The Swimmers book review

Have you ever looked at your life and thought, "Today feels really important. I have to remember it." If you never thought that, you're just like the rest of us. Keep reading to find out what book we're talking about Today. 

Hey, I'm Kyla Denanyoh. Today, we're talking about the book, The Swimmers. The author of the book is Julie Otsuka. The genre of the book is fiction. The theme of the book is literature. 

Literature is an exciting category for me. This is just an aside. Literature means a lack of denomination, a lack of a category. So it doesn't mean young adult. It doesn't mean African-American fiction. 

So, The Swimmers is a cute little read. It's a little diminutive book. It's also a deep, deep, deep book. One of my favorite quotes in the book is when someone asks, "Do you ever have the nagging feeling that you just wasted your entire life?" 

What?!

Was your entire life wasted? That was really important because the book is all about these swimmers. They love to do the backstroke, and some of them love to do the breaststroke. They show up at the pool; this is their whole life.

They can't wait—oh my god, I gotta get to the pool. Well, the pool closes. But the reason why it closes is so fascinating. Then, you get into the lives of the people who showed up at the pool and why the pool is so relevant to them. 

So you're watching these people who cannot wait to get to the pool. They're craving to get back to the pool. They're craving to get back to the stuff they do, the routine, the habit. And then someone's like, Did you just waste your whole life? Did I waste my entire life? Is that possible? And then when do you have that question? Do you have that question when you're at a certain age? Do you have that question when you leave a job? Do you have that question before you get to the pool? Is this what you're thinking about while you're swimming? 

This book is giving The Notebook movie. You're reading, oh wow, how cool, and you get flashback, flashback, and you're just like, I wanna talk to them now. I don't wanna, I mean, it's cool, but I wanted to hear about the swimmers. But it is about the swimmers, literally, it's what the book's called. I wanted to stay where they were, and there were so many flashbacks. 

I was like, man, I wish it could have been called How to Become a Swimmer or I'm Gonna Be a Swimmer—anything, anything else. No excuses needed, but it was very fascinating to see because these people show up, and you see them in that moment, and you have no idea what else is going on. 

So it was amazing to see how swimming meant so much to them, how swimming made her think about how she was allowed to be a part of this community because she wasn't allowed based on a lot of things that she went through in her history, you know, different kinds of Japanese incarceration camps, all these different things. And it's like, I had no idea. 

I thought we were just showing up to swim. So would I reread this book? No, I would not reread it for that reason. But it was fascinating to see because these people show up, and you see them in that moment. You have no idea what else is going on. And I came to find out that the pool was really a refuge for a lot of them. So when someone asks, do you ever feel you're wasting your entire life? It's just like, What was your whole life about? 

Until the next book review, Kyla