuller. Her writing is pleasant and it flows very nicely. She was very subtle with her hints so it wasn't a predictable read.
*I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Writing does not exist unless there is someone to read it, and each reader will take something different from a novel, from a chapter, from a line."
September 23, 2017
Swimming Lessons takes you on a journey through a bad marriage. A professor, Gil, and his student, Ingrid, marry for all the wrong reasons. What’s beautiful about this book is the letters Ingrid writes to her husband, but never gives to him. Instead she hides them throughout the house amongst his over abundant book collection. We get to read these beautifully written letters as the book progresses and find out about Gil’s infidelities and Ingrid’s disappearance.
3.5 stars rounded up to 4 as the prose is lovely.
3.5 stars rounded up to 4 as the prose is lovely.
February 14, 2020
Swimming Lessons is the kind of book that makes me question every other book I've given five stars to. It's been a while since I've been left with so many feelings after reading a book. I was not prepared to be swept away by this wonderfully written novel and it's rich and complex characters. Events unfold little by little and make you want to read quicker and quicker to find out what happens. There are little nuggets in here that made my heart hurt when I read them. A quiet read in many ways, but so thrilling.
At the start of the novel Gil, an elderly man, is looking through some second hand books when he sees a woman out in the rain. A woman who he believes to be his wife, Ingrid; a woman who has been missing, presumed drowned, for several years. Gil runs out into the rain, falls and injures himself whilst pursuing her. From this point on alternate chapters are narrated by two main characters; daughter, Flora, who goes home with her sister, Nan, to care for their father, and the second, Ingrid, who speaks to the reader through old letters written to Gil, that’s she’s left behind in books for him to find.
Although we only hear from Ingrid through the letters she writes, she was such a vivid character. I felt for her and I empathised with her internal struggles; her unfulfilled wants and needs, her discomfort with motherhood, and her tragic love for a man who did not deserve it. She was essential for me in this book, and I wouldn’t have loved it as much had she not been the woman she was.
Flora is also a wonderful character, yet more like her father in many ways. The only thing she seems to share with Ingrid is her love for swimming, and for the water. Quite oblivious to her fathers sordid past, she adores him, is outgoing and self assured, and has not experienced the more troublesome childhood that Nan has, who takes over mothering Flora as a teenager. Whilst Nan also cares for her father deeply, she is more aware of his true character, more cautious around him, and has a more reserved and careful character.
Younger Gil (whilst still being more than twenty years older than Ingrid), was a womaniser; a man at the centre of his own universe and with seemingly no regard for those around him. He churned up so much anger in me, I really haven’t felt such dislike for a character in a while. Whilst he certainly doesn’t make up for this in my eyes with his older self, he is still a changed man: a sick man, a broken man, a lonely man. His world view has shifted and he realises his mistakes. Whilst I could never forgive him for his treatment of Ingrid, he is at least a little bit closer to some form of redemption.
In terms of writing style, this is not a difficult book to read. Yet it is dense, multi layered, and i’m sure upon a reread would evoke even more feelings. I found myself completely invested in this unconventional family, and felt their internal struggles and pain right alongside them. Perhaps the ending could be seen as cliche by some, but I thought it was perfect.
At the start of the novel Gil, an elderly man, is looking through some second hand books when he sees a woman out in the rain. A woman who he believes to be his wife, Ingrid; a woman who has been missing, presumed drowned, for several years. Gil runs out into the rain, falls and injures himself whilst pursuing her. From this point on alternate chapters are narrated by two main characters; daughter, Flora, who goes home with her sister, Nan, to care for their father, and the second, Ingrid, who speaks to the reader through old letters written to Gil, that’s she’s left behind in books for him to find.
Although we only hear from Ingrid through the letters she writes, she was such a vivid character. I felt for her and I empathised with her internal struggles; her unfulfilled wants and needs, her discomfort with motherhood, and her tragic love for a man who did not deserve it. She was essential for me in this book, and I wouldn’t have loved it as much had she not been the woman she was.
Flora is also a wonderful character, yet more like her father in many ways. The only thing she seems to share with Ingrid is her love for swimming, and for the water. Quite oblivious to her fathers sordid past, she adores him, is outgoing and self assured, and has not experienced the more troublesome childhood that Nan has, who takes over mothering Flora as a teenager. Whilst Nan also cares for her father deeply, she is more aware of his true character, more cautious around him, and has a more reserved and careful character.
Younger Gil (whilst still being more than twenty years older than Ingrid), was a womaniser; a man at the centre of his own universe and with seemingly no regard for those around him. He churned up so much anger in me, I really haven’t felt such dislike for a character in a while. Whilst he certainly doesn’t make up for this in my eyes with his older self, he is still a changed man: a sick man, a broken man, a lonely man. His world view has shifted and he realises his mistakes. Whilst I could never forgive him for his treatment of Ingrid, he is at least a little bit closer to some form of redemption.
In terms of writing style, this is not a difficult book to read. Yet it is dense, multi layered, and i’m sure upon a reread would evoke even more feelings. I found myself completely invested in this unconventional family, and felt their internal struggles and pain right alongside them. Perhaps the ending could be seen as cliche by some, but I thought it was perfect.
January 1, 2017
Swimming Lessons is an evocative, thought-provoking novel that begins with an intriguing mystery, evolving into melancholy as the events of Ingrid's marriage, the wife of Gil and mother of two young girls who disappeared 12 years before, are revealed.
The novel begins with Gil inside a second hand bookstore, having found a scrap of paper within a books' pages, moving closer to the window to try and read it. It is a letter dated 2 July 1992, which his attention is diverted from when he glances out the window and sees a woman in a coat who he believes is Ingrid, missing, presumed drowned for twelve years.
When chapter two begins with a letter addressed to Gil from his wife dated 2nd June 1992, a quick scan ahead reveals the novels pattern, alternate chapters, one set in the present around Gil and his daughters Flora and Nan, the other a chronological revelation of the letters his wife wrote to him over the month before she disappeared, each of them placed within one of the many books that were on the shelves of their home. And now here is is having just discovered one within the pages of a book in the local second hand bookshop. Quite an extraordinary and brilliant concept, it opens the novel with the maximum intrigue and desire to know what went on between these two.
After Gil's sighting, events bring the family together, highlighting their similarities and differences, exposing various family secrets and lies and all the while, each letter like a dripping tap, one by one revealing more of the relationship between Ingrid, the young Norwegian university student and Gil, her literature professor and the very different path her life would take once their lives intertwinded. The letter's are her story of a marriage, told to him (or perhaps to us the reader) as if he were an outsider, even though much of the dialogue she writes is his.
Ingrid's story focuses on the marriage, without ever straying into her past, her home country, her own ambitions or desires. Those omissions create a presence that is never mentioned, they weigh on the reader, who on reading begins to feel the futility of her existence, she is isolated, without friends or family and struggling as a mother, she has forsaken all on a whim, fulfilling desires of a man whose star in decline, while hers will be extinguished before it has a chance.
Swimming Lessons is an incredibly accomplished novel with well drawn characters, including that of 'the marriage,' perhaps the chief protagonist itself, as the letters reveal more of 'the marriage' than of Ingrid herself.
It is something of an homage to books, readers and writing as they are all given important roles in providing clues and holding secrets of this marriage.
It is a book that invites discussion and would be a provocative novel for a bookclub, there is so much that invites discussion and would likely bring out quite different points of view.
Intriguingly, my copy of the book also had something old slipped between the covers, not a letter, but an old black and white photograph of 'The Lake', Alexander Park, yet another intrigue within the intrigue, I'm still wondering where that came from and whose handwriting is on the back and what story that photo could tall, if it could give up more than just a still, lifeless image.
Highly Recommended.
The novel begins with Gil inside a second hand bookstore, having found a scrap of paper within a books' pages, moving closer to the window to try and read it. It is a letter dated 2 July 1992, which his attention is diverted from when he glances out the window and sees a woman in a coat who he believes is Ingrid, missing, presumed drowned for twelve years.
When chapter two begins with a letter addressed to Gil from his wife dated 2nd June 1992, a quick scan ahead reveals the novels pattern, alternate chapters, one set in the present around Gil and his daughters Flora and Nan, the other a chronological revelation of the letters his wife wrote to him over the month before she disappeared, each of them placed within one of the many books that were on the shelves of their home. And now here is is having just discovered one within the pages of a book in the local second hand bookshop. Quite an extraordinary and brilliant concept, it opens the novel with the maximum intrigue and desire to know what went on between these two.
After Gil's sighting, events bring the family together, highlighting their similarities and differences, exposing various family secrets and lies and all the while, each letter like a dripping tap, one by one revealing more of the relationship between Ingrid, the young Norwegian university student and Gil, her literature professor and the very different path her life would take once their lives intertwinded. The letter's are her story of a marriage, told to him (or perhaps to us the reader) as if he were an outsider, even though much of the dialogue she writes is his.
Dear Gil, Of course I couldn't write the story of a marriage in one letter. It was always going to to take longer. After I finished my first letter I meant to send it straight away. I found an envelope from an old electricity bill in the kitchen table drawer, and thought I'd walk to the postbox as the sun came up before I could change my mind. But perched on the arm of the sofa in the dark with the pen in my hand there was a noise from the girl's room (the squeak of bedsprings , the creak of the door), and without thinking I grabbed a book from the nearest shelf, shoved the letter inside and pushed it back into place.
Ingrid's story focuses on the marriage, without ever straying into her past, her home country, her own ambitions or desires. Those omissions create a presence that is never mentioned, they weigh on the reader, who on reading begins to feel the futility of her existence, she is isolated, without friends or family and struggling as a mother, she has forsaken all on a whim, fulfilling desires of a man whose star in decline, while hers will be extinguished before it has a chance.
Swimming Lessons is an incredibly accomplished novel with well drawn characters, including that of 'the marriage,' perhaps the chief protagonist itself, as the letters reveal more of 'the marriage' than of Ingrid herself.
It is something of an homage to books, readers and writing as they are all given important roles in providing clues and holding secrets of this marriage.
It is a book that invites discussion and would be a provocative novel for a bookclub, there is so much that invites discussion and would likely bring out quite different points of view.
Intriguingly, my copy of the book also had something old slipped between the covers, not a letter, but an old black and white photograph of 'The Lake', Alexander Park, yet another intrigue within the intrigue, I'm still wondering where that came from and whose handwriting is on the back and what story that photo could tall, if it could give up more than just a still, lifeless image.
Highly Recommended.
March 17, 2017
Swimming Lessons is the book that taught me never to read reviews but to go with my own gut instinct regarding a book. That said...I'm writing a review anyway! I was led to believe that this was mystery and it's not, not really. Most savvy readers will figure out what has happened to Ingrid long before the ending of the book. What it is, instead, is a marvelously and beautifully written tale of two people who loved each other madly but who never should have married. If you're old enough to remember Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton together it is much like their lives. Not all love is meant to be acted upon. But Gil and Ingrid did and the life they made together....well....it made for a beautiful book but a horrific childhood for their daughters.
The story is told through letters that Ingrid has left for Gil to find scattered throughout his collections of books. The story flashes back to the present and is told by his daughter Flora who, of note, is a synaesthete. It is Flora who truly comes of age throughout this book and it is her awakening that is both painful and beautiful to read and perceive.
Swimming Lessons was not at all what I was expecting when I picked up this book. I suspect it helps if you are a bit older and slightly jaded when you read the book. You will understand it better perhaps. Regardless, I adored the book, have added it to my favorites and recommend it to all my friends.
The story is told through letters that Ingrid has left for Gil to find scattered throughout his collections of books. The story flashes back to the present and is told by his daughter Flora who, of note, is a synaesthete. It is Flora who truly comes of age throughout this book and it is her awakening that is both painful and beautiful to read and perceive.
Swimming Lessons was not at all what I was expecting when I picked up this book. I suspect it helps if you are a bit older and slightly jaded when you read the book. You will understand it better perhaps. Regardless, I adored the book, have added it to my favorites and recommend it to all my friends.
December 19, 2016
I was really excited to receive this book through the Book of the Month club subscription service. I had a choice of five books, with brief descriptions of the plot, and I selected Swimming Lessons based on the description. It sounded like a wonderful whimsical journey in time - a woman communicating to her husband across time through letters hidden around the house.
What it turned out to be is a trope-filled run-of-the-mill bland fiction. There is no communication across time, there is just your typical fiction story told from two different points of view and alternating then/now/then/now chapters. There is zero character development, zero mention of letters in the "now" timeline, and zero whimsy. The plot drags along, the twists that are supposed to keep it alive can be seen from miles away, and I'm truly disappointed in my Book of the Month pick.
What it turned out to be is a trope-filled run-of-the-mill bland fiction. There is no communication across time, there is just your typical fiction story told from two different points of view and alternating then/now/then/now chapters. There is zero character development, zero mention of letters in the "now" timeline, and zero whimsy. The plot drags along, the twists that are supposed to keep it alive can be seen from miles away, and I'm truly disappointed in my Book of the Month pick.
April 15, 2023
This book did have some beautiful writing. Some gorgeous words.
I just could not bring myself to care about any of the characters.
The major thrust of this book seemed to be that a book’s meaning is totally up the original reader (and that readers come in two categories: those who want wish fulfillment and those who want the cold, hard truth).
The truth is I didn’t care about this book.
I just could not bring myself to care about any of the characters.
The major thrust of this book seemed to be that a book’s meaning is totally up the original reader (and that readers come in two categories: those who want wish fulfillment and those who want the cold, hard truth).
The truth is I didn’t care about this book.
March 30, 2017
Told through a series of letters that Ingrid leaves for her husband before her disappearance , Swimming Lessons, dissects a marriage and a woman's life. This is an absolute favourite read this year and if you are someone who has time for very few books, make sure you add it to the list.
What to expect?
- engaging and suspenseful plot
- excellent writing
- occasional symbolisms
- detailed character sketches
- a bit of sarcasm
- clever structure that alternates between past and present
- LOTS of scenes that bibliophiles love. And passages about books, doodles in books etc.
I smiled, cried and was often shocked by the reveals in the plot. To read a detailed review, visit http://www.thebooksatchel.com/swimmin...
Much thanks to the author and Fig Tree Books for a copy of the book. All opinions are my own.
What to expect?
- engaging and suspenseful plot
- excellent writing
- occasional symbolisms
- detailed character sketches
- a bit of sarcasm
- clever structure that alternates between past and present
- LOTS of scenes that bibliophiles love. And passages about books, doodles in books etc.
I smiled, cried and was often shocked by the reveals in the plot. To read a detailed review, visit http://www.thebooksatchel.com/swimmin...
Much thanks to the author and Fig Tree Books for a copy of the book. All opinions are my own.
August 8, 2023
I never could understand why a woman, a mother could ever leave her kids.... but for once with Ingrid, I understood. It's not fair to the girls at all but it's what Gil deserved years ago. Gil was such a despicable piece of predator trash, but I know his girls loved him. Ingrid though.... her letters seared my heart. And poor Nan, being the oldest, the automatic carer, the child who became an adult overnight...I guess I feel more for her even though she's not the main character. And poor Flora...lost, spirited, stubborn, but still so vulnerable.
That's the problem with attachment (I won't say it's love, it's familiarity and what you feel is secure because even anything better is unfamiliar and therefore unsafe). When you think you have the clear sighted view of leaving and wanting to leave and you feel hemmed in and stuck but you find you can't but you want to....leave anyway. Trust me.
That's the problem with attachment (I won't say it's love, it's familiarity and what you feel is secure because even anything better is unfamiliar and therefore unsafe). When you think you have the clear sighted view of leaving and wanting to leave and you feel hemmed in and stuck but you find you can't but you want to....leave anyway. Trust me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 27, 2016
Claire Fuller can write beautiful prose, but there were several flaws in Swimming Lessons.
First I found her characters quite one dimensional. Their lack of emotion to major family dysfunction and turmoil frustrated me as a reader. Second, the characters were extremely unlikeable. Gil, the father was despicable. Ingrid, the mother, you wanted to shake and tell her to wake up! Third, the plot of the older writing professor and his much younger student embroiled in a passionate love affair, only to have the professor drink and philander after they marry seems to be overused in literature. Leads me to wonder if writing professors have any moral fiber, as so many are portrayed in literature as such tormented and unfulfilled individuals.
Bottom line on Swimming Lessons it left me frustrated and felt unoriginal.
First I found her characters quite one dimensional. Their lack of emotion to major family dysfunction and turmoil frustrated me as a reader. Second, the characters were extremely unlikeable. Gil, the father was despicable. Ingrid, the mother, you wanted to shake and tell her to wake up! Third, the plot of the older writing professor and his much younger student embroiled in a passionate love affair, only to have the professor drink and philander after they marry seems to be overused in literature. Leads me to wonder if writing professors have any moral fiber, as so many are portrayed in literature as such tormented and unfulfilled individuals.
Bottom line on Swimming Lessons it left me frustrated and felt unoriginal.
March 20, 2018
I went into this expecting a thriller and hoping for suspense. This was duly received, but there was also a lot more compacted into this than I had originally anticipated. Yes, there was a mysterious story-line, but the heart of the narrative dwelt on more familial and emotional topics and a lot of what occurred were outside of this genre's usual confines.
What was delivered far surpassed my expectations, making this a top contender for favourite read of the year. Perhaps it is too soon in the year to make this proclamation, but the immediate emotional impact this book delivered, and the feelings that continue to haunt me after I have closed the final page, tell me otherwise. The sheer quantity of books mentioned, throughout this, may also have had something to do with my affinity with it!
What was delivered far surpassed my expectations, making this a top contender for favourite read of the year. Perhaps it is too soon in the year to make this proclamation, but the immediate emotional impact this book delivered, and the feelings that continue to haunt me after I have closed the final page, tell me otherwise. The sheer quantity of books mentioned, throughout this, may also have had something to do with my affinity with it!
November 29, 2022
WOW. What an incredible work of fiction. The way Claire Fuller wrote this tale was absolute perfection! It suited the story so well that I can't imagine reading it any other way. Although I'm a patriotic, very devoted fan of Canadian authors, I'm happy to add this wonderful U.K. writer to my coveted list of most favourite authors ever! Our Endless Numbered Days was one of the best books I've ever read, so for her to follow it up with another amazing book ... again, WOW. Now I'm eager to read Bitter Orange, but perhaps I should read a few others first, or all other books will pale in comparison. (Nov 2022 UPDATE - by now I've read ALL 4 of Claire Fuller's book and every one of them was great, with 3 of the 4 rating 5-stars!)
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