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mrs_bonaventure's review against another edition
4.0
Watery, shimmery, blurry memoir of growing up a swimmer. Loved the mix of adolescent an adult, hopes and memories.
esalesky's review against another edition
3.0
Not what I expected, but a relaxing read. Now want to swim in the pools at the hotel therme vals.
curlypip's review against another edition
2.0
It’s not a long book, but it took me a long time to read. It’s really disjointed, and I’m not sure I ever really got into it. I found it hard to follow, and ultimately I didn’t really care do anyone in it....
A disappointment.
A disappointment.
littletaiko's review against another edition
3.0
As someone who has recently taken up swimming for exercise, I was very excited to read Swimming Studies as it had gotten some good reviews. Written by a Canadian swimmer who competed in the Olympic Trials it shows the life of a swimmer but does so in a very rambling artistic way. Therein lies the problem for me, I need more of a straightforward narrative instead of short snippets from random points of time that don't seem to connect in any obvious way.
erincampbell87's review against another edition
4.0
This beautiful little book tries to answer the question, what happens to the expert versions of us? What happens to the skills we work so hard to perfect, the hours we spend training to be a certain way, to the exclusion of what feels natural? I felt a simple kinship with this story, as a former adolescent competitive swimmer who gave it up for a longing to make art, to use my hands, to take on a quiet obsession that merely replaced but did not absolve the way I’d trained myself to train. Like the author, through swimming and through art, I’d taught my brain to count and catalogue and observe my way through the quiet, solitary parts of life. To rethink pain and open space and even a sense of time. The book ends with a reference to the ever-present smell of chlorine because that’s maybe what all our lives become - the hint of the memory of something that was overpowering, all-consuming.
pattydsf's review against another edition
3.0
“Being pool-trained, I'm used to seeing four sides and a bottom. When that clarity is removed I get nervous. I imagine things. Sharks, the slippery sides of large fish, shaggy pieces of sunken frigates, dark corroded iron, currents. I can swim along the shore, my usual stroke rolled and tipped by the waves, the ribbed sandy bottom wiggling beneath me, but eventually I get spooked by the open-ended horizon, the cloudy blue thought of that sheer drop-the continental shelf.”
It took me forever to learn to swim. I had lessons in elementary school, but failed to acquire any skills. I eventually learned not to be afraid, but I am a lousy swimmer. The fact that swimming is difficult for me contrasts with the fact that I read two books about swimming in the last year. Is my subconscious trying to tell me something? The two books were very different and they were both good.
I have had this book on my TBR for several years. I encountered Shapton with her novel, Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry, which has to be one of the weirdest books I have ever read. (You can read my review here: https://tinyurl.com/yckef7bx ) I don’t know why it took me so long to get to this title, but finally I have read it.
This is Shapton’s own story, not fiction. She was a competitive swimmer and this memoir looks back at that time in her life and how it has affected her very being. The narrative is not straightforward and Shapton has illustrated this book. So sometimes it felt choppy and disjointed. However, by the end I had a full picture of what competitive swimming was like for Shapton. I also had an image of how Shapton’s family, boyfriend, coaches and others in her life influenced Shapton herself.
I feel like I am not conveying a good idea of the strengths and depths of this memoir. If you are interested in reading about people’s lives, in learning how people grow and change, this might be the book for you.
It took me forever to learn to swim. I had lessons in elementary school, but failed to acquire any skills. I eventually learned not to be afraid, but I am a lousy swimmer. The fact that swimming is difficult for me contrasts with the fact that I read two books about swimming in the last year. Is my subconscious trying to tell me something? The two books were very different and they were both good.
I have had this book on my TBR for several years. I encountered Shapton with her novel, Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry, which has to be one of the weirdest books I have ever read. (You can read my review here: https://tinyurl.com/yckef7bx ) I don’t know why it took me so long to get to this title, but finally I have read it.
This is Shapton’s own story, not fiction. She was a competitive swimmer and this memoir looks back at that time in her life and how it has affected her very being. The narrative is not straightforward and Shapton has illustrated this book. So sometimes it felt choppy and disjointed. However, by the end I had a full picture of what competitive swimming was like for Shapton. I also had an image of how Shapton’s family, boyfriend, coaches and others in her life influenced Shapton herself.
I feel like I am not conveying a good idea of the strengths and depths of this memoir. If you are interested in reading about people’s lives, in learning how people grow and change, this might be the book for you.
emmyroo's review against another edition
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
3.5
venetiana's review against another edition
I think this is probably a great book! But if I'm going to read it, I'll try the original. The translation feels like I'm reading it through milk glass, which is most probably just a me thing. There's nothing wrong with it.
Content Warnings
Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Medical content
palindromephd's review against another edition
4.0
Thanks mom for sending me this one!
I was a swimmer through university so a lot of this material and the pure feelings Shapton evokes resonated deeply in my memories but I think anyone who has done something that consumes your body and mind the way a sport like swimming does would find something to relate to.
Shapton's prose and weaving of past with present with art is so beautiful.
I think this is the kind of book I'll revisit when I am feeling my own nostalgia for the endless lengths of a swimming pool and the shadowy figure of a couch overhead.
I was a swimmer through university so a lot of this material and the pure feelings Shapton evokes resonated deeply in my memories but I think anyone who has done something that consumes your body and mind the way a sport like swimming does would find something to relate to.
Shapton's prose and weaving of past with present with art is so beautiful.
I think this is the kind of book I'll revisit when I am feeling my own nostalgia for the endless lengths of a swimming pool and the shadowy figure of a couch overhead.