BOOK REVIEW: Deborah Levy's "Swimming Home"

This is a new blog for me to encourage myself to write and read more - when I'm not looking after my 1 year old or trying to build two separate businesses and looking after the house and hubby! When @mummyratesit asked on Twitter if anyone would like to take part in reviewing this years' books shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize I replied before even thinking it through. I barely had time to read the books selected by the book group I had just started up or the books that are gathering dust, desperately wanting to be read, let alone an extra book, with a deadline. But I wanted to take part and so I made my selected book my priority for the week away we had at the end of September. As it turned out I didn't need the whole week as I finished the book within two days! Two days! Two days with a few disruptions. I haven't read a book so quickly in a long time, which shows how much I enjoyed it.

The other reviewers and shortlisted books are:


http://themcleanhalladventure.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/booker-prize-results-link-up.html reviewed "Bringing up the Bodies

http://yummymummytraining.blogspot.co.uk/ reviewed "The Lighthouse"

http://mummyisagadgetgeek.co.uk/ reviewed "The Garden of Evening Mists"

http://circusqueen.co.uk/ reviewed "Narcopolis"

http://morewomeninskepticism.wordpress.com/ reviewed "Umbrella"

It has been a while since I prepared a book review so please bear with me.

"Swimming Home" is set in the South of France as a family spend their holiday there with friends. However, their villa, and their holiday, is hijacked by a young woman (Kitty Finch) who, in time, has an effect on all of them. It shows some of the conflicts that arise in the characters' marriages, relationship between the parents and their daughter, and relationships between friends, whilst also dipping toes into the issue of depression.

I found some sections were rather dreamlike and I was not entirely sure if what I was reading was actually taking place or not. The erratic thinking of Kitty Finch, which makes total sense to her, but not necessarily to those around her shows a glimpse of how depression can take hold of some people, whether or not they are taking pills.

Having a relative who has suffered from depression I found this particular segment very true to life:

'Why do you take pills?'
'Oh, I've decided not to for a while. You know...it's quite a relief to feel miserable again. I don't feel anything when I take my pills.'

Pills can numb people's senses and this is reflected well in this book with both Kitty and Joe. It also begins to explain Kitty's sudden explosions of intense interest on doing certain things, having been numb for so long.

Another segment which made me both wince and smile was:

'I can't stand the depressed. It's like a job, it's the only thing they work hard at...'

Depression has such a negative perception (clearly) and people often mistake it for laziness or selfishness. And yet, those who do suffer from depression tend to be neither of these things when they are well.

"Swimming Home" is one of the few reads that I know I want to, and will, read again. As soon as I finished it I wanted to read it again. And that is pretty rare for me. I have been wanting to find an author that I want, really want, to read more from. And not because it has been recommended or because everybody else seems to be reading them, but because I enjoy the writing.

Levy uses concise wording with simple description, which when made aware to the reader are all to obvious, but we needed to be shown them through her words. Even with two of the main characters suffering from different forms of depression, one is more gregarious than the other, I still felt both lightened and enlightened by this story's end.

On the surface, an otherwise safe family and friendship group, until a stranger floats right into the middle of their pool, holiday and lives.

All items mentioned, words uttered, scenes set, have meaning. Deeper meaning than you first think.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Levy is a writer who makes you want to read better books (and for those of us aspiring authors, want to write better books too).

Laura

And another...:

Laura was standing by the window, waiting for the postman to arrive. The results would be arriving today. She hadn't wanted to collect them from school with everyone else staring. Expecting. The knot in her stomach was tightening. She took a deep breath, almost choking on the scent of her mother's daffodils, proudly displayed in a glass vase on the window sill. Cut in their prime. 'Will I be?' Laura thought to herself.

The results would affect the rest of her life. Which university she would go to, the people she would meet, the experiences she would have.

Her mobile went off. She ignored the call from her mother who was possibly more anxious than she was now.

Laura looked up to see the postman stepping towards their front door. This man. This stranger held the answer to the rest of her life.

Low Glow

This is a piece I wrote as part of creative writing course I recently completed:

The door shut behind him. The closeness of the must reassured him. He reached for the light switch and turned it on. The strip-light blinked, hummed and shone a low glow on to his covered beauties below, taking up most of the space, encircled by the gardening tools and other bric-a-brac which had no place in the house. He limped towards them and whipped the old bed sheet off like a toreador, unveiling the brutes of metal.

Before starting his Saturday morning clean up he liked to check on his special bike that hung on the wall, out of the way of the others. The Colnago with her blush red frame, was his pride and joy. He only used her on clear blue days. But they were rare. He smiled at the memories of other road bike lovers who stared at her in awe. There weren't many like her around anymore. They certainly didn't make them in her style nowadays. He had got himself a real piece of history there. Never to be let go of.