Drowning Practice

A Novel

De: Mike Meginnis

Narrado por: Stacey Glemboski

Profoundly moving, filled with tenderness, and brought to life by a curious, sprawling imagination, Drowning Practice is the story of a mother and daughter trying to save each other’s lives at what could be the end of the world

One night, everyone on Earth has the same dream—a dream of being guided to a watery death by a loved one on November 1. When they wake up, most people agree: after Halloween, the world will end.

In the wake of this haunting dream and saddled with its uncertainty, Lyd and her daughter, Mott, navigate a changed world, wrestling with how to make choices when you really don’t know what comes next. Embarking on a quixotic road trip filled with a collection of unexpected and memorable characters, Lyd and Mott are determined to live out what could be their final months as fully as possible. But how can Lyd protect Mott and help her achieve her ambitions in a world where inhibitions, desires, and motivations have become unpredictable, and where Mott’s dangerous and conniving father has his own ideas about how his estranged family should spend their last days?

Formally inventive and hauntingly strange, Drowning Practice signals the arrival of a singular new voice in Mike Meginnis, who writes with generosity and precision, humor and sorrowfulness. Stirring and surprising at every turn, Drowning Practice is literary speculative fiction at its best and with a pulsing heart: a mother and daughter trying to decide how they should live out what might be the final months of their—or anyone’s—life on Earth.

©2022 Mike Meginnis (P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers

Interesting apocalyptic character story

This story is told from the point of view of three characters, and it does a deep and poignant study of the apocalypse from their points of view (and especially two of them). The ending isn’t quite as satisfying as I’d personally prefer, but that’s personal preference and the stories are woven together with delicate and intentional word pictures. The characters feel almost creepily real while still maintaining some stereotype/caricature/analogy that makes them both relatable and not, likely based on your own experiences and worldview.

The codependency throughout is at times touching and at time gut-wrenching, sometimes both. Not necessarily my normal read, but I appreciated it and it made me think.