The Swimmer by Roma Tearne

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The Swimmer by Roma Tearne

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1kidzdoc
jul 7, 2011, 10:50 am

Ria is a poet who lives alone in the small East Anglian town of Ipswich, surrounded by small minded and nosy neighbors who are isolated from their fellow Britons, and fearful of the immigrants that are slowly infiltrating the country and their region. Her only close living relative is her brother Jack, a bully interested in right-wing politics who frequently harasses and troubles her, along with his less than lovable wife and children, and she is not particularly friendly with anyone in town, whose citizens view her with suspicion as an outsider who has returned from London to live amongst them.

Ria's uneasy peace is disrupted one night as she spots a man emerging from a swim in the river adjacent to her home. She eventually meets him, and learns that he is a young doctor from Sri Lanka who has fled his troubled country for the safety of England, and works on a nearby farm while he waits for his application for political asylum to be processed. At the same time, there are a series of crimes being committed by a person of color in the region, along with increased suspicions from the townspeople that a group of foreign terrorists are hiding nearby, which leads to greater scrutiny of Ria and her home as she and the young man become ever closer.

The Swimmer describes a maudlin love story, which is followed by an improbable and, for this reader, very distasteful second love story, along with the increased xenophobia of the citizens of a small town and a country fearful of immigrants of color and terrorism. I found this novel to be superficial and its characters to be quite trivial, especially in comparison to Tearne's superb previous novel Brixton Beach.

2Nickelini
jul 7, 2011, 11:31 am

I'm disappointed to hear that you were disappointed with this one! Interesting that it was even nominated and her earlier books weren't. (I still think Mosquito was her best book.) Anyway, I still plan to read this (once I'm finished One hundred Years of Solitude, that is) and I hope I like it more than you did--after all, it would be boring if we all liked the same things.

3kidzdoc
jul 7, 2011, 12:06 pm

I bought Mosquito and Bone China, her other two novels, based on how much I liked Brixton Beach, and I'm still quite eager to read them. Other reviewers liked The Swimmer far more than I did, so I wouldn't want to turn anyone away from reading it.

4vancouverdeb
jul 10, 2011, 7:20 am

As a result of both of your interest in Roma Tearne's books , I finally caved and purchased Mosquito from the Book Depository. I coudn't find anything by Roma Tearne at my library, nor at bookstores in the Vancouver area - so I'll be very interested in reading Mosquito. Brixton Beach sound fascinating -but I guess I will start with one and see what I think.

5Nickelini
sep 4, 2011, 1:03 pm


The Swimmer describes a maudlin love story, which is followed by an improbable and, for this reader, very distasteful second love story, along with the increased xenophobia of the citizens of a small town and a country fearful of immigrants of color and terrorism. I found this novel to be superficial and its characters to be quite trivial, especially in comparison to Tearne's superb previous novel Brixton Beach.

I just finished The Swimmer this morning, and so I had to revisit this thread and reread why you disliked it, Darryl. I agree 150% that the second love story was improbable, and yes, I suppose it was also somewhat distasteful. I mean, it's certainly not a direction I would have chosen for myself. I also thought that the descriptions of Anula's grief went on waaaaay to long. Enough already!

Otherwise, I don't see the novel the way you did. I'm trying to see what prompted you to call it superficial and the characters trivial, because that didn't come to my mind. However, at this point I also don't have a strong counter-argument.

I did not like The Swimmer as much as the other Roma Tearne novels. However, I did like that she set her book in England--after all, she's lived there since she was 10. I adore her writing about Sri Lanka--don't get me wrong--but it does seem to me that she probably knows England better than her birthplace and so writing about it would be natural. Whatever, just a thought. I also think that there were some interesting things going on--I liked the eel symbolism, for one.

Okay, I'll be back with some more comments after I've let the book settle in my brain a bit more.

6Nickelini
sep 4, 2011, 2:04 pm

Okay, back with some more thoughts. This was what I wrote on my review page:

I can't get too far in describing this book without getting into spoiler territory, so all I'm going to say is that it's about a 43 year old English woman who lives a fairly isolated life in Suffolk, a young Sri Lankan refugee, the refugee's mother and some racist Brits. There is a great deal of sadness and tragedy in the book, but the ending is somewhat hopeful.

This is the fourth Roma Tearne book I've read, and the author's latest. I can see her evolution as a writer. This book is quite different from her others, in most part because it focuses on English characters and England rather than Sri Lankans and Sri Lanka. She did some interesting things in the novel, and as always, uses beautiful poetic language and original imagery.

However, I didn't like this one as much as her earlier books. Parts of the story were a little unbelievable, and the grief and anger suffered by some of the characters was overblown (not that it was unjustified, it's just that she belabored the point). Also, the novel was told in three character's points of view, and I found the transition between these characters to be overly abrupt. I can see why she used this technique, but I think it needed work to make it less jarring.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Why I Read This Now: because Tearne is one of my favourite contemporary writers.

Recommended for: This was a decent, readable story--enough so that it was nominated for the Orange Prize. If you haven't read Tearne yet, I suggest you start with Mosquito, which is still my favourite of hers.

7mrstreme
sep 11, 2011, 7:59 am

Great thoughts, Joyce! I still need to read something by Tearne. Sounds like Mosquito is the place to start.

8buriedinprint
sep 22, 2011, 10:22 pm

The Swimmer was one of my favourite books of this year's Orange Prize longlist. (My thoughts are here.) But I hadn't read any of her novels before, so I didn't have any expectations going in. Also (as I mentioned in my post), I do think it was a perfect placement as its style contrasted beautifully with the books I read on either side of it. I do understand why aspects of it would not appeal to every reader, but I was very impressed and, even though months have passed since, I still think back to the story. I expect I'll re-read it at some point, but I do also want to try other works of hers too.

9Nickelini
sep 22, 2011, 11:44 pm

What a lovely, thoughtful review. Thanks for the link, BuriedinPrint.