Swimming Lessons
What I like most about this novel was how typical and normal this family felt to me and that the ordeal that they were dealing with felt real, they felt as if they could have lived next door to me. The drama was not over-the-edge, the characters were people that I could relate to or they even have been individuals I might have known, the whole novel could have even happened to someone in my family. It wasn’t an intense novel nor was it something I could lay down for a couple days, I really enjoyed it, I had concern for the characters and I needed to know how the story would play out.
I felt sorry for Flora as I felt she lived outside the picture, whether she choose that or the family kept her out, she was clueless about what was happening within her own family. Nan, I liked her take charge stance but I thought she also had an attitude at times. Gil, what a dude. As I read the letters that Ingrid posted, my love for Ingrid grew and my feelings for Gil changed. Ingrid wrote from her heart, she wrote about her life, her marriage and their family, she shared this on paper and even though I only saw the one side, I thought I had seen what they had gone through before she left him. She wanted so much in life, she had dreams like we do and what she got in life was not what she had hoped. The more I read the novel, my feelings for this family changed. This was a fantastic and entertaining read and I enjoyed the ending that the author chose.
I received a copy of this novel from NetGalley and Tin House Books in exchange for an honest review.
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