If you’re thinking about checking out The Swimmers yourself, don’t worry about spoilers. The first part of my reviews are always spoiler-free so you can see if the book is your cup of tea. After a quick summary and a basic review, I’ll give a spoiler warning and do a deep dive into my thoughts on The Swimmers.

Julie Otsuka is an American, New York-based author, and before The Swimmers, she published When the Emperor Was Divine and The Buddha in the Attic. The Buddha in the Attic came out in 2011, and The Swimmers didn’t come until eleven years later in 2022. The Swimmers won the 2023 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction.

Content Warning

I always like to give a quick content warning for any sensitive topics. These are some content warnings for The Swimmers:

Death.
Dementia.
Depression.
Miscarriage.
Pregnancy.

Quick Synopsis

The Swimmers tells the story of Alice, a woman suffering from dementia, in two parts. The first half of the book zooms out and describes an underground pool to which many swimmers are loyal, including Alice.

Through the first half of the book, we learn about a crack that appears in the pool, and how it spreads and eventually forces the pool to close. Once the pool is closed, the narrative changes to be more focused on Alice’s experience.

We watch as Alice slowly loses her memory and her sense of self, and as her family decides to place her in a care home. The narrator, Alice’s daughter, describes her visits and interactions with her mother, and what’s it’s like to watch her slowly forget who she is.

My Rating

Everybody has to come up with their own system for judging and rating books, and here’s mine:

One star: I couldn’t finish the book. (DNF)
Two stars: I struggled to finish, but I did.
Three stars: This book was okay and worth reading.
Four stars: I liked this book and I would recommend it to a friend.
Five stars: I’d read this book again, and it’s going on my favorites shelf.

By no means do I think this is a perfect rating system, but I had to come up with something that would help me avoid arbitrarily assigning ratings. This provides a solid guideline for rating qualifications.

The Swimmers is a reflection on family, human connection, living your life to the fullest, and memory. I gave it a four-star rating because I enjoyed it, and would recommend it to a friend, but I wouldn’t read it again.

Summary

We’re now entering the spoiler-y part of this review. If you think The Swimmers sounds like your cup of tea, click away, read it, and come back to see if you agree or disagree with my critique. If you like the sound of the book but you don’t want to read it, don’t worry, I’ll give you the full rundown.

SPOILERS

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SPOILERS -

The Swimmers is a story told in two parts. The first half of this story tells us about the close-knit, almost cult-like community surrounding a local underground pool. Through a first-person, plural account, we hear about all the people who use this pool and what they like about it.

Those who visit the pool are obsessive, and the book makes it clear that their dedication to swimming often affects their “above-ground” or “on-land” lives.

For the first portion of the book, we learn all about their habits and why they swim. Among the cast at the pool are retirees, Olympian swimmers, young people, rude people, and the occasional outsider, who comes in, follows none of the rules, then disappears just as quickly.

Once we’re convinced about how much these people rely on the pool, a crack appears. For months, there’s lots of deliberation, but the swimmers are assured that there’s nothing wrong with the pool, and it’s not losing any water.

It remains a single crack for a while, then disappears for a day and comes back. One day, another crack appears, then suddenly, the entire pool is covered with them.

The officials say they’ll shut the pool down for an extra week, then for a month, then finally call a meeting and explain that the pool will close indefinitely to avoid further structural damage.

The swimmers mourn the loss, and some decide to leave early. Many of them stick it out to the very end, including Alice, a woman suffering from dementia.

On the last day, the narrator says,

“The exceptional responders among us insist that the closer might not necessarily be such a bad thing. ‘This is just the beginning,” they tell us… We’ll fall in love with our spouses again (the stranger your married)… Remember, for once, to look up at the sky. Because there’s more to life than just following that little black line.”

Once the pool is closed and the lifeguard allows Alice to finish her final lap, she emerges and begins her decline. At this point, the story pivots sharply from telling us about the swimmers to zooming in on Alice herself, through the lens of her daughter.

We learn that Alice was in the internment camps as a child, and that her father fought in the war. She didn’t marry the love of her life, then gave birth to a baby who didn’t make it through the first day.

Alice forgets the name of the president, and the season, and eventually, her family places her in a care home. Her daughter comes to visit her occasionally, wishing she’d spent more time with her mom while she still could.

After spending years in the care home, Alice passes away, and we’re left with the sadness Alice’s daughter feels at her passing.

Deep Dive

Normally, I split this section into two distinct parts: criticism and praise. The Swimmers is an interesting book, and outside of the normal stuff I read, so I’m going to take a different approach and just describe my thoughts on this book.

I struggled to get through the first half of the story. I’m the kind of person who doesn’t read descriptions and just dives into a story. I don’t judge books based on their covers, but that does really affect which books I choose to read.

The Swimmers has a cover that starkly contrasts the contents. It’s shimmering blue background makes you think of summer, and there’s a whole lot of symbolism there around water - of pureness, cleanliness, that doesn’t mirror the actual contents of the book, and I admire that.

Right after the book took its hard turn into focusing on Alice, I got far more invested. This made me feel as though the first half of the book wasn’t necessary, or may even turn some readers away if they struggled to get through it like I did.

However, I also feel that the first part of the book, and it’s wide-angle lens on Alice and her within the context of the pool, does add meaning and punch to the shift in focus. Before seeing Alice through the deeply personal view of her daughter, we see her in a larger context. We see how the crack in the pool affects others so little, but Alice in a much more monumental way.

This isn’t the style of book I’d normally choose to read, but I did enjoy it and thought the writing was really solid. Most of what I didn’t like about it comes from the style and my own reading preferences, which isn’t the book’s fault.

I don’t know if this is because I have experience working in nursing homes, or if this book might make anyone emotional, but I started to tear up near the end. This passage, specifically, was hard-hitting:

“Every time you leave you bend over and give her a kiss. Sometimes she pulls away. Other times she looks at your and offers up an indifferent cheek. Always, as you are walking away, you turn around and look back. Sometimes she is watching you, but she doesn’t seem to recognize your face. Sometimes she is gazing off in to space. Sometimes she is leaning over in her wheelchair and staring down, intently, with fierce concentration, at the top of her feet. She has already forgotten you. Today, however, when you turn around and look back, her hand is half raised in midair and slowly waving goodbye.”

All in all, I found The Swimmers to be a very artful, unique, and well-written book. I gave it a four-star rating because I really enjoyed it and would recommend it to a friend, but wouldn’t read it again.

Book Review | The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka