Swimming, Nicola Keegan
Swimming, Nicola Keegan
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Swimming

Author: Nicola Keegan

Narrator: Aya Cash

Unabridged: 12 hr 8 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/14/2009


Synopsis

A ferociously original novel, sparkling with wit and blazing
with emotion, from a gifted new novelist.

A spectacular debut about the rise of an Olympic champion -- a novel about competition, obsession, the hunger for victory, and a young girl with an unsinkable spirit struggling to stay afloat in the only way she can.

When we first meet Pip, the extraordinary heroine of Nicola Keegan's first novel, she is landlocked in a small town in the center of Kansas, literally swimming for her life. Pip is tall and flat and smart and funny and supernaturally buoyant. On land, she has her share of troubles: an agoraphobic mother, a lost father, a drug-addled sister, and a Catholic education dominated by a group of high-energy nuns. But in the water, Pip is unstoppable. In the water, her suffering and rage are transmuted into grace and speed and beauty.

Swimming is the story of Pip's journey from a small Midwestern swim team to her first state meet, her brutal professional training, and the final, record-breaking swims that lead to her dizzying ascent to the Olympic podium in Barcelona. It's the story of a girl who discovers, in the loneliness of adolescence, in the family tragedies that threaten to engulf her, the resilience of the human spirit and the spectacular power of her own body.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Katie on August 10, 2011

I wanted to rate this a "4" but I started liking it less towards the end. As Philomena (the lead character) got more mentally unstable, the text got more stream-of-consciousness-y and it started to lose my interest. I see where the author was going with that, but I just really wasn't following it as......more

Goodreads review by Erk on December 14, 2011

Go Swimming. There are certain books that make me into S-L-O-W Man. Stories that I don't want to end: Unbearable Lightness of Being. The Shipping News. The Wind Up Bird Chronicle. I don my goggles, stick my head in a bucket of amber and suspend time- trying to read as slowly as humanly possible. Add......more

Goodreads review by Denise on June 09, 2010

3.0 out of 5 stars Live to swim and swim to live..., June 1, 2009 This review is from: Swimming (Hardcover) I finished this book a couple of days ago and had to give it some thought and reflection before I commented on it. This novel, about a girl who lives to swim and swims to live, has a lot of amb......more

Goodreads review by Amy on July 21, 2009

At various points my opinion of "Swimming" traversed a roller-coaster veering from one to five stars: down, up, and down again. "Swimming" defies easy categorization, and is certainly not a typical sports bio. The swimming itself, and especially the Olympic experiences, are not the focal point of th......more

Goodreads review by zan on August 29, 2009

I didn't think I would give this book five stars. At first it felt too cluttered, a bit pretentious, and a bit too precious. But reading this book was like running downhill - at some point it becomes so exhilerating, so terrifying, and so wonderful that you have to exclaim out loud.......more