Swimming Lessons

A very good follow-up to the author's previous book, "Our Endless Numbered Days". The mystery of Ingrid's disappearance 12 years earlier shapes the lives of daughters Flora and Nan and retrobait husband Gil, who is now dying of pancreatic cancer. Ingrids thoughts and actions are told in letters placed in books throughout the
seaside house that the family lived in and where they all come to care for Gil. Family secrets, infidelity, betrayal
mysteries are revealed but some always remain secret. Highly recommended.

Gil and Ingrid met when she was his 20 year old student and he was her 40 year old English professor. Their affair lasted an entire summer until she became pregnant. They married secretly, lived apart and returned to their places at the university. However shortly before she gave birth, the marriage was exposed and Gil forced to resign. Ingrid was also forbidden to return to school for her final exams and ended her studies.

Thus began an unhappy marriage filled with infidelity and secrets. Eventually Ingrid disappeared and it was assumed that she had drown in the nearby water where she swam every night.

The book is divided into chapters and every chapter contains a letter about the marriage written by Ingrid to her husband as well as the story of what is happening to the surviving family members in the present. Ingrid left a series of letters in the books that her husband collected in their small house. She assumed that her husband would find the letters, read them and understand why she disappeared and left him with their 2 daughters

Several years later, Gil found one of Ingrid's letters and then thought he saw her on a local street. While following the woman, he fell and hurt himself badly. He was hospitalized and his daughters, Nan and Flora, had to return home to care for him.

The story of the unhappy marriage keeps the reader engaged until the very end when three secrets are revealed. I read most of it in one day and enjoyed it. Now I want to read the author's acclaimed debut novel.

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 Wynn 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