A beautiful, meditative book that brought me thoughtful moments, joyful moments and filled me with curiosity. Able was no longer there, and I stopped, and spun, trying to find her. Beginning in the 1990s, the author-narrator is a recent college graduate, a lost and confused would-be writer, spending the summer at his family's summer home on Lake Michigan, with plans to stay o. Lovely, tender, introspective, intertextual, and surprisingly suspenseful. Buy, Mar 12, 2019 “The Night Swimmer” introduces us to an idealistic young couple from Vermont who take over the Nightjar, a moldering pub in a lonely corner of County Cork. He begins taking epic lake swims at night, and finds a companion in Mrs. Abel, a young widow. While the writing is fine, the story, to the extent there is one, is meandering and pointless. With provocative and elegiac prose, Rock pulls his reader into the depths of this story.”—Shelf Awareness “Haunting, elegiac . Some of the most beautiful writing I've ever encountered in this book, the rhythm of the story at times even conveying the feeling of swimming with long strokes and glides. the book’s moody sense of hidden depths and dangers will intrigue those open to an atmospheric and contemplative novel.”—Publishers Weekly“Part page-turner and part aesthetic treatise, Rock’s (Spells, 2017, etc.) These chapters alternate with even less interesting chapters from the narrator in his present day that just sound like they're probably the author in his real life. How could a book go awry with my favorites: water, the night, swimming? I found it hilarious that he didn't really seem con. At what point do we break past hesitation to know those we are drawn to? This small book is elegantly written, and a lovely summer read. And they swim together. . “On the horizon I could see the lights of distant boats…We found our rhy, There’s nothing like diving into a novel with depth. Finalist for the 2020 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionFinalist for the 2020 Oregon Book AwardsA Powell’s Books Pick of the Month March 2019 Praise for The Night Swimmers “Quiet, moody, and beautiful.” —BuzzFeed Books “Portland writer Peter Rock’s autobiographical novel flows through layers of memory, relationships and life as the narrator looks back two decades to the strange period when he and an older widow spent summer nights swimming for miles in Lake Michigan’s open waters. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of, Published Beautifully done, The Night Swimmers is a complex, layered coming-of-age tale that digs deep to deliver its hard-fought wisdom. I could not keep count of my strokes.”. The Night Swimmers. The stars, the horizon, lights that could be boats or more stars.". Two stars only for the parts that involved Mrs. Abel. March 12th 2019 There is great writing for this novel about a young man's long night swims with a mysterious, increasingly ethereal widow who is young enough to create sexual tension during their swims but old enough to separate herself from him. Peter Rock was born and raised in Salt Lake City. . In my imagination, this is not nearly as creepy as it sounds. Imagine You’re in Morocco with Laila Lalami. Night Swimmers Lyrics: Another hot summer’s day / And only we know the way / To the cool blue lagoon / Where we sleep until noon / The city is … When their dad is away performing at night, they slip into a neighbor’s pool to swim and pretend to have a glamorous life beneath the light of the moon. We are experiencing technical difficulties. WorldCat Home About WorldCat Help. This is my first audiobook in several years and my introduction to Mr. Rock, and I will be checking out more of his novels. His stories and freelance writing have both appeared and been anthologized widely, and his books published in various countries and languages. The narrator strikes up a companionable friendship with a widow who lives up the road from his parents house as they share a love of night swimming. “Swimming at night, to compare its slipperiness to that of a dream would be to ignore the work of staying afloat, the mesmerism brought on by the rhythm, the repetition of the strokes.” Beneath the surface of Lake Michigan there are vast systems: crosscutting currents, sudden drop-offs, depths of absolute darkness, shipwrecked bodies, hidden places. Murakami flavored, a little messy, but still cute. A quick read! The Night Swimmers by Peter Rock Beneath the surface of Lake Michigan there are vast systems: crosscutting currents, sudden drop-offs, depths … By clicking Sign Up, I acknowledge that I have read and agree to Penguin Random House's Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. latest is, like the currents of the Great Lakes, subtle and haunted, deeply complex and ‘quietly . She is a mystery to him, and remains so. She wrote over sixty books for young people. It took me about 45 pages to fall into it, and just when I thought, hmmm, I'm not sure, something clicked for me, and I couldn't stop reading. Additionally, dine-in services at the restaurants will be unavailable. This information about The Night Swimmer shown above was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. And that love of night swimming brings Claire Abel into his purview. The Night Swimmers is a beautiful delving, a rapturous dive into the mysteries of ordinary life.”—Leni Zumas, author of Red Clocks“Peter Rock has written a weird and haunting story about a younger man and an older woman who like to swim in the dark. After reading this book, I feel I know him so much more, as both a gifted author and as a person who sees the world in that quiet, layered, deeply conscious way that only certain artists and writers have. There really isn't much here, a story of a teenaged boy intrigued with a woman living nearby and they both swim at night. He wants to be a writer and his writing is often performative, he imagines neighbors seeing him, seated beneath a lamp, working, and he loves the idea that people may talk of him as 'the wri, A beautiful, meditative book that brought me thoughtful moments, joyful moments and filled me with curiosity. Beautifully done, The Night Swimmers is a complex, layered coming-of-age tale that digs deep to deliver its hard-fought wisdom. The Night Swimmers (Book) : Rock, Peter : "Beneath the surface of Lake Michigan there are vast systems: crosscutting currents, sudden drop-offs, depths of absolute darkness, shipwrecked bodies, hidden places. A bit self-indulgent at times but overall a very lovely book. Buy The Night Swimmers by Betsy Byars online at Alibris. I would love to sit at Powell Books, not require masks (better to gauge facial expressions), and ask all the questions that came up as I hung on every word of this book. Beautifully and vividly written. We have new and used copies available, in 8 editions - starting at $0.99. "When she turned, her foot gently kicked, brushed my ribs, and then we were heading out further, deeper… We found our rhythm again, the slight chill of the water receding with the effort. The Night Swimmers by Betsy Byars tells the story of three children who have essentially lost both their parents the night their mother died. When do we develop the ability to have intimacy? At night, he swims miles in the vast, slippery, dark lake waters, despite wayward currents and other hazards. Search. The narrator tells a wonderful story of summers spent a the summer cabin at the lake, swimming long distances at night and suddenly finding himself with a companion. . A very evocative and unfussily beautiful bit of autofiction. Lovely, tender, introspective, intertextual, and surprisingly suspenseful. . The Night Swimmers Peter Rock. Ms. Byars’s award-winning children’s books, including “The Summer of the Swans” and “The Night Swimmers,” often dealt with abandonment. However, take-away and delivery services can be provided but restaurants will have to shut shop during the night curfew, DNA reported. Or at least, I thought I knew Pete. by Soho Press. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, an Alex Award and others, he currently lives in Portland, Oregon, where he is a Professor in the English Department of Reed College. But one night, she mysteriously and temporarily disappears while exploring a strange shoal. I had the sense, before I began reading, that this was going to be a prototypical coming-of-age story, focused on a relationship between a younger man and an older woman. “Otherworldly . —Leni Zumas, author of Red Clocks. He also likes swimming at night. But it's not at all, and I am so pleased that it wasn't. Buy. "Byars has the uncanny ability to know the secret lives...the outward postures, and the exact words her characters would surely use." Seems like a writing exercise disguised as a mystery story. The Night Swimmers is a beautiful delving, a rapturous dive into the mysteries of ordinary life.” —Leni Zumas, author of Red Clocks “Peter Rock has written a weird and haunting story about a younger man and an older woman who like to swim in the dark. Wow, wow, wow! . sinister’; his readers, like his swimmers, ought to know ‘that the currents of the subsurface are likely to be moving.’”—Kirkus Reviews “An undeniably lovely novel.”—Booklist “The turbulent and unpredictable Lake Michigan where the pair swim is an apt metaphor for this heavily atmospheric novel. There is more to the story than just the summers at the lake; however, I tend to believe in letting stories speak for themselves. The night swims with her were the most interesting parts of the book for me. Much of who we are and what influences us lies right below the surface— “shadowy figures, shards of other times, glimpses into thickets of trees, rooms of houses I’ve never been inside.” For our unnamed narrator, who is certainly Peter Rock, an influence has always been Mrs. Abel, a mysterious 40-something widow who swims nightly in the currents of Lake Michigan. Rock is fearless in exposing his character's failings, but better yet is the way he tells the story of the transformation from hesitant, wary youth to open, honest adult, while the road between is littered with the twin dangers of pain and rejection. At first I underlined every word, phrase, thought that reminded me if Rock’s earlier books. Decades later, his free-spirited daughter is determined to … And yet, it was a challenge to read. . The story starts in the 1990s on Wisconsin’s Door Peninsula. I’ve always said “My Abandonment” is my favorite. . But freedom doesn’t mean happiness, especially when a new crisis emerges. I loved the feel of the night swimming scenes and wish there had been more of them. I think I would have preferred reading the book, than listening to it, but I may be wrong. These children struggle to experience life and friendship because they have no one at home to support them or push them to do better than they are. Happily The Night Swimmers is no male coming of age story. Peter Rock’s stunning autobiographical novel begins in the ’90s on the Door Peninsula of Wisconsin. . The Night Swimmers Winner, National Book Awards 1981 for Children's Books - Fiction, Hardcover. There is more to the story than just the summers at the lake; however, I tend to believe in letti. The blackness below, the darkness above, the way they blended together and time stretched. Peter Rock's gorgeous exploration of his young adulthood in Wisconsin in the summer of 1994 is perfectly realized in his autobiographical novel, The Night Swimmers. [Was the sighted "body" swimming/not swimming implying that Mrs. The narrator strikes up a companionable friendship with a widow who lives up the road from his parents house as they share a love of night swimming. The book is about a young man, who returns to his parent's home after college. “On the horizon I could see the lights of distant boats…We found our rhythm again, the slight chill of the water receding with the effort. | ISBN 9781641291279 Refresh and try again. . I listened to a recording of the book, so didn’t actually read it. Happily The Night Swimmers is no male coming of age story. The rest was just page after page of self-absorption: how the author felt when his past relationships didn't work out, what happened to the letters he wrote to his old girlfriends, what he thought about while he was floating in a sensory deprivation tank, what books he was reading at different times in his life. The narrator has recently graduated from college and is beginning his life as a writer (all the hows and whys of his future remain undefined and this troubles him). Instead their secret nightly practice in a dark and foreboding lake shimmers as a queer refusal for either of them to grow … The narrator, a recent college graduate, and a young widow, Mrs. Abel, swim together at night, making their way across miles of open water, navigating the currents and swells and carried by the rise and fall of the lake. by Peter Rock. And Peter Rock certainly shows us the depths of Lake Michigan and his love of night swimming in open water, as he looks back, age 50, to the summer of 1994, when he was 26 and a recent college grad. Really, Dad??? This is truly a story of love and mystique, but it’s not a love story. These children struggle to experience life and friendship because they have no one at home to support them or push them to do better than they are. By clicking SIGN UP, I acknowledge that I have read and agree to Penguin Random House’s, Editor's Picks: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Your Second Life Begins When You Realize You Only Have One, Discover Book Picks from the CEO of Penguin Random House US. I went looking for books from the Tournament of Books 2020 longlist in Hoopla and landed on The Night Swimmers is audio. In hard copy. The narrator, a recent college graduate, and a young widow, Mrs. Abel, swim together at night. This is not a Mrs. Robinson. Oy! Retta, Johnny and Roy are the night swimmers: three children whose father leaves them alone while he performs as a singer. Please help me to understand. Buy this book. [Betsy Cromer Byars] -- With their mother dead and their father working nights, Retta tries to be mother to her two younger brothers but somehow things just don't seem to be working right. I could not keep count of my strokes. 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