Swimming Home

pic by Amazon.co.uk

By nightfall of Friday (feb, 1st), i'd done reading this book. i struggled reading it. i dont like all the characters. Especially Kitty and Mitchell. and the theme: the power of the unspoken, hits home, bulls eye.

During the weekend i reread the book because i cant resist it. reading this book was a whole new experience in reading for me. Remember those mystery/thriller books in our primary school library, the one requires us to choose the next action to do (eg: turn to pg 7 if you want to proceed or go to pg 12 if you want to back off). i love those books! it gives you a sense of being one with the book, a sense any reader should experience with a good book. Deborah Levy gave me that experience in Swimming Home.

The story: a famous poet with his equally famous journalist wife went for a holiday in southern France together with their 14 years old daughter, Nina and their life long friends Laura and her fat husband, Mitchell. Then enter Kitty Finch, a skinny, gorgeous red-head swimming naked in the swimming pool of their villa. somehow, Kitty was invited to stay with them. the next seven days with Kitty is the story in this book. nothing really peculiar in the storyline. But, why did Isabel (the poet's wife) invited Kitty(a stranger) to stay (knowing her husband has weakness with young woman)?. who is Kitty Finch?

if you ever experienced looking at a painting/ photograph/ any art objects and connect (feel a story behind that object), this read is almost similar to that. its like reading a series of painting, interconnected but, fiercely individual. maybe it's just me. maybe my present situation heighten the feel of the theme given.

The power of the unspoken. this theme holds strong throughout the book and i like the grasp, the repetition, the consistency. because, its real. most of us like the guessing games. we assume. we shy away from asking/ telling the truth. instead of facing reality, we make a circle of imaginative comfort around us.

motivated by this book, i point blankly asked a person a very sensitive question (I've been longing to know for weeks) and got a point blank answer. ya, that's why we keep most of the questions to ourselves. we're scared of the answer. the power of the unknown keep most of us afloat. but, if we're honest, barely floating wont help us to swim home.

and going home is a tough business when we don't know where home is. sometimes ago, i found a shelter for me, a place my heart calls to. a place I'm keen to call home. 

i wish all of us, have a home. a place where we swim to, run to, live in. a place we long to be. a place to belong. all else will matter less. 

have a good week people!

p/s: as we search for a place to belong in this world, let us not forget where we truly belong. keep our eyes up to heaven and the promise to be reunited with our father. Keep on rejoicing: Mercy me ~ I can only Imagine. 

Homeland ridiculous story: 3 mil for PSY performance. He is a joke. no matter how successful he seems to be.