#33 [2023/CBR15] The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka

I found The Swimmers (2022) by Julie Otsuka on NPR's Best Books List. To be honest, I think I was specifically looking for a short, but good, book and The Swimmers fit the bill. I try to swim once in awhile, so I figured this book might even be relatable and/or motivating on that level as well. It turned out to be very different from what I expected as well as different from most novels that I've read.

The Swimmers begins with the description of a swimming pool and the many people who come in to use it. There are rules and expectations at this pool, and there is a large variety of people who swim for different reasons. Alice is one of many. She is starting to forget things, but the pool is something of a haven. When you've done something for years, you act out of habit and memory doesn't matter so much. Then a crack appears at the bottom of the pool. Everyone reacts differently as they try to figure out how bad it is and what it means. Eventually they close the pool, and Alice loses one of the last normal things she had from her old life.

The next section almost feels like a different book. The perspective changes from a neutral, omniscient narrator to Alice's daughter, and the book focuses only on the relationship between mother and daughter and Alice's deterioration. I'm pretty sure this story is based on the author's relationship with her own mother, and she feels helpless and guilty about the situation.

The Swimmers then switches to the nursing home's perspective. This section's narrator is not emotional at all, but had some of the saddest parts for me. There were some cold, hard truths about your loved ones being packed away. The patients' entire lives are shifted into a sterile, double room. Jewelry is too easily lost and is taken away. Family comes to visit but doesn't stay. Eventually the patient doesn't even ask for them anymore. 

My father has dementia, so this book was relatable on a number of levels. I thought Otsuka did a good job with honestly and unflinchingly showing the reality of dying from Alzheimer's/dementia. I also have never read a novel quite like this before. I keep trying to figure out how the first section of the book with the quiet, almost philosophical discussion, of swimming fit in with the rest of the book. Did it show more of Alice's life before her disease? Maybe, but not much, because that part of the story barely mentioned Alice. I think the pool and swimming in general was more a metaphor for life. The crack in the pool was the beginning of the end, but it was one of those warning signs that is easily dismissed at first. This feels like a book I might get more out of if I read it again.

cbr15Bingo: "Relation 'ship'" for the complicated relationship between mother and daughter.