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Swimming Lessons

Claire Fuller

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Mar 28, 2020 AmyAmy rated it liked it

Shelves: finished-reading

Something was missing, and I can't quite put my finger on what it was. Hmm. Was it the fact that I didn't identify (or really care for) any of the characters? Was it that I was a bit bored with the chapters that were told by Flora? Was it that Fuller was trying to show off her writing abilities too much instead of simply telling a story? I don't know. I honestly don't know what it was, but something was definitely missing for me... an emptiness, black and white instead of full-bodied.

What kept m Something was missing, and I can't quite put my finger on what it was. Hmm. Was it the fact that I didn't identify (or really care for) any of the characters? Was it that I was a bit bored with the chapters that were told by Flora? Was it that Fuller was trying to show off her writing abilities too much instead of simply telling a story? I don't know. I honestly don't know what it was, but something was definitely missing for me... an emptiness, black and white instead of full-bodied.

What kept me reading was NOT my love for Gil. Nope. He was a self-serving egotistical pig who needed to put his "thing" in a tight cast.

I didn't keep reading for Flora. She needed to be bitch-slapped. Her walking around naked as if she was a toddler was very annoying. So was her dropping her wet cloths on the wooden floor and leaving them there. So was her using Richard, and leaving raw fish on the counter for hours. Like her dad, she was a self-serving pig.

I had more sympathy for Ingrid and Nan, but that didn't keep me wanting to read this book. I felt sorry for these two woman. I wanted to shake Ingrid and tell her to leave the pig, but I understand she felt that she had no where to go. I lost sympathy for her when she had only apathy for her living children, but still, she took care of them.

I felt sorriest for Nan. She held everything together. Yes, she wasn't exciting, but she took care of the house and did what needed to be done, then built a career for herself. I would have liked to have seen her get with Richard, and thought it was going that way, but nope... Richard fell back for the naked slob.

Poor Gabriel. His character was too minor for me to keep reading this book.

So what kept me reading this book? (And believe me, I almost put it down and away several times, because I was a wee bit bored). What kept me reading was wondering if Ingrid had indeed drowned, or was she alive.

SPOILER ALERT... DON'T READ ON IF YOU HAVEN'T FINISHED READING THIS BOOK!

So, I kept racing through this painful book, only to learn that the author thought it'd be cool not to reveal this answer I was waiting for, for three hundred and fifty frickin' pages of characters who made me want to pull my hair out. She never answered this nagging question of mine. She left it up to the reader to interpret. ...more

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