Florence Adler Swims Forever by Rachel BeanlandMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
The premise of the novel is a bit preposterous but then like many a preposterous premise; it actually happened! After Florence drowns (revealed in the description so not a spoiler), the mother determines that they must keep this from Fannie, Florence's older sister, who is bedridden in the hospital during her third trimester of an at-risk pregnancy. Fearing the news would endanger the baby and the mom, the family, lead by the mother, determine to keep tragedy secret until the baby is born. It is a bit hard to believe that any one would think to do this or go along with this, but, it is in fact based on Beanland's own family history. While the story is, according to Beanland, fictionalized, the core premise: the drowning, the at-risk sister, and the hiding of the truth are true.
I wavered back and forth with most of the characters: in the end, I came to like them, or at least, better understand where they were coming from. The tragedy and the subsequent lying warped and affected all the characters. Some of what I didn't like about this or that character was really the subtle reflection of that warping.
I thought the author did a great job of depicting 1930s Atlantic City. The added tension from trying to get Anna's parents out of Europe captured aspects of the American Jewish experience of this time.
There were small notes here and there that were off. The best example of this was a scene were shellfish was served at a meal. That in itself is hardly worth mentioning, but the author made note of the dish, but didn't have any of the characters respond in any way to this fact. This was odd to me. Not that they ate it, but that there was nothing about the violation of kashrut. Given the role in other parts of the book for halacha (Jewish Law), this was out of place. Unlike a book a like The Chosen, the Jewishness of the story is really more of a backdrop rather than anything that is really all that essential to the characters or the plot.
Gussie and Stuart were definitely my favorite characters. Stuart, as the only main character that was not Jewish, plays an interesting role in the story. I keep coming back to the idea that teaching your child to swim is one of things the Talmud explicitly says parents are responsible for doing. The father does teach Florence to swim initially, but it is Stuart who becomes her coach and trainer. And then Stuart teaches Anna. I am not sure there is anything to this or not, but I thought it was curious.
Isaac, well, Isaac was just a shit.
I think there were some missed opportunities for some deeper exploration of the way Jews deal with grief and birth and family, but it is still a good and engaging story.
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