Mary-Rose MacColl's Swimming Home is the story of two very strong women, one by choice and the other by circumstance. Set in 1925 the story begins in Australia but moves to England then to New York and back again. Both women take journeys, both physically and emotionally that will be painful at times but life altering, too. Of course there are all sorts of dramatic family secrets that will cause unhappiness and turmoil. Secrets long held, maybe a few kept thanks to short-sightedness, kept with the best intentions, but twisting and turning the story in unexpected ways. 'Swimming Home' is an apt title since home, in this case, has more than one meaning and both women are searching for the place to call home.
For Catherine Quick home is always Australia. In particular the small island off the north coast where she has spent her short life in happiness and contentment. Her best friend Michael calls her Waapi, which in his native tongue means fish. For Catherine, the water, the ocean so close at hand is also home to her, and much like a fish she cannot bear to be away from it for long. It all comes to a shuddering halt when her beloved father dies of a sudden and unexpected heart attack. Catherine's mother drowned several years prior, so she has been raised by her physician father and their housemaid, Florence.
Only fifteen, Catherine must go with her closest relative, her aunt Louisa. She is deemed too young to stay on the island without any 'family', though for Catherine Florence is as close to a mother as she has had and Michael is as close as a brother. Of course for a proper Englishwoman the idea of Catherine living with a native woman and her son is impossible. Louisa, like Harry and her elder brother Alexander is a physician. And like her other siblings she studied in America, and now she runs a clinic in one of London's poorer areas. It is a lifestyle that was hard fought and won. She knows about difficulties and determination as in her younger days she fought with the suffragettes for the vote. For Louisa, education is everything. She believes that if she takes Catherine back to London and gives her a good education that happiness and independence will follow. Catherine will forget the island and move on to a new life. But what she thinks is best for any young woman, what she wants most for herself, is not necessarily the best solution or road to happiness for her young niece. It's all with the best intentions . . .
When the story opens, and I wrote about it briefly in my teaser, for Catherine swimming is her happiness, her independence and the island her home. Swimming is what she loves and just what she does without any semblance of artificiality or affectation. It is not a game to be won or lost, it's just a part of her body and spirit. She is expelled from her school when she not only swims the Thames River but encourages her classmates to come along. She doesn't do it for any notoriety but the water calls out to her. She does it for the pure joy of being in the water. Louisa will never understand this, so the two women clash. Each doesn't understand the other and the thrust of the story is how two women, each wary of the other will ultimately come together and create their own idea of family.
When Louisa is given the opportunity to help start up a clinic in America, she decides it is just what Catherine needs. Catherine can get away from London, and she will have an opportunity to swim with young American swimmers. The rage is for a woman to swim the English Channel. It is the ultimate of swimming challenges for anyone, and as yet, no woman has accomplished it. Although Catherine faces stiff competition, she is the best swimmer to come along ever. But she swims out of love for the sport rather than any desire to win anything. Louisa thinks when she gets this out of her system, she will settled down to school and move past it. She decides it's best to cut off any contact between Catherine and her friends in Australia and withholds all letters going back and forth. It really is with best intentions, but it backfires. Catherine is like a selkie. Like the mythological creature that must shed her skin to stay on dry land, Catherine also loses all sense of who she is and her unhappiness is palpable.
If I have any quibbles about the story it is that it tends to sag a little in the middle. It's easy to see where the story is going, but at times the storytelling feels very sluggish getting there. It has all the right elements, but for me there was some connection with the characters lacking. I can't quite put my finger on what it was exactly that made it feel less like a good flow rather than moving through treacle. That said, once the resolution was in sight the story moved at a nice pace and had a few good turns left to it. A good read, but maybe I wanted (like Catherine) to be in Australia more than England or America. The story does very nicely come full circle with a most satisfying resolution, however. I've noticed a lot of press about the book of late, and it is well worth a read if the story appeals.
Next up for my own Australian (summer) reading is back to Kate Morton's The Forgotten Garden, which I am now reading in earnest and am happy to get back into the story. As I was trying to finish a few books this month, a few others got set aside, so it will be back to Nevil Shute's A Town Like Alice as well, and then I have a couple other books by him and I'd like to get to at least one of them this summer still. I've also got Joan Lindsay's Picnic at Hanging Rock and Patricia Carlon's crime novel Who Are You, Linda Condrick? sitting on my reading pile at the ready. I have also accumulated a few more new books by Australian writers so I have plenty to choose from (and plenty of books to keep the momentum going)!