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Swimming Lessons Claire Fuller Books

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Swimming Lessons Claire Fuller Books

From the author of the award-winning and word-of-mouth sensation Our Endless Numbered Days comes an exhilarating literary mystery that will keep readers guessing until the final page.

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.

My Thoughts: The alternating narratives in Swimming Lessons truly captivated me. One narrator was Ingrid, wife and mother, who has written a plethora of letters to her husband Gil, whom she addresses as “you” in these missives. She is finally having a conversation with him, one which he cannot ignore or dismiss. She is venting about their troubled marriage and the ways in which her life was a disappointment. There are, however, some brighter moments in her letters…mostly about their lives before she had to give up her dreams. Her dreams of an education and her own writing career. The education which she was unable to complete because of the university’s rules regarding married/pregnant students.

Ingrid’s letters were written in 1992, just before she seemingly drowned (or disappeared). She speaks mostly of their lives in the 1970s…but also touches on the later years.

Third person narrators included Gil and Flora. We see Nan from Flora’s perspective, and I didn’t like her very much, probably because she tends to dismiss Flora’s thoughts and ideas, and treats her like a young child. Nan apparently took on the mother’s role after she was gone. Later on, we see a kinder version of her.

Gil seemed like a very selfish man, but since his present day situation shows him troubled and ill, I did feel some sympathy for him.

I loved the descriptions of the book lined rooms and hallways. Stacks of books, sometimes two or three deep, surrounded them all. The fact that Ingrid’s letters were placed in the books in a somewhat planned fashion added to the intrigue of the story.

Would Gil find the letters? Would he finally understand what his wife had been trying to say all those years? Would there be answers to their questions? What stunning events happened to bring the story to a riveting conclusion? And who is the mysterious woman who keeps showing up in Hadleigh? A 5 star read.


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Swimming Lessons Claire Fuller Books Reviews

Quite an engrossing book. It opens with a bang, (or a splat, more accurately), and then drops little fragments of the narrative for you to piece together and decide what really happened. I finished this book last night and woke up FIVE times during the night puzzling over an unanswered question. Had to go back this morning and reread bits of it to sort out an answer. The mark of good writing is when a plot or characters just will not let you go.
I know it's early, but I'm calling this as my favorite read of 2017. It's has everything I look for mystery, love (and hate) story, and characters that grow by book's end. I read Fuller's OUR ENDLESS NUMBERED DAYS and though I loved it (I think I gave it five stars too) I might like SWIMMING LESSONS even more. It's hard to write about this book without giving anything away (and I hate spoilers) so just do yourself a favor and read this book.
Claire Fuller writes a family tale, her voice full of deep emotion, reality, yet rich with lyrical poetry, artistic descriptions, surreal imaginings. Set at the sea, a mother, strong swimmer, disappears leaving two children. The father, her husband, left long ago, infidelity and writing. The book begins as the adult children gather at the seaside home where their father is dying. Stories are remembered, visions experienced. The mother's letters over her years are shared with us readers. Fantastic story, beautifully written, never to be forgotten.
Usually have quite a difficult time with novels which are told in epistolary form, but I found this a rather breathtaking read. I'm not sure if it is because this novel pairs so well with "The Days of Abandonment" by Elena Ferrante, which I read prior- both novels handle women coming to terms with a cheating spouse. Both are written with such clarity and I would venture to say poise. I think the concept of Ingrid placing the letters she has written to her husband in various books within their house a clever plot device. The scenes which dealt with water were painstakingly beautiful and the author executes some beautiful passages in that context. I would have liked to know, as the reader though, how Gil came to find the first letter? Did he find them out of order? He must have...perhaps I have missed something. Anywho, stunning novel about complex relationships and family ties.
It's rare that I don't finish a book, especially after I've read half-way through. But I just couldn't do it. Every time I went to pick it up, I was not looking forward to reading it. The story line meandered all over the place and I didn't feel connected to any of the characters. It was just boring to me. I skimmed through the second half just to get the gist of the ending, and I'm very glad I didn't give any more of my time to it. Just not the book for me, unfortunately.
This book is proof that craft is not enough to make a literary book worth reading. There is no question Ms. Fuller's prose is seamless and her descriptions apt. But her characters are unlikable and the plot dead on arrival. I'm surprised I stuck with it. Perhaps I was hoping for some redemption or uplift that never came. I feel sad that this book didn't have the same material woven in a way that would have made a difference to the reader. The woman protagonist was twice damned by her professor husband. First as a writing student, and then as a writer, whose work ultimately went up in smoke. Yet one feels the writer isn't really sympathetic to her. She does show sympathy to the damaged daughters, but frankly, it isn't enough. What I learned from this reading experience is content is as important as form.
From the author of the award-winning and word-of-mouth sensation Our Endless Numbered Days comes an exhilarating literary mystery that will keep readers guessing until the final page.

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.

My Thoughts The alternating narratives in Swimming Lessons truly captivated me. One narrator was Ingrid, wife and mother, who has written a plethora of letters to her husband Gil, whom she addresses as “you” in these missives. She is finally having a conversation with him, one which he cannot ignore or dismiss. She is venting about their troubled marriage and the ways in which her life was a disappointment. There are, however, some brighter moments in her letters…mostly about their lives before she had to give up her dreams. Her dreams of an education and her own writing career. The education which she was unable to complete because of the university’s rules regarding married/pregnant students.

Ingrid’s letters were written in 1992, just before she seemingly drowned (or disappeared). She speaks mostly of their lives in the 1970s…but also touches on the later years.

Third person narrators included Gil and Flora. We see Nan from Flora’s perspective, and I didn’t like her very much, probably because she tends to dismiss Flora’s thoughts and ideas, and treats her like a young child. Nan apparently took on the mother’s role after she was gone. Later on, we see a kinder version of her.

Gil seemed like a very selfish man, but since his present day situation shows him troubled and ill, I did feel some sympathy for him.

I loved the descriptions of the book lined rooms and hallways. Stacks of books, sometimes two or three deep, surrounded them all. The fact that Ingrid’s letters were placed in the books in a somewhat planned fashion added to the intrigue of the story.

Would Gil find the letters? Would he finally understand what his wife had been trying to say all those years? Would there be answers to their questions? What stunning events happened to bring the story to a riveting conclusion? And who is the mysterious woman who keeps showing up in Hadleigh? A 5 star read.