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4.05 AVERAGE
4.05 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Each story is usually 2-in-1, juxtaposed against each other to great effect
- There are some really beautiful one-liners/paragraphs
- Introspection but no push towards a thesis or overarching thought. Probably the way I’d like the write my memoir (if I ever do)
- The attention to detail is amazing. The breakfast she used to eat, the mannerisms of her teammates, etc., they all reflect the sorts of things you remember from your childhood. This goes well with Shapton’s ability to leap/linger through her stories and pace them (even more impressive when shes usually juggling multiple stories within a chapter)
My favourite memoir.
- There are some really beautiful one-liners/paragraphs
- Introspection but no push towards a thesis or overarching thought. Probably the way I’d like the write my memoir (if I ever do)
- The attention to detail is amazing. The breakfast she used to eat, the mannerisms of her teammates, etc., they all reflect the sorts of things you remember from your childhood. This goes well with Shapton’s ability to leap/linger through her stories and pace them (even more impressive when shes usually juggling multiple stories within a chapter)
My favourite memoir.
slow-paced
I felt a little silly relating to parts of this book, as my life as a competitive swimmer was very casual. But, I still really like the water and I liked how she connected to it throughout her life.
- "When you’re a swimmer, coaches stand above you, over you. You look up to them, are vulnerable, naked and wet in front of them. Coaches see you weak, they weaken you, they have your trust, you do what they say. The relationship is guardian, father, mother, boss, mentor, jailer, doctor, shrink, and teacher. My heart broke."
- "When I swim now, I step into the water as though absentmindedly touching a scar. My recreational laps are phantoms of my competitive races."
- "Did they come here as friends or befriend each other in the pond? How long have they been swimming in water this cold? Will I ever have a friend who swims in freezing ponds with me?"
- "Watching him in the waves, I realize he doesn’t see life as rigor and deprivation. To him it’s something to enjoy, where the focus is not on to how to win, but how to flourish—in both the literal and the superficial sense. I can understand flourishes, the conceptual, the rare, the inspired, and the fantastic. James introduces me to the idea of bathing."
- "For an athlete pain is not a deterrent, because the only place the pain will be eclipsed is in practice or in competition."
- "Shark attacks are anthropomorphized crimes of passion, even divorce. The negative appetites that are attributed to sharks—greed, compulsion, cold-blooded ambition, violence, gluttony—are human vices. We all have savage sides and gaping maws, we all are capable of eating and being eaten. Even the language of love is destructive: Love will tear us apart. First the crush, being swept away, inflamed, devastated, consumed. L’il shakin’, l’il tenderizin’, down ya go."
This book resonated with me unlike any book has in a while. Leanne talks about how the sport of swimming has changed for her over the years. She went from competition, monotonous practices, retirement from competitive swimming, and now to a love of recreational swimming. As a former competitive swimmer, I have personally felt the range of emotions that Leanna speaks of so beautifully. I would recommend to anyone who has put in the time, money, and effort into any sport. This has given me a road map to learn to find a renewed love the sport long after our the sun has set on our competitive career.
I remembered one "modern-era" detail of "Atonement" that I really loved, but forgot about: the estate has a pool, with new electric lights. To have a pool at a private residence really signalled status, but the fact that it had electric lights submerged in the 1930s must have been really something.
Anyhow, I checked this book out at the Golden Gate Branch of the SF Public Library. I was with Erin after hanging out in a lovely park, and she had contemplated checking it out but decided against it. I, who don't live there but was just visiting, decided to check it out though I wasn't sure how much swimming was actually an integral part of the book (I don't usually read the back blurbs of books anymore). I saw that it was a memoir with art and that was good enough for me.
I was never a competitive swimmer, and if I had grown up in a cold place, I'm certain I would not have been; I don't have the work ethic. However, by luck of birth I have a mom who learned to swim late in life and wanted her children to learn when they were babies; that same mom is a teacher who also taught swimming lessons in the summer, and thus simply by sheer exposure swimming became the sport I am closest to fluent in. It also suits me because it's solitary and gives you time to think, and bathing suits are fun to shop for.
Ok, so Leanne Shapton is also no longer a competitive swimmer, but was for a formative chunk of her life, and despite the gap between our proficiencies I loved how she writes about so many feelings I've experienced on a lower level: being pretend "confused" about why people want backyard pools too small to do laps in, the big difference between foam-rimmed and rimless goggles, various minor and major swimming-associated smells.
I also love how she seeks pools out in her travels now; this is something I do also (though again, I don't do 100 laps!). It made me curious about what took her to these places (since she only sometimes mentions that), but it also reminded me of how many weird and beautiful pools I have been to myself, although usually not hotel pools. I even googled a bunch of the ones she mentioned to see what they looked like, and there is one I hope to visit someday. I also do the same thing with libraries... come to think of it I'm probably a more competitive book-checker-outer than I am a swimmer, but visiting pools and libraries helps me feel more normal when I'm travelling; it reminds me that real people live in the place I'm just passing through.
Someone on Twitter recently suggested (as an end of the year thing) that you should write authors and artists whose work means something to you, because they don't hear that as often as you might think. This seemed like good advice (and I did start following Aja Gabel on instagram, because that advice reminded me that it might be fun to do that)... but before this book I never actually wanted to do it! Now I have a reason, because I really loved it.
Anyhow, I checked this book out at the Golden Gate Branch of the SF Public Library. I was with Erin after hanging out in a lovely park, and she had contemplated checking it out but decided against it. I, who don't live there but was just visiting, decided to check it out though I wasn't sure how much swimming was actually an integral part of the book (I don't usually read the back blurbs of books anymore). I saw that it was a memoir with art and that was good enough for me.
I was never a competitive swimmer, and if I had grown up in a cold place, I'm certain I would not have been; I don't have the work ethic. However, by luck of birth I have a mom who learned to swim late in life and wanted her children to learn when they were babies; that same mom is a teacher who also taught swimming lessons in the summer, and thus simply by sheer exposure swimming became the sport I am closest to fluent in. It also suits me because it's solitary and gives you time to think, and bathing suits are fun to shop for.
Ok, so Leanne Shapton is also no longer a competitive swimmer, but was for a formative chunk of her life, and despite the gap between our proficiencies I loved how she writes about so many feelings I've experienced on a lower level: being pretend "confused" about why people want backyard pools too small to do laps in, the big difference between foam-rimmed and rimless goggles, various minor and major swimming-associated smells.
I also love how she seeks pools out in her travels now; this is something I do also (though again, I don't do 100 laps!). It made me curious about what took her to these places (since she only sometimes mentions that), but it also reminded me of how many weird and beautiful pools I have been to myself, although usually not hotel pools. I even googled a bunch of the ones she mentioned to see what they looked like, and there is one I hope to visit someday. I also do the same thing with libraries... come to think of it I'm probably a more competitive book-checker-outer than I am a swimmer, but visiting pools and libraries helps me feel more normal when I'm travelling; it reminds me that real people live in the place I'm just passing through.
Someone on Twitter recently suggested (as an end of the year thing) that you should write authors and artists whose work means something to you, because they don't hear that as often as you might think. This seemed like good advice (and I did start following Aja Gabel on instagram, because that advice reminded me that it might be fun to do that)... but before this book I never actually wanted to do it! Now I have a reason, because I really loved it.
medium-paced
Delightful window into the past and present of a competitive swimmer who stays at hotels for their pools when she travels. I get the sense even that she plans trips around pools she wants to go to, like Michelin-starred restaurants. I loved the childhood stuff, the sense of being haunted in a way by her past and this book as a kind of exorcism of this chapter in her life that has been sort of outweighing her present.
Overall, I think this is a great book, and I really enjoyed the comparisons between artistic endeavors and swimming, and Shapton's tenacity at both is a good reminder of why I'll never be great at either. There were times, though, when the writing got a little too...er...arty? It also often left me wanting for more stories instead of paintings - I would rather read about what it was like to swim in the many pools she lists rather than see their painted shape, but that's just me.
I flew through this book. I loved Leanne's writing style and the glimpse of a world I know nothing about. The paintings and photos interspersed were a great addition and not distracting like they can be on many books. I especially liked the photos & descriptions of all of her swimsuits.