Swimming Lessons

By: Claire Fuller

Narrated by: Rachel Atkins

Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

Ingrid Coleman writes letters to her husband, Gil, about the truth of their marriage, but instead of giving them to him, she hides each in the thousands of books he has collected over the years. When Ingrid has written her final letter, she disappears from a Dorset beach, leaving behind her beautiful but dilapidated house by the sea, her husband, and her two daughters, Flora and Nan.

Twelve years after her disappearance, Gil thinks he sees Ingrid from a bookshop window, but he's getting older, and this unlikely sighting is chalked up to senility. Flora, who has never believed her mother drowned, returns home to care for her father and to try to finally discover what happened to Ingrid. But what Flora doesn't realize is that the answers to her questions are hidden in the books that surround her. Sexy and whip-smart, Swimming Lessons holds the Coleman family up to the light, exposing the mysterious and complicated truths of a passionate and troubled marriage.

©2017 Claire Fuller (P)2016 Audible, Ltd

A penetrating examination of identity and marriage

4.5 stars. To call this book a mystery (or literary mystery) does not do it justice. At a basic level, this is the story of a wife and mother (Ingrid) who went missing in 1992, how her fraught marriage led to the disappearance, and the aftermath for her family. But it is so much more. The novel tells the tale from two perspectives: in modern times, you see Ingrid's husband and daughters and how they have dealt with never having closure about whether she left or died; in 1992, a set of letters written by Ingrid to her husband, outlining their meeting, courtship, and marriage. Ingrid's letters are the star of this book and make it special - she never sends her husband (Gil, a successful but eventually stilted author) the letters, but rather places them within the books of his voluminous collection, matching the letters to titles that are evocative of each letter's revelations. These pairings are clever and poignant. The letters move forward in time, inching ever-closer to her disappearance. In modern times, both daughters are recalled home to their father, who is ailing and injured, having thought he saw his long-missing wife in the street and fallen while pursuing this woman (apparition or reality, we are left guessing until the end). The letters are a meditation on youth and romance, passion and betrayal. Ingrid feels counterfeit and thwarted in her life as a mother, and her letters give voice to feeling at odds with the life you've ended up with. While the modern chapters are less enthralling then the letters speaking from the past, there are still moments of beauty and despair. And you can't really fault the husband and children for not feeling as immediate and real and captivating as Ingrid, whose letters from the past have real and drastic ramifications on the present. The epilogue is a nice touch. Recommended.

Can't decide

Strange book! The story kept me interested, but what a strange and sad story! The ending left me with unanswered questions...

Interesting...

I liked the premise of the book. The characters could have been more robust. The plot was dark and not as intriguing as I would have liked.

Flat ending

Great narration. Odd ending. I was expecting more after being pulled into each character. It felt like it was left unfinished.

Nice writing but very unsatisfying story.

We read this for our book club. None of us loved it. The ending was unsatisfying to me as to my friend who voiced that before I finished it. I probably disliked that ending more than my friend did. Some of the descriptions and the imagery are terrific so I cannot complain about the writing. One gets the feeling that there’s too much editor or publisher interference. I imagine that since the editor knows the story really really well they might’ve forgotten that it might not make sense to somebody who is just reading for the first time not talking to the author. I would want the author to clarify what she really wants the reader to know. Because when you finish you’re like “wait what?”. “Why on earth would she choose that ending?”.… perhaps I missed something. I gave it an honest shot. I heard her other book was better.

A little disappointed

Hmmm, I'm a little disappointed in the end. I was hoping for much more. I should have rented from the library instead of buying the audiobook.
The story is great, a little hard to listen to sometimes between the back and forth but it kept me on my seat until the end.

I was addicted to listening to this story!!

A must listen for every woman!! A tale of "what not to do". Loved the story and the narrator's many voices!

Slow-moving,Lost interest

I read about halfway through,then skimmed the rest. Nothing much seemed to be happening.

Meh.

Spoilers!
The more I think about this book, the more disappointed I am. It's not that it was terrible. It's more that it had the potential to be a really great story and it was just very...mundane. And also a lot of it didn't really make that much sense. Like if you cheated on your wife with literally everyone, even her best friend and then dedicated your book to her best friend (after your wife helped you come up with the plot for the majority of the book), why would you be so concerned with the thought that your wife didn't know you loved her on your deathbed? I mean I get that we all have regrets, but that seems like a stretch. I feel like the plot had potential, but the book just ended up being meh.

Gets Better and Better

Didn't think I was going to like this one at first but found myself falling under the author's spell and allowing myself to be transported by this unusual novel. The writing is lyrical and intelligent, and the narration adds fundamentally to the book's emotional resonance.

Beautifully beguiling - don't miss it!

Claire Fuller's slightly mystical, beautifully written first novel was Our Endless Numbered Days which I highly recommended on my Audible review page on 27/7/2015. Her second novel Swimming Lessons fulfils all the promise of her first - I loved it.

The structure is carefully contrived but is seamless to read or listen to as we're taken backwards and forwards in time. Ingrid is a university student who falls for her slightly predatory far older tutor Gil Coleman and when she finds she's pregnant, they marry. Ingrid is not allowed to take her Finals and Gil loses his job and becomes a full time writer, although in fact he spends more time philandering and very little writing anything beyond one successful (and ultimately destructive) book. Ingrid struggles with children and miscarriages, the pain of which is exquisitely described. She has always been happiest in the water, and one day she leaves her clothes on the beach and disappears.

The other layer of the story is Gil as a broken old man, irascible and selfish in his house stacked with thousands of books, with his two very different grown-up daughters Flora and Nan around him. Their memories of their missing mother and their present day lives haunted by her disappearance form a strand of the narrative, but the core is made up of the letters which Ingrid wrote to Gil as her passionate marriage fell apart and which she doesn't give to him, but slips inside random books on his overflowing shelves.

Like her previous novel, there is a light touch of fairy tale which transports the listener, but at the same time it's firmly rooted in real life and the idiosyncrasies, complexities, pain and pleasures of relationships. The rhythm of the story is like the sea which is so important to the whole story, ebbing, flowing, constantly moving. The themes of betrayal, regret, guilt, loss, absence, isolation are all worked through with a gentle delicacy, the language always imaginative and fresh. There are some mysteries which are never solved, and some solutions are dispersed through the story like beads on a necklace. The narrator Rachel Atkins does a great job and adds another dimension to the novel - the dialogue is particularly skilfully presented.

Don't miss this one, and look out for Claire Fuller's third one!

Where's the story????

What disappointed you about Swimming Lessons?

There was no plot, no proper ending, a waste of a precious credit, all through the book I was waiting for something to happen but sadly nothing did, save your credit.

Would you ever listen to anything by Claire Fuller again?

No

What does Rachel Atkins bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

The narration was good pity Rachel didn't have anything good to narrate.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Boredom

Dreadful.

Nothing wrong with the narration, however, there was no story at all. It just limped along at a tedious pace. I wanted to throttle youngest daughter who winged her way through the story. Awful.

Depressing and sad story

Struggled to finish it. It was so depressing and the circumstances the mother found herself in were awful. I felt the half written by the mum in letters were so sad that the struggle the daughters and husband had in the modern day were less important.

The narration was excellent.

Narration does not help characters

Any additional comments?

Throughout listening to the book, the mystery element of the fate of Ingrid was compelling enough to listen for hours on end. However, the narration and especially the vocal differentiation between different characters detracted from my enjoyment of the book by influencing my perception of the characters. Gil was diminished to a sleazy sounding old man in both the flashbacks and in his old age while Flora was portrayed as a whining, entitled child. Had I read the book I may have been able to appreciate the characters in their entirety but unfortunately by listening I was only able to perceive them negatively.

I'de rather sink

What disappointed you about Swimming Lessons?

I thought this story just drifted along. I kept thinking that it was going to suddenly have a purpose. I didn't like any of the characters especially the youngest daughter.
I got to around chapter 50ish and gave up the will to live, I'll never get that time back.

What will your next listen be?

Something with murder in it.

What didn’t you like about Rachel Atkins’s performance?

She did her best.

You didn’t love this book--but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Non

Any additional comments?

I think I might just take up writing, it looks pretty simple.

Riveting!

This is one of those books you either love or hate. I loved it! All the characters are flawed but are more believable for that. I'll be looking for more titles by Claire Fuller.

Beautifully constructed work

This book was read brilliantly. The reader captured the characters well.

The story was good too, though the topic took me a while to get into. The author keeps you hanging right until the end.

Swimming Lessons

The blurb for this sounded really good and it was a recommended book by you . Have got as far as chapter 5 l just can't bring myself to read any more. Very trivial and silly story

Excellent

Thoroughly enjoyed this audiobook.

It kept me guessing all the way through - is she or isn't she...

I thought the narration was very good.