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Swimming Studies (2012)

by Leanne Shapton(Favorite Author)

3.87 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0399158170 (ISBN13: 9780399158179)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Blue Rider Press

review 1: This is a wonderful little book. I was reading Women in Clothes and was reading some background on the authors, found Leanne Shapton's life very interesting and in some ways similar to mine. I ordered this from the library and read it cover to cover quickly. It's just what it sounds like ...a series of short linked essays or stories or memories of childhood to adulthood and the early years of her marriage. It's not like short stories, actually; they flow together, but they're episodic. I'm a swimmer, a little bit, but not like she is (Canadian Olympic trials), but I enjoyed reading this in part because of the way she writes about swimming and pools. There's a wonderful photo essay of all her swimsuits and when she bought them and what she wore them for. It's actually bette... morer than Women in Clothes, which is a little bit sprawling and unruly and maybe needed to be edited more heavily. I enjoyed this, and recommend it.
review 2: You know how excited you are to get a beautifully wrapped box of chocolates on a Wednesday when you weren't expecting anything only to open the box, bite in, and realize that the chocolates were, in fact, carob and not chocolates at all? (OK, maybe only 70s kids get this reference.) That's kind of how reading Leanne Shapton's book was for me. The quirky swimsuits, the paintings of swimming pools and competitors, all lovely and fun. But, when you get right down to it, she isn't a very good writer. Her sentences lacked richness. Her subject matter devolved into whining about her difficult relationship with her husband rather than what it feels like to move through water over and over again until your skin becomes webbed, or, at least, very pruney. I was hoping to buy this book for a friend who is an avid swimmer, but after reading that Leanne hated swimming in open water realized that I wasn't even sure what the point of this book was. Leanne swam in a pool. A lot. She was tired, she was dedicated, she ate odd things in the wee morning hours. But I just didn't feel the love. She's clever, but without heart. less

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