Having lost my mother as a teenager, I am especially susceptible to this ‘mythical mother’ syndrome that Nan and Flora suffer from, so this aspect of their story really resonated with me. Because we only hear from her through her letters, we are connected to her in a very tenuous fashion, and like her children we yearn to learn more about her. Fuller is a very talented writer to pull this off, and I loved her book before this too, so it’s no surprise I enjoyed this as well.Īnother reason I really enjoyed this book was the way Ingrid was almost mythologized through the narrative structure. But, just because I hated them all doesn’t mean I didn’t care about them, in fact I was enthralled with this family, and disappointed that I had to leave them when the book ended.

Their youngest daughter Flora was just bizarre she constantly walked around naked and never cleaned up after herself, she was just as selfish as her father and acted like a child most of the time, so I hated her too (I’m clearly not sugarcoating this for anyone!).

Ingrid was naive, and weak for staying with Gil for so damn long, I hated how dependent she was on him. They were all fairly normal, but for a few things: Gil was a serial cheater, so obviously I hated him for that. The characters in this book are extremely memorable, mainly because I hated most of them. It’s important that I mention the fact that Ingrid disappears when Nan and Flora are young (presumably drowned, as her clothes are found on a beach), and she’s left these letters scattered about in the pages Gil’s book collection. The second narrative takes place in present day, describing Nan and Flora’s time keeping vigil over their father’s sickbed.

The first is an epistolary format, where Ingrid, the mother of two daughters Nan and Flora writes letters to her husband Gil about her experiences as a mother, recollections of their marriage, etc. First off, Claire Fuller‘s Swimming Lessonsswitches between two different narratives.

But, this isn’t a ‘long review’ type of blog, so I’ll try to keep my points as succinct as possible. There is so much to say about this book that I’m going to have trouble focusing on just a few parts of it.

Swimming Lessons by Claire Fuller