Hello Interwebs!
The second book I read in August was Barnes & Noble's July reading club pick Florence Adler Swims Forever by Rachel Beanland. This is a historical fiction set in 1930s that follows the family and friends of Florence Adler, a swimmer who tragically drowns while training to swim the English Channel in the summer following her death. As always, spoilers follow the picture.
This book takes place in early summer in the 1930s and Florence Adler is training to swim the English Chanel later in the summer. She is a young woman, home from college for the summer and staying with her parents who also have a young German woman staying with them as well as Florence's niece. Florence's married sister is on bed rest in the hospital as she's having complications with her pregnancy. The first day we see Florence in the book she goes for a swim while the family is on the beach and somehow tragically drowns. The rest of the novel follows her family and friends after her death: her mother, father, sister, brother-in-law, niece, the German boarder, and her lifeguard friend. The family decides not to tell her sister, to protect her while she's trying to carry her baby to term despite complications. And the story unfolds along with the secrets each member of the family is hiding. Anna is the daughter of a woman the father knew in Germany, a woman it is revealed he was engaged to before he came to the US. The mother harbors guilt about her two daughters and how she treated them both. The sister is blissfully unaware of Florence's death but haunted by the death of her son between her current pregnancy and her daughter due to a premature birth. Florence's brother-in-law wants more than he wants to put effort into. He hates his past as the son of poor Jewish farmers and follows get rich quick schemes. Florence's lifeguard friend struggles between his father's expectations, his own desires and his unrequited love for Florence. In the end, everything comes together. While teaching the German girl to swim the lifeguard falls in love with her and proposes to marry her to make her an American citizen and pave the way to bringing her parents from Germany. Florence's father convinces his son-in-law to leave his daughter and never come back after ruining their family in yet another scheme. Florence's sister safely delivers her child, a girl. And Florence's mother comes to terms with her own shortcomings including making amends with her older daughter for how her baby's death was handled. In the end the ending is bitter sweet but it was a good book.
I enjoyed the fact that even though the book is all about Florence Adler and her life and death, she is the only character who does not get her own chapter. She never tells any of the story in her own voice. I thought that was an interesting choice. I also learned a lot about the Jews in America between the world wars and the difficulty in bringing Jews from Europe despite the growing tensions in Germany with the Nazis. I also learned a bit about Jewish culture and beliefs as well. For example, part of what the grandmother regrets with her elder daughter is her strict adherence to Jewish beliefs in response to the death of her premature infant. Before a certain number of days the baby isn't considered alive or a person and therefore when he dies just short of that cutoff the grandmother denies him a funeral and a proper burial, insisting that the baby be buried in an unmarked grave outside the cemetery. It reminded me of the unbaptized babies buried outside the church yard with Catholics. All in all this was a highly enjoyable book and a time period that I am not very familiar with. All of the books I've read set in the 1930s was based in the dust bowl/depression setting rather than a normal family still surviving well-enough on the Jersey shore. I read this book from August 6 to August 10th and gave it a nice 4.5/5 stars. I definitely enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone.
Happy Reading!
Richelle and Emma
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