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ksoles
Mar 03, 2013ksoles rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
A stranger destroying an already-crumbling marriage hardly seems like a unique plot formula. However, as soon as the beautiful, deranged Kitty Finch shows up at an English family's villa in Nice, Deborah Levy's storytelling becomes allusive, elliptical and disturbing. Her novel not only explores relationships; it also probes into the nature of childhood trauma, exile, depression and creativity. "Swimming Home" uses spare but fresh prose to tell a tale from multiple viewpoints and several generations. At its centre sits poet Joe Jacobs, whose history as a Jewish child in the Polish woods haunts him. Together, Joe's teenaged daughter, Nina, and 80-year-old doctor Madeleine offer an authentic range of female experience while his seemingly victimized wife, Isabel, constantly upends readers' expectations. This shocking novel harrowingly explores loss and longing, ending with the adult Nina's terrifying understanding that she can never know when the past begins and ends.