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A review by frasersimons
The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka
Did not finish book. Stopped at 52%.
A chorus of eclectic, peripheral characters that go to the same pool form a microworld of rules to regulate various aspects of their lives lightly touched upon, yet also interminable.
Luckily, it then shifts to a new chapter from the point of view of an old person, halfway in, with memory issues. Except that it switches to second person and it’s prescriptive about who the person is in a way that simply didn’t work for me and felt like far more of a gimmick than anything else that was being attempted, so I put it down on page 91 of 176.
I’m assuming the two stories converge but I had a grandmother die of dementia just months ago and the self-generation of an alternate identity with an unknown (when I stopped reading), but close, relationship with the character. But I also just don’t like second person perspective like this. I’ve read one story where it was pulled off, but it was still a generalization of a group of people and not a specific person. I like second person when it’s eluding to a character in a mysterious way you are trying to figure out, like an open letter to someone. But when it’s used to insert the reader it almost never works for me.
Luckily, it then shifts to a new chapter from the point of view of an old person, halfway in, with memory issues. Except that it switches to second person and it’s prescriptive about who the person is in a way that simply didn’t work for me and felt like far more of a gimmick than anything else that was being attempted, so I put it down on page 91 of 176.
I’m assuming the two stories converge but I had a grandmother die of dementia just months ago and the self-generation of an alternate identity with an unknown (when I stopped reading), but close, relationship with the character. But I also just don’t like second person perspective like this. I’ve read one story where it was pulled off, but it was still a generalization of a group of people and not a specific person. I like second person when it’s eluding to a character in a mysterious way you are trying to figure out, like an open letter to someone. But when it’s used to insert the reader it almost never works for me.