Swim to Me

This was a delightful read. I simply could not put it down. The storytelling was so beautiful I felt like I was transported to the underwater world of the mermaids. The characters were quirky and outlandish yet somehow believable. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

I found Betsy Carter's SWIM TO ME a total delight to read. This is a novel about people who seem fated to remain underdogs, yet by using their wits, imagination and pluck, they manage to find meaning and joy in life. You can't help but root for them. Carter writes about her characters--including those who behave badly--with humor, wisdom and tenderness. The story is full of surprises, unusual twists that nevertheless have an aesthetic and emotional integrity. The writing is wonderful: spare and at the same time filled with startling details that bring Weeki Wachee and its inhabitants to life. Carter offers profound insights into family dynamics while dishing up an entertaining, thoroughly satisfying read.

"She was two years old when her mother dropped her into the shallow end of a lake...Delores Walker always claimed she had a vivid memory of this incident...Her body moved with the flow of it, the most natural thing in the world. From then on, the water was where Delores felt most at home." Thus begins the story of Delores Walker, a young girl from New York who leaves home to follow a dream. On a family vacation to Florida, Delores is introduced to the world of real live mermaids at Weeki Wachee Springs. She knows right away that this is what she wants to do with her life. But the realities of her dysfunctional family make the realization of that dream seem impossible until the day Delores discovers a stash of gold coins left behind by her estranged father. Using some of the coins to fund her trip to Florida, Delores sets out to join the ranks of the Weeki Wachee mermaids. Carter has crafted a cast of characters who are as charming as they are eccentric. What gives this book its "just can't put it down" appeal is the way in which Carter intersects the lives (both past and present) of the girls of Weeki Wachee, a newsroom manager from nearby Tampa, the dysfunctional family members from the Bronx, and Thelma Foote, who runs the Weeki Wachee Springs Mermaid attraction. With careful attention to detail, Carter has incorporated some of the very real attractions and issues of central Florida during the 1970s. There are the rumbles of the economical impact of Walt Disney World on other nearby, smaller attractions. There is the strong desire to preserve the heritage of the area in such endeavors as the Mermaids of Weeki Wachee and the home base for circus acts, even a hurricane threatening the Tampa Bay area of the western gulf coast. Readers are treated to delightful characters, the power of keeping dreams alive, the real possibility of hopes come true, and the importance of friends and family. by Lee Ambrose for Story Circle Book Reviews reviewing books by, for, and about women

Mermaids are a magical mystery species, appealing to everyone from Hans Christian Andersen to T.S. Eliot (brush up your Prufrock) to Starbucks logo-makers. They have a touch of the siren, the allure of elusiveness. To teenage Delores Taurus, the heroine of Betsy Carter's engaging new novel, mermaids are a practical matter, the crucial element of the job that gets her out of a broken family in the Bronx and into the mermaid tank at Weeki Wachee Springs near Tampa, Florida. (The novel is set in the 1970s, so what may seem kitschy now was unselfconscious popular entertainment then.) After acing her audition to perform in the underwater shows there (including a rippling version of "The Godfather"), the shy, tall girl whose aquatic skills provide her only confidence, gradually discovers that she can succeed on dry land too. In the course of this beautifully crafted novel, Delores makes friends, learns to deal with difficult bosses(the gruff but miltilayered mermaid manager,Thelma Foote and a pointy-toothed, ambitious producer of a local TV news show) and ultimately finds ways to understand her estranged parents and display her fierce affection for her little brother, Westie. As in her first novel, "The Orange Blossom Special," Carter loves her characters and knows how to satisfy her readers with a well-told tale that is both colorful and tender. Highly recommended.

Swim to Me by Betsy Carter is one of the best pieces of writing I have seen in a long time. It has an excellent pace, the characters are well crafted and the story just draws you in. Delores Taurus, is the central character and she decides to go to Weeki Wachee Springs and become a mermaid after her father leaves the family because Weeki Wachee Springs is the one place she can remember being happy in her childhood. Carter does an excellent job of developing all the characters into people that you care about. I love how each of the characters grow and change over the course of the book. It is a joy to read something this well written!