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Eileen Clemens Granfors

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Blogs by Eileen Clemens Granfors

TEN STARS ON A FIVE-STAR SCALE
6/5/2009 8:46:06 AM


I was blown away by the talent of this author. I loved the book, but now I'm filled with self-doubt about my own work.

TEN STARS WOULD NOT BE ENOUGH


Nicola Keegan’s irrepressible first novel tells the story of a young girl’s rise from a tall Kansas hick to world- famous Olympic swimmer.

I loved the book for its dissection of the competitive spirit, the details of training (including the motivational speeches and the required diets) and the mentality of the super athlete. The analysis of the opposition was both snarky and sympathetic.

I loved this book for its depiction of swimming as escape from the burdens life places upon families through illness, through dysfunction, through grief and loss and difference and plain old growing up. “Swimming” also gives us the friendship of Philomena and the Cocoplat with warmth and grace as the two change, grow, grow apart, reconcile.

I loved this book for the voice of the narrator, Philomena, her honesty, exuberance, honesty, and self-doubt.

“Swimming” is funny, heart-breaking, wild, detailed, luminous, shattering, and wonderful book. It is absolutely my favorite book in years.

Brava, brava, brava, Ms. Keegan! “Swimming” is “Ulysses” without the intellectual pretense. The esteemed Harold Bloom of Yale may not agree, but I have “nunnerisms” straight from Philomena to tell him what I think of all that literary blather. This is a book for the ages and the people, not just the ivory-tower crowd.


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More Blogs by Eileen Clemens Granfors
• Back to Work - Thursday, December 28, 2017
• Early Resolution - Thursday, December 23, 2010
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• Take Advice from Hemingway - Sunday, August 8, 2010
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• TIME OUT! - Sunday, August 16, 2009
• No Brainer, No Escape - Monday, July 27, 2009
• The Wedge - Thursday, July 16, 2009
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