Publication
Particular Books (2012), 336 pagina's
Physical description
336 p.; 5.83 inches
ISBN
1846144949 / 9781846144943
Language
Collection
Description
A collection of autobiographical sketches that explore the worlds of competitive and recreation swimming. From her training for the Olympic trials as a teenager, to meditative swims in pools and oceans as an adult, Shapton contemplates the sport that has shaped her life.
User reviews
LibraryThing member nmhale
Leanne Shapton pens a loving, insightful, and frequently cynical examination of her swimming life. The memoir clearly is anchored in her present as she looks back over the past, but it moves through time fluidly, slipping from childhood memories to college years to her later adulthood and marriage.
More important than the form of the book, though, is the beautiful writing that is always submerging itself into water. Every story, every milestone in her life, is associated with water. Swim teams, pools, lakes, oceans, and spas - Leanne Shapton has an affinity for all of the various forms of bodies of water. She may like self-contained structures like pools more than the scary, unfathomable distances of the ocean, but that only makes her challenge herself to swim in the ocean despite her fears. The language uses water-based metaphors and clear, concise descriptions to evoke a swimming life. Although she gave up competitive swimming at the intense level of her younger days, she has never totally lost that mindset or her swimming form, and seemingly never will. Her passion for the pursuit is evident in every portion of the memoir.
I have never before read a book that evoked the water so elegantly. I could feel it running under my arms and legs sometimes. Shapton's writing brought before my mind a type of lifestyle I had never really considered before, and started to make me long for the water myself, an echo of her own intense feelings. Buried among the different memoir pieces are watercolors by the author, and two sets of photographs, all tuned to the theme of swimming (except the pictures of the cars her father collected, although cars are linked to swim meets through her memories). The art complements the writing perfectly, and the whole book is a delightful journey into another person's life. I enjoyed my entire swift read of it.
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Nonetheless, the fluctuating book has a flexible sort of order to it, as the remembered memories follow a general chronological order, although with plenty of side trails and tangential memories to break up a truly linear account. She focuses much of the first part of the book on her childhood swimming, the swim teams she joined and the competitions she endured, from an elementary age all the way through high school. From there, she devotes several pieces to different events from her college experience, when she was on again and off again with competitive swimming. Finally, she describes her adult years post-college, when she made a transition from competitive swimming to the world of art, met her husband, and traveled. More important than the form of the book, though, is the beautiful writing that is always submerging itself into water. Every story, every milestone in her life, is associated with water. Swim teams, pools, lakes, oceans, and spas - Leanne Shapton has an affinity for all of the various forms of bodies of water. She may like self-contained structures like pools more than the scary, unfathomable distances of the ocean, but that only makes her challenge herself to swim in the ocean despite her fears. The language uses water-based metaphors and clear, concise descriptions to evoke a swimming life. Although she gave up competitive swimming at the intense level of her younger days, she has never totally lost that mindset or her swimming form, and seemingly never will. Her passion for the pursuit is evident in every portion of the memoir.
I have never before read a book that evoked the water so elegantly. I could feel it running under my arms and legs sometimes. Shapton's writing brought before my mind a type of lifestyle I had never really considered before, and started to make me long for the water myself, an echo of her own intense feelings. Buried among the different memoir pieces are watercolors by the author, and two sets of photographs, all tuned to the theme of swimming (except the pictures of the cars her father collected, although cars are linked to swim meets through her memories). The art complements the writing perfectly, and the whole book is a delightful journey into another person's life. I enjoyed my entire swift read of it.
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LibraryThing member mdoris
I loved this book. I found it captivating.
I am a swimmer. I am the mother of a former competitive swimmer (distance). I love swimming in pools, lakes, the ocean, hot springs. I like water, A LOT! Don't even mind doing the dishes! So this book was written as a meditative, contemplative series of
I am a swimmer. I am the mother of a former competitive swimmer (distance). I love swimming in pools, lakes, the ocean, hot springs. I like water, A LOT! Don't even mind doing the dishes! So this book was written as a meditative, contemplative series of
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sensory vignettes by someone who is also captivated by water. Shapton trained for Olympic trials as a teenager in Etobicoke, Ontario but was caught by the influence of water and the way it pulls her through her life, influencing her art and her writing and her relationships I found very interesting! Show Less
LibraryThing member megaden
I've read memoirs by swimmers before, but Shapton's was different. Better. The other memoirs I read because the authors were famous - Amanda Beard, Natalie Coughlin, Dara Torres, Ed Moses, etc. Swimming Studies focused on the experience of growing up a swimmer rather than the outcome. The style of
Sprinkled throughout the book are collections of images: a series of watercolors of the view from a hotel room, photos of her suit collection, and drawings of all the pools she's swam in during her life. While the art isn't my style, I still found myself absorbed in the images.
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this book wasn't typical either. Rather than write chronologically, the book is made up of little vignettes - windows into Shapton's swimming past. This stream of conciousness style was reminiscent of how your thoughts wander while you're in the water.Sprinkled throughout the book are collections of images: a series of watercolors of the view from a hotel room, photos of her suit collection, and drawings of all the pools she's swam in during her life. While the art isn't my style, I still found myself absorbed in the images.
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LibraryThing member paakre
If you love to swim, you will love this book. Shapton captures the world of pools, chlorine, competition, and early morning workouts. Besides experiencing at an early age the rigor of training for Olympic trials, the author is able to draw parallels between practicing for a swim meet and practicing
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drawing, What adds layers of meaning to this unconventional book is the breadth and depth of her talents as writer, artist, and swimmer. She is a first rate observer, and detailer of sensory memory. She translates these memories into paintings. She includes a section of photographs of bathing suits worn by the mannequin not herself that make them all the more evocative. Show Less
LibraryThing member lycomayflower
Leanne Shapton explores, through essays, paintings, and memories, her experiences with swimming, including her years as a high-level competitive swimmer with two trips to the Canadian Olympic trials; vacation swims in various hotel pools, seas, and lakes; and time swimming in Masters' swim programs
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in middle age. The result is a lovely, if uneven, study of swimming, just as the title suggests. Some of her recollections and evocations of swim practice put me right back to my own years as a (not-at-all high-level) competitive swimmer in early adolescence, and I did so much "yes, that"ing at this whole book. Which is always a wonderful sensation in reading. The unevenness comes from the fact that some of the essays don't quite seem to come together and one wonders if they are really for the author alone rather than for an audience. That, of course, is the fine line you walk when you write this sort of thing, and I don't exactly begrudge putting a toe over it once and a while. Recommended to anyone who likes memoir, essay, or contemplation about sport, but most especially to swimmers. Show Less
LibraryThing member FKarr
the adjectives 'delightful' and 'charming' and 'pleasant' often seem to trivialize their subject, but this memoir is all of these without being trivial. I found this a very enjoyable book to read. I liked how she referred to people in her life without any introduction, as though the reader were a
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friend who would know to whom the author referred. I liked the lack of linearity - not rambling, but event following event by relevance and association - very stream of conscious. I appreciated her revealing her struggles with depression, her brushes with fame/the famous, her uncertainies without making them the focus of her life. I liked that her life - what she's done, who has been with her, her wandering way in the world - were the focus of the book. Show Less
Awards
National Book Critics Circle Award (Finalist — Autobiography/Memoir — 2012)
William Hill Sports Book of the Year (Longlist — 2012)
The A.V. Club best books (2012)
Original publication date
2012-07-05