"Night Swim" by Jessica Keener

If you stood on the street and looked in at the Kunitz family home in 1970s suburban Massachusetts, you would think that you'd found the perfect family:  beautiful home, beautiful mother who had at one time been a noted violinist, father who worked at a professor at a nearby college, four beautiful children, a maid to cook and clean for them, membership at the country club and regular parties at the home for all their other well to do friends.  However, things are not always what they seem.  If you actually looked in the house, you would see a fractured family.  Six separate individuals who have trouble relating with one another.  Each person has their own crutch to make it through the day -quick, angry outbursts fueled by alcohol for the father, pills and alcohol for the mother, music for the two oldest children, books and an imaginary world of animals for the youngest children.  This is Sarah Kunitz's life when she was sixteen years old.  This is what happened leading up to and after her mother died.

The story is told by adult Sarah, looking back on roughly one year of her life.  You see enough of her current life to know how she eventually fared, but without much detail.  It isn't needed.  The story to tell is in the past.  I really enjoyed how this narration worked as it added an extra layer of depth to the story like a veil.  She was speaking from the position of experience, but still fully expressing the naivete of her teenage self. This was coupled with a beautiful writing style.  I really loved how the author used certain words and phrases create this world filled with confusion, bullying, and a search for love and belonging.  It is all at once profound and thoughtful and very accessible - a pleasure to read.

The lovely ladies at TLC Book Tours have provided an extra copy of this book for one of you!  The giveaway is open to US or Canadian residents only, and PO Boxes cannot be accepted.  Please fill out this FORM to enter; giveaway ends February 2nd.

*****
Night Swim
by Jessica Keener
Fiction Studio, 2012
284 pages
Source:  TLC Book Tours
*****
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