Swimming Lessons

I usually don't read what I'd call a "chick book"--but I found this at a library sale and gave it a go. What a surprise! I just loved this book. Having 2 authors writing the chapters was unique and really gave the story it's own vision. When you "get" the premise (and it hits you like, WHAM!) you'll laugh and love it even more. It will also teach a great lesson in "walking in another's shoes"...grab your swimsuit, lay out on a towel and enjoy!

This is a novel that can be enjoyed on many levels. Laurel and Marna are solid, believable characters and narrators. Their voices are distinct and ring true. Swimming Lessons illustrates nicely just how strong and weak people can be. Plus the dependence/independence dichotomy featured throughout is handled skillfully. In sum, a novel that will appeal to women and men alike. Paul Jenkins, Director of Library Services College of Mount St.Joseph

This is an excellent book about two women whose relationship helps them grow as individuals. I was very impressed with the lyrical quality of the writing (especially with two authors writing this book together!) which really made me feel for and with the characters, as if I were a part of their lives. I could feel their joy and their sadness. Reading this book gave me a great satisfaction, and I recommend it to anyone who loves an emotional page-turner.

I was particularly impressed with the development of the characters. I really felt an attachment to them and I'm especially amazed that the authors have never met. The individual writing styles of the co-authors blend incredibly well and the two female protagonists (every other chapter devoted to one) forge an incredible friendship that is so believable. I was totally unprepared for the twist this book takes. Weeks later, I've found myself thinking about Swimming Lessons and hope the authors consider a sequel. I want to know more about what's next in the lives of Laurel and Marna.

How Swimming Lessons was written-- long-distance, by two women who have never met--may distract readers from the most essential thing about this novel: it's a sensitive story, beautifully crafted. Although method of composition may be a reason to buy a book, there's no reason to finish it if it lacks substance and style. Swimming Lessons has both. I was hooked on the first page, with Laurel's account of the pivotal event in her childhood that led to the "swimming lessons" of the title: watching from an upstairs window as her brother is swept away by a flash flood. Her fear of water, the one flaw in her life that keeps her from being the "together" woman she appears to be, also complicates her relation with Jake, who has invited her on a cruise. Her desire to overcome this fear launches the story, as she meets Marna, the "not-so-together" swim coach who reluctantly accepts the challenge of teaching her to swim. Told from the two women's alternating viewpoints through the skillful words of writers Lynn Hugo and Anna Tuttle Villegas, the story reveals the complexity of interpersonal relations that, as much as Laurel's progress in the pool, shape the story. Even as Laurel slowly learns to trust Marna enough to confide in her the reason for her water phobia, Marna opens up to Laurel, a psychologist, about her marital inadequacies. And as they peel back the layers of each other's fear and guilt, the reader comes to know them for the vulnerable women that each reveals herself to be. Along the way toward confidence, as swimmers and as women, they share their larger worlds of work and family with each other, introducing the reader to Jake (the lover), J.W. (the spouse), Tracy (the psychiatric patient),and Harvey (the flirtatious, arthritic swimmer). It's a rich world of characters, whose lives intertwine with Marna's and Laurel's. These writers know life, in its uncertainties, complexities, disappointments, and surprises. And they know how to write. ! Although Marna's and Laurel's personalities and voices emerge as distinct, Hugo and Villegas have worked out such a seamless story that I soon forgot about the dual authorship. Introducing each section--breathing, floating, kicking, stroking, swimming--are quotes from a American Red Cross manual, Teaching Johnny to Swim. The quotes provide a literal and metaphorical unity for the book, so that by the end, after witnessing Laurel's and Marna's unlikely transformation into close friends, I delighted (as I'm certain the authors did) in the aptness of the swimming manual's reminder "of the importance of the rule to 'always swim with a buddy.'" The characters, so clearly drawn and so believable in their actions and dialogue, beg for a sequel. Here's hoping that for Hugo and Villegas, Swimming Lessons will be just the beginning of a beautiful literary friendship. Reviewed by Elizabeth Bookser Barkley, Ph.D., author of Woman to Woman: Seeing God in Daily Life (St. Anthony