The publisher Orion had really been bigging this title up, so as someone with a new love of swimming I was keen to read this debut novel. It's nothing of huge literary merit, and some of Libby's descriptions made me raise my eyebrow, slightly baffled (for example 'She shook like a child as they kissed like grown ups. No-one tells a tiger to hunt, but still it growls. Her body growled as they kissed'). There are plenty more like that, which made it sound very amateurish.
Rosemary is 86, has lived in Brixton all her life, and has been taking daily morning swims at her local outdoor lido since she was little. Her strongest memories are going there with her husband George, who has now passed away. The lido is now under threat of closure due to financial struggles, and is due to be owned by a private company wanting to change it into a private member's gym. Kate is a 26 year old reporter, who works on the local paper. She suffers from anxiety, and often finds herself overcome by 'The Panic'. Kate picks up on the story about the lido closure, and works with Rosemary to try to prevent it.
I thought it
over-long, and was bored with some of the descriptive text, and didn't
really engage with any of the characters apart from Rosemary. I was
irritated by Kate, but liked the way the author creates a real community feel by bringing in local shop and stall workers. But if you like a light hearted easy read about friendship then you can't go wrong with this novel.
Oh I just thought this was wonderful - I didn't want it to end. It's one of those books that you just want to be part of, you want to live in their world and live how they live. I guess in this instance it's because all the characters are very free spirited and they all enjoy their lives. I don't want to make out it's a happy book, because it isn't really. A mother has gone missing, feared drowned, so her husband and children have spent 11 years not knowing whether she'll come back into their lives or not. The book has 3 intertwined storylines - the present where it's 2004, the children are grown up and carrying on with their lives, and the father, Gil, has an out-of-control habit of collecting second hand books that have old letters or notes or doodles from past owners in them. The second storyline is from the mother, Ingrid, in 1992 where she is writing letters to an absent Gil, telling him what she and their daughters are doing with their lives, and hiding the letters inside books. The third storyline is also set within the letters - Ingrid is retelling the story from when she and Gil first met in 1976, upto the present. It is mostly through these letters that we learn all the characters, especially that of Gil, and what may have caused Ingrid to disappear.
I loved all the characters, but all in a different way. I thought they were very realistic. I just wanted it to go on and on. I'm definitely going to have to read her first novel 'Our Endless Numbered Days, which won the 2015 Desmond Elliott Prize.
