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Swim Back to Me
From Ann Packer, author of the New York Times best-selling novels The Dive from Clausen’s Pier and Songs Without Words, a collection of burnished, emotionally searing stories, framed by two unforgettable linked narratives that express the transformation of a single family over the course of a lifetime.
A wife struggles to make sense of her husband’s sudden disappearance. A mother mourns her teenage son through the music collection he left behind. A woman shepherds her estranged parents through her brother’s wedding and reflects on the year her family collapsed. A young man comes to grips with the joy—and vulnerability—of fatherhood. And, in the masterly opening novella, two teenagers from very different families forge a sustaining friendship, only to discover the disruptive and unsettling power of sex.
Ann Packer is one of our most talented archivists of family life, with its hidden crevasses and unforeseeable perils, and in these stories she explores the moral predicaments that define our social and emotional lives, the frailty of ordinary grace, and the ways in which we are shattered and remade by loss. With Swim Back to Me, she delivers shimmering psychological precision, unfailing intelligence, and page-turning drama: her most enticing work yet.
From the Hardcover edition.
A wife struggles to make sense of her husband’s sudden disappearance. A mother mourns her teenage son through the music collection he left behind. A woman shepherds her estranged parents through her brother’s wedding and reflects on the year her family collapsed. A young man comes to grips with the joy—and vulnerability—of fatherhood. And, in the masterly opening novella, two teenagers from very different families forge a sustaining friendship, only to discover the disruptive and unsettling power of sex.
Ann Packer is one of our most talented archivists of family life, with its hidden crevasses and unforeseeable perils, and in these stories she explores the moral predicaments that define our social and emotional lives, the frailty of ordinary grace, and the ways in which we are shattered and remade by loss. With Swim Back to Me, she delivers shimmering psychological precision, unfailing intelligence, and page-turning drama: her most enticing work yet.
From the Hardcover edition.
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First published January 1, 2011
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About the author
Ann Packer
9 books441 followersIn addition to her upcoming novel Some Bright Nowhere, Ann Packer is the author of three bestselling novels: The Children’s Crusade, Songs Without Words, and The Dive from Clausen’s Pier, which received the Kate Chopin Literary Award among many other prizes and honors. Her short fiction has been published in two collections — Mendocino and Other Stories and Swim Back to Me — and includes stories that appeared in The New Yorker and in the O. Henry Prize Stories anthologies. Ann’s work has been translated into over a dozen languages and published around the world.
Ann was born in Stanford, California, and grew up near Stanford University, where her parents were professors. She attended Yale University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. In 1995 she returned to the Bay Area, where she raised her children and lived for many years. Now, along with her husband, the novelist and screenwriter Rafael Yglesias, she divides her time among New York, the Bay Area, and Maine.
Ann was born in Stanford, California, and grew up near Stanford University, where her parents were professors. She attended Yale University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. In 1995 she returned to the Bay Area, where she raised her children and lived for many years. Now, along with her husband, the novelist and screenwriter Rafael Yglesias, she divides her time among New York, the Bay Area, and Maine.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 402 reviews
February 6, 2017
Surprisingly good, gripping and enthralling. A totally absorbing reading!!!!
This short stories collection by Ann Packer is an absolute highlight and a mesmerizing experience for me....
I sincerely wish that my review could mirror appropriately the feelings and the impact which these stories have had on me.
These stories are so good and awesome written, that after reading them, they begin working in your innermost being. I mean, the stories aren't finish after having read them....
Ann Packers book consists of one novella and five short stories. And here you will relentless be confronted with a young girl which not only will lose her virginity after being seduced by a drug dealer, but also something much more precious.... then a mother deep in grief over the lost of her son and searching in his sons music CD's collection an answer...another story tells you how the unexpectedly disappearance of a husband unveils forgotten secrets....or how a young man becomes for the first time in his life father, and the way he try to cope with it, as his wife tells him something what happens to her in the past, which shadows threatens to engulf all of them up!!!
Great stories, tragic stories, wonderful, beautiful and fluent written....
The cover picture shows a heart with a hook in it. And precisely that is what this stories also stands for...
Fully filled with feelings and emotions beautifully depicted, but with the hook of pain, sorrow and grief in it!!!
So, yes, recommendation to the uttermost, and of course five stars.....
Dean:)
This short stories collection by Ann Packer is an absolute highlight and a mesmerizing experience for me....
I sincerely wish that my review could mirror appropriately the feelings and the impact which these stories have had on me.
These stories are so good and awesome written, that after reading them, they begin working in your innermost being. I mean, the stories aren't finish after having read them....
Ann Packers book consists of one novella and five short stories. And here you will relentless be confronted with a young girl which not only will lose her virginity after being seduced by a drug dealer, but also something much more precious.... then a mother deep in grief over the lost of her son and searching in his sons music CD's collection an answer...another story tells you how the unexpectedly disappearance of a husband unveils forgotten secrets....or how a young man becomes for the first time in his life father, and the way he try to cope with it, as his wife tells him something what happens to her in the past, which shadows threatens to engulf all of them up!!!
Great stories, tragic stories, wonderful, beautiful and fluent written....
The cover picture shows a heart with a hook in it. And precisely that is what this stories also stands for...
Fully filled with feelings and emotions beautifully depicted, but with the hook of pain, sorrow and grief in it!!!
So, yes, recommendation to the uttermost, and of course five stars.....
Dean:)
August 17, 2016
Swim Back To Me is an amazingly assured book of short stories, bookmarked by two novellas, which deftly explores the fragility of family relationships. In many instances, it took my breath away with its perception and insights.
The entire first half of the book is dominated by one story – Walk For Mankind, set on the Stanford campus during the Watergate era. Richard is a somewhat gawky coming-of-age boy, who is shifted between his aloof history father and his do-gooder mother. In contrast to this fragmented family is Sasha, the red-haired and impulsive daughter of the bohemian and exhilarating Horowitz family.
With great acuity, Ann Packer explores this momentous year, the escapades into the heady world of drugs and sex, and the fissures that threaten the family and the relationship between the friends. Richard wonders, “How do people do it, pry themselves from their pasts?” Some of the answer will be revealed in the last novella, where we meet Sasha again, this time, at the midpoint of her life and in the unlikely role as caregiver to her hypochondriac and narcissistic father. She has pried herself from the past…or has she really checked out from the drama?
Other stories are equally powerful. In Molten, we meet a mother with pathological grief, whose teenage son died an unexpected hero’s death. She reflects, “It was too fierce, the pain of having children. It hurt just to love them, let alone this. It hurt to be impatient, bored, entranced. Always knowing they were on their way away.” She defies the expectation of nobility and we fear for her by the end.
Then there’s Jump, the story of distorted expectations – a thin, downcast, Latino youth is revealed to be something entirely different than he seems. And Dwell Time, one of my favorites: a portrait of a seemingly perfect blended second marriage that comes with unrealized demons that have not been shed. Laura, the protagonist, learns the hard way that “dwell time” is the time that the soldiers in us have between deployments. Firstborn, another fine story, is a tender story about a soon-to-be-father whose wife is affected by the crib death of the young son she had had with her first husband.
These stories – woven with the threads of the complexity of human behavior – will not soon cede into memory. Each is a little gem.
The entire first half of the book is dominated by one story – Walk For Mankind, set on the Stanford campus during the Watergate era. Richard is a somewhat gawky coming-of-age boy, who is shifted between his aloof history father and his do-gooder mother. In contrast to this fragmented family is Sasha, the red-haired and impulsive daughter of the bohemian and exhilarating Horowitz family.
With great acuity, Ann Packer explores this momentous year, the escapades into the heady world of drugs and sex, and the fissures that threaten the family and the relationship between the friends. Richard wonders, “How do people do it, pry themselves from their pasts?” Some of the answer will be revealed in the last novella, where we meet Sasha again, this time, at the midpoint of her life and in the unlikely role as caregiver to her hypochondriac and narcissistic father. She has pried herself from the past…or has she really checked out from the drama?
Other stories are equally powerful. In Molten, we meet a mother with pathological grief, whose teenage son died an unexpected hero’s death. She reflects, “It was too fierce, the pain of having children. It hurt just to love them, let alone this. It hurt to be impatient, bored, entranced. Always knowing they were on their way away.” She defies the expectation of nobility and we fear for her by the end.
Then there’s Jump, the story of distorted expectations – a thin, downcast, Latino youth is revealed to be something entirely different than he seems. And Dwell Time, one of my favorites: a portrait of a seemingly perfect blended second marriage that comes with unrealized demons that have not been shed. Laura, the protagonist, learns the hard way that “dwell time” is the time that the soldiers in us have between deployments. Firstborn, another fine story, is a tender story about a soon-to-be-father whose wife is affected by the crib death of the young son she had had with her first husband.
These stories – woven with the threads of the complexity of human behavior – will not soon cede into memory. Each is a little gem.
June 5, 2011
This was a fast read, about the best I can say for it. She did a nice job creating her characters but they were basically losers. Their lives were sad, but in the hands of a writer like Annie Proulx, Alice Munro, or even Maile Meloy, losers like these are lifted out of that stereotype and become real people, or at least people I am glad to read about. Sad stories, sad lives, but somehow still worthwhile reading.
Packer's characters were completely forgettable and lackluster. I did not care about any of them, not at all. And the tying in of the start to the end was dumb. I would have preferred no tie in at all as it felt a little lame. I don't think she has the ability to create short stories or at least not the sort I enjoy reading. I don't like bashing her as her first novel was an unexpectedly good read, but her last one was a little trite and disappointing, and now with this one I am unsure whether I would choose to read anything more by her.
Hate this cover too.
Packer's characters were completely forgettable and lackluster. I did not care about any of them, not at all. And the tying in of the start to the end was dumb. I would have preferred no tie in at all as it felt a little lame. I don't think she has the ability to create short stories or at least not the sort I enjoy reading. I don't like bashing her as her first novel was an unexpectedly good read, but her last one was a little trite and disappointing, and now with this one I am unsure whether I would choose to read anything more by her.
Hate this cover too.
June 29, 2011
Really liked The Dive From Clausen's Pier; didn't care for this one at all. It's a bildungsroman of an "honor roll kid" Stanford professor's son who befriends a neighbor girl and her family. Neighbor girl starts sleeping with an older man, honor roll kid starts smoking pot, and I stopped reading because it was one third of the book and nothing was happening except the kids following each other around and smoking. Yawn.
May 19, 2011
I could probably give a quick synopsis of Ann Packer's latest offering SWIM BACK TO ME in five words...."it's about pain and loss". The pain involved is both physical and emotional and the loss is about every conceivable type of loss that leaves a gaping void in ones life from the loss of one's childhood, to the loss of a friend, a child, a spouse, a life-style, an unfulfilled dream....well you get the idea.
While the author's writing style initially pulls you into each of the six stories it does not compensate for the unfulfilled feeling you get as a reader. There is truly no satisfactory resolution to any of the scenarios. It is as if the author were writing in her diary and relating events from her personal life experiences.......short little vignettes that unfold with no true beginning or end. Perhaps the reason Packer chose SWIM BACK TO ME as the title of her book is because the reader is left swimming in a sea of questions and must make it back to shore (and solutions) without any assistance from the writer. Guess that this reader is in dire need of some additional swimming lessons.
While the author's writing style initially pulls you into each of the six stories it does not compensate for the unfulfilled feeling you get as a reader. There is truly no satisfactory resolution to any of the scenarios. It is as if the author were writing in her diary and relating events from her personal life experiences.......short little vignettes that unfold with no true beginning or end. Perhaps the reason Packer chose SWIM BACK TO ME as the title of her book is because the reader is left swimming in a sea of questions and must make it back to shore (and solutions) without any assistance from the writer. Guess that this reader is in dire need of some additional swimming lessons.
November 25, 2012
One of the best collection of short stories I have read in a long time, Ann Packer is a great writer. You get to know the characters and you're in suspense as to what happens in their lives. I found myself disagreeing about the conclusion of one story, JUMP, I thought the story was harsh in the summary of Alejandro's dad, a doctor who woke up in the middle of the night to drive Alejandro's friend to his office to give a test and then prescribe an antibiotic(the fact he did it isn't outweighed by the fact he did it in a bad mood) but the fact that I spent much time thinking about why I disagreed about the conclusion shows how well the story was written
One of my favorite parts was how Packer subtly introduced characters from an earlier story into a later story, written from a different perspective and of a different time, it makes the reader reexamine the earlier story.
Great collection
One of my favorite parts was how Packer subtly introduced characters from an earlier story into a later story, written from a different perspective and of a different time, it makes the reader reexamine the earlier story.
Great collection
June 8, 2015
I found this book on a friend's side table in a lake camp in Vermont. I was the 1st one up and it was a chilly morning in June. I had hot coffee and a small, thin blanket, so I settled into the corner of the sofa to read the 1st story-really a novella. Halfway through the book the rest of the household arose and I reluctantly tucked the dust jacket flap into my saved place. I couldn't wait to read on-each story is immediately immersive. The characters are ordinary, so much like most people I know, but the way Packer writes about them explains why they act and think these ways. I found myself feeling as if I knew the people in this book. Each glimpse into these lives is fairly low voltage, until you realize with a shock that these people you are thinking about as if they are real live only in a book of short stories. I highly recommend for readers who just KNOW that everyone is far more complicated than they appear, including themselves.
May 8, 2011
I should state upfront that I'm not a fan of short stories, so I have a bias. I picked this up because I loved The Dive From Clausen's Pier and figured I'd give this a chance. It reminded me of why I don't like short stories. I get into them and then they end abruptly and many times in a way that leaves me confused. I'm always left wanting more, or in this case, frankly, wishing I hadn't read the story in the first place, because the collection is sad and depressing. The overall theme is of loss, if that tells you anything...
February 28, 2012
Ann Packer's newest book, Swim Back to Me, is comprised of a novella and five short stories. They are all "emotionally searing stories" dealing with issues of intimacy, misunderstandings that cause distancing, betrayals, and the problems that people have with understanding and knowing one another. Each story is strong and brilliant.
`Walk for Mankind', the novella in this collection, just sings. It is a coming of age story but to just describe it as that would be like saying it's a beautiful day and to leave out what makes it beautiful: the smell of the greenery, the feel of a breeze, the sensation of the the sun on your skin and the overall feeling of beauty and abundance inspired by being part of this world.
The novella takes place in 1972 Palo Alto, California close to the Stanford campus. It is told from fifty-year old Richard's memories of his fourteenth summer. Sasha and Richard are both fourteen years old and are friends, the kind of friends who play scrabble, go to the beach, ride bikes together and play truth and dare. They have fun. Sasha is the more dominant one in the relationship and she has a real independent and wild streak to her that Richard lacks. Sasha decides that she and Richard should do a 20-mile Walk for Mankind and raise so much money that they are `heroes' of a sort. Just before the walk, Sasha meets Cal and begins a sexual relationship with him. Since Cal is a drug dealer, pot also enters the picture. Sasha starts smoking a lot of weed and Richard soon embraces it as well. Pot becomes a big deal for Richard as he "laughs the ocean-wave laughter of the stoned, up and down and down and up, and it was incredibly intense and at the same time locked away from the real world, safe behind a wall of glass".
Richard loves to go to Sasha's house where her free-wheeling parents are fun and exuberant. Richard lives with his stodgy father, a history professor, and a housekeeper. His mother left them ten months ago to `find herself' and Richard sees her once a month for a weekend. Richard's relationship with his father is distant and he loves Sasha's family as much as being with Sasha. There comes a time in their relationship, however, when sexuality enters and they begin to distance, not understanding one another and their new roles.
The underlying theme of this beautiful novella is the distance and pursuit of two adolescents who do not know themselves or each other and are trying to navigate the world of intimacy. This quickly turns into perceived betrayals which distance the two friends, leaving them in a place of anomie. They learn to perceive the treacheries, dreams and misfortunes that comprise life, songs in a dissonant key.
In `Things Said and Done' Sasha's family is revisited during the festivities of her brother's marriage to a woman much younger than him. Her parents are long divorced and Sasha has come to realize that her father is a narcissist. She is his emotional caretaker. She has left her wildness behind her and lives a staid life as an academic.
In `Molten' a mother grieves the death of her teen-aged son. "Her body had become a scale, a device for measuring grief." She has lost her grasp on life and tries to relive her son's days by listening to his rock music non-stop and finding meaning in the music and instrumentation he once listened to. She has moved away from her family and at a bereavement group "she felt molten. She didn't want friends, compassionate or otherwise. She wanted to scream in a padded room, scratch her arms till they bled."
`Jump' is a story about a shift supervisor at a copy store who has a urinary tract infection. Her car won't start and a co-worker drives her home. On the drive she finds out he is not who she thought he was and that they are both trying to escape from certain parts of their lives without success.
In `Dwell Time', a newly married woman has to deal with her husband's habit of just disappearing for days at a time, something he did in his first marriage but she did not know about. Should she leave him or can she find a way to make this marriage work? Interestingly, `dwell time' "is how long soldiers have between deployments". Could her husband think of their marriage as a war zone, and these disappearances be his way to find peace?
`The Firstborn' is a poignant story of a woman whose firstborn son died at five months from crib death. This destroyed her marriage. She is remarried now, pregnant and about to give birth to a child. The couple's fears and hopes are examined, along with her memories of her firstborn.
I am a lover of short stories to begin with, but I gather light when I read something as engaging and brilliant as this collection. Ann Packer has matured so much in her writing since The Dive From Clausen's Pier. She is well on her way to becoming a master.
`Walk for Mankind', the novella in this collection, just sings. It is a coming of age story but to just describe it as that would be like saying it's a beautiful day and to leave out what makes it beautiful: the smell of the greenery, the feel of a breeze, the sensation of the the sun on your skin and the overall feeling of beauty and abundance inspired by being part of this world.
The novella takes place in 1972 Palo Alto, California close to the Stanford campus. It is told from fifty-year old Richard's memories of his fourteenth summer. Sasha and Richard are both fourteen years old and are friends, the kind of friends who play scrabble, go to the beach, ride bikes together and play truth and dare. They have fun. Sasha is the more dominant one in the relationship and she has a real independent and wild streak to her that Richard lacks. Sasha decides that she and Richard should do a 20-mile Walk for Mankind and raise so much money that they are `heroes' of a sort. Just before the walk, Sasha meets Cal and begins a sexual relationship with him. Since Cal is a drug dealer, pot also enters the picture. Sasha starts smoking a lot of weed and Richard soon embraces it as well. Pot becomes a big deal for Richard as he "laughs the ocean-wave laughter of the stoned, up and down and down and up, and it was incredibly intense and at the same time locked away from the real world, safe behind a wall of glass".
Richard loves to go to Sasha's house where her free-wheeling parents are fun and exuberant. Richard lives with his stodgy father, a history professor, and a housekeeper. His mother left them ten months ago to `find herself' and Richard sees her once a month for a weekend. Richard's relationship with his father is distant and he loves Sasha's family as much as being with Sasha. There comes a time in their relationship, however, when sexuality enters and they begin to distance, not understanding one another and their new roles.
The underlying theme of this beautiful novella is the distance and pursuit of two adolescents who do not know themselves or each other and are trying to navigate the world of intimacy. This quickly turns into perceived betrayals which distance the two friends, leaving them in a place of anomie. They learn to perceive the treacheries, dreams and misfortunes that comprise life, songs in a dissonant key.
In `Things Said and Done' Sasha's family is revisited during the festivities of her brother's marriage to a woman much younger than him. Her parents are long divorced and Sasha has come to realize that her father is a narcissist. She is his emotional caretaker. She has left her wildness behind her and lives a staid life as an academic.
In `Molten' a mother grieves the death of her teen-aged son. "Her body had become a scale, a device for measuring grief." She has lost her grasp on life and tries to relive her son's days by listening to his rock music non-stop and finding meaning in the music and instrumentation he once listened to. She has moved away from her family and at a bereavement group "she felt molten. She didn't want friends, compassionate or otherwise. She wanted to scream in a padded room, scratch her arms till they bled."
`Jump' is a story about a shift supervisor at a copy store who has a urinary tract infection. Her car won't start and a co-worker drives her home. On the drive she finds out he is not who she thought he was and that they are both trying to escape from certain parts of their lives without success.
In `Dwell Time', a newly married woman has to deal with her husband's habit of just disappearing for days at a time, something he did in his first marriage but she did not know about. Should she leave him or can she find a way to make this marriage work? Interestingly, `dwell time' "is how long soldiers have between deployments". Could her husband think of their marriage as a war zone, and these disappearances be his way to find peace?
`The Firstborn' is a poignant story of a woman whose firstborn son died at five months from crib death. This destroyed her marriage. She is remarried now, pregnant and about to give birth to a child. The couple's fears and hopes are examined, along with her memories of her firstborn.
I am a lover of short stories to begin with, but I gather light when I read something as engaging and brilliant as this collection. Ann Packer has matured so much in her writing since The Dive From Clausen's Pier. She is well on her way to becoming a master.
July 29, 2011
I'm still waiting for another novel from Packer, so in the meanwhile I was curious to see what she's been working on. Here we have an author much interested in the complexities of human relationships and clearly skilled in capturing the nuances in words. The first and last stories in the collection feature the same character, Sasha, and reading the second of the two was like attending a forty year class reunion and being just a bit surprised at the turns the life of someone you thought you knew well has taken. My favorite of the collection is "Dwell Time," in which a wife's understanding of her new husband grows despite the pain he causes her. Packer's description of her feelings of fear when he disappears struck me as so real that I was nearly in pain as I read. Each of the stories shows human courage in a different way.
I wish all of the stories were connected in the way Elizabeth Strout did in Olive Kitteridge, still one of my favorite books. Not a fair comment to make. A fairer comment is to say that she continues the tradition of my beloved Sherwood Anderson.
Please write another novel, Ann Packer.
I wish all of the stories were connected in the way Elizabeth Strout did in Olive Kitteridge, still one of my favorite books. Not a fair comment to make. A fairer comment is to say that she continues the tradition of my beloved Sherwood Anderson.
Please write another novel, Ann Packer.
June 2, 2011
A strong collection of short stories from Ann Packer. (And yes, it is a collection of short stories, so please don't give it one star because you mistakenly thought it was a novel). Most of these stories deal with loss. The worst is over and now the characters have to figure out a way to keep on stumbling through life.
I found Molten, the story of a woman mourning the death of her teen-age son to be gut-wrenching, but not treacly in the least. "Her Firstborn," told by a soon-to-be father whose wife lost a first baby with another man had incredible resonance. Really, all the stories, including the novella that starts the collection, are thought provoking with characters with strong, individual voices.
Some of the insights in this book really stuck with me. I have been reliving moments from various stories since I put it down.
I found Molten, the story of a woman mourning the death of her teen-age son to be gut-wrenching, but not treacly in the least. "Her Firstborn," told by a soon-to-be father whose wife lost a first baby with another man had incredible resonance. Really, all the stories, including the novella that starts the collection, are thought provoking with characters with strong, individual voices.
Some of the insights in this book really stuck with me. I have been reliving moments from various stories since I put it down.
November 7, 2011
This is a book of stories...well, it starts with a novella, but then becomes a series of short stories which have nothing to do with each other ... well, except that the last story is supposed to be about some of the characters in the first story 35 years later.... well, except that these characters behave nothing like they did 35 years earlier. So what is the point of having the same characters in the first and last stories? Who knows. I hardly even cared.
At some points, Packer gets a character's behavior right on target (a new father realizes the nature of his link to his tiny baby when the doctor asks whether he (the doctor) can hold the baby) but overall, I couldn't see the point of most of the stories. What was Packer trying to tell the reader? Who knows? I don't.
At some points, Packer gets a character's behavior right on target (a new father realizes the nature of his link to his tiny baby when the doctor asks whether he (the doctor) can hold the baby) but overall, I couldn't see the point of most of the stories. What was Packer trying to tell the reader? Who knows? I don't.
January 1, 2024
“I see that he is wearing the kind of giant grin that just takes over sometimes, when nothing exists but how happy you are.”
I loved this book. The stories were all so good but I think “Walk for Mankind” and “Dwell Time” were my favorites.
The perfect way to begin my 2024 reading.
Alt review: can’t believe this has only 3.29 stars?
I loved this book. The stories were all so good but I think “Walk for Mankind” and “Dwell Time” were my favorites.
The perfect way to begin my 2024 reading.
Alt review: can’t believe this has only 3.29 stars?
February 20, 2023
I didn’t love these short stories. Most had an undercurrent of dread and some unpleasant characters and I didn’t like the way the author started each with some sort of a hook to lure you in; it felt contrived.
December 3, 2011
Recently, after I lamented the fact that I'm having a hard time finding fiction books that aren't 400+ pages long, a friend recommended that I try a book of short stories. I've never been a big fan of short stories, for reasons that I find difficult to articulate. I think it's that a short story always feels incomplete to me - like I'm only getting a part of the story, not the whole story - and that irks me. But I thought, what the heck, I haven't tried to read a book of short stories in a long time, maybe my tastes have changed; I'll give it a shot.
Well, my tastes haven't changed. Or maybe I picked a mediocre book to start with. Whichever it is, I didn't much like this book. I thought a couple of the stories were pretty good. Most of them, however, fell very flat for me, especially the first (and longest) one. I actually thought that one was the weakest of the bunch, so it was weird that the book started out with it. It never seemed to make up its mind what it wanted to be about. Perhaps if it had been a full length story . . . well, it would have been boring, but at least it would have made some sense. The best was the one about the woman who found a continuing connection with her son by listening to his music collection after his untimely death, but even that was painfully somber.
I really wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. If you're looking for a good short story collection, look somewhere else.
Well, my tastes haven't changed. Or maybe I picked a mediocre book to start with. Whichever it is, I didn't much like this book. I thought a couple of the stories were pretty good. Most of them, however, fell very flat for me, especially the first (and longest) one. I actually thought that one was the weakest of the bunch, so it was weird that the book started out with it. It never seemed to make up its mind what it wanted to be about. Perhaps if it had been a full length story . . . well, it would have been boring, but at least it would have made some sense. The best was the one about the woman who found a continuing connection with her son by listening to his music collection after his untimely death, but even that was painfully somber.
I really wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. If you're looking for a good short story collection, look somewhere else.
June 28, 2011
I so enjoyed this collection! The opening story is actually a novella. I thought it and all of the stories were uniformly strong. My favorite in the collection were the last two, in particular, the penultimate story, in which the reader is introduced to a new father-to-be, whose wife had a child with her first husband, who died at five months from crib death. The transformative effect of his own child's birth of his understanding of his wife's loss is so, so well done and moved me to tears. I also liked the rawness of the story about a mother trying to handle her teenage son's death by listening to his music. It's very painful, but very honest, and so, very real. Each story is well-plotted with much attention played to building tension and interest. I checked this out from the library, but will buy it when it is released in paperback so I might have my own copy.
May 10, 2011
Oh Anne Packer.
You have such idealistic beginnings, then you go and eff it up with uninspired endings, or worse, women with no spines. Ah well, your generation is different. It is a dying one though, so beware. First story was going so well. Story about woman staying in a marriage because life on the outside was just as painful, well you lost me baby. It might have been in the first two paragraphs come to think of it because you used the word "bedclothes". I think you mean pajamas. No need for a thesauras reach on that one. But I'm giving you three stars because I think it's worth people checking out and making up their own minds. All these people saying they just don't like short stories, oh can it already.
You have such idealistic beginnings, then you go and eff it up with uninspired endings, or worse, women with no spines. Ah well, your generation is different. It is a dying one though, so beware. First story was going so well. Story about woman staying in a marriage because life on the outside was just as painful, well you lost me baby. It might have been in the first two paragraphs come to think of it because you used the word "bedclothes". I think you mean pajamas. No need for a thesauras reach on that one. But I'm giving you three stars because I think it's worth people checking out and making up their own minds. All these people saying they just don't like short stories, oh can it already.
October 25, 2011
Loved, loved, loved it! The characters are so real, the relationships understandably complicated, the situations plausible and diverse. It reminds me of Olive Kitteridge, partly because it's a collection of stories, but mostly because both authors are gifted at describing life experiences in succinct vividness that instantly lets the reader in. I want to know more about each one of the characters and where their lives have gone -- are going. I also want to keep tabs of Ann Packer, and will start by revisiting her appearance on Tom Ashbrook's "On Point" NPR radio program. Tom is a keen observer, a superb interviewer and asked such thought-provoking questions. I was blown away by some of her responses about human relationships.
August 29, 2014
I liked these stories a lot. There was more substance, somehow, than I usually find with short stories. All of the stories deal with loss. The first is a story of two thirteen year-olds and how they cling and also hurt each other as they lose their innocence/ignorance. Packer captured the intensity of that phase of life. Even though in some ways it is a terrible time, I am surprised how memorable some of the experiences of that time are for me, even more than my experiences as a parent, which were much more pleasurable. In one story, a mother is paralyzed by anger and grief for the death of her teenage son. In another, a newly wed man whose wife is expecting their first child struggles to be a loving husband to his wife, who was previously married and had a son who died.
January 14, 2015
A fine, interesting collection of stories that resonated with what I'd term "ordinary folks'" existential angst. The opening novella has an interesting turn, and each story felt unexpected and finely-tuned to me.
As a short story writer, these are the sorts of works I like to read: Stories that interrogate the everyday in a new, yet accessible, way.
As a short story writer, these are the sorts of works I like to read: Stories that interrogate the everyday in a new, yet accessible, way.
February 16, 2011
I truly enjoyed this book. And even with 2 small children, I managed to read it in only 2 days!! It consists of two novellas framed by other short stories that are definitely well worth the read.
April 22, 2012
Six novellas each of which has stayed with me and made me reflect. Families, coming of age, loss and unexpected behaviors all make for compelling reading.
Read
June 30, 2012Although many of the stories were sad, they were also thought provoking and intriguing, much like life itself. A good read.
July 1, 2013
The writing was great, but I failed miserably at putting these stories together and lost my enthusiasm.
July 16, 2015
Group of short stories, all good.
November 3, 2021
I wanted to like this collection, because I almost liked “Dive from Clausen’s Pier” until the un-credible ending. And I know Ms. Packer’s mother personally, or did once. And the stories are set practically in my neighborhood in Northern California - Stanford University, Berkeley, and other very recognizable (to me) locales.
The first story,”Walk for Mankind”, really a novella, is the hardest to like. It’s told from the point of view of a nerdy high school boy, struggling with puberty and with his friendship with the girl across the street, who is suddenly much older than him though they are the same age. Ann Packer might have been like the girl, but she was never a nerdy teenage boy, and the portrait is a bit strained and stereotyped.
The other stories, though are told mostly from the point of view of a woman who might be close to Ann Packer’s actual age, or have a major character in that group. And these are fine stories. I liked them all, but especially “Her Firstborn”, told from the point of view of an expectant late-life father, and very charmingly. The last story “Things Said or Done”, picks up some to the characters from the opening novella, but thirty years later. Again, this is probably close to Ms. Packer’s actual point of view, and I liked it much better.
Would someone who was not acquainted with the Packer family and with the Stanford area like these stories? Yes, I think so. They are local, but also universal to American life in the late 20th and early 21st century. Maybe breeze past the novella, or even save it for last – you might be better prepared for it there.
July 15, 2018
This is a volume of stories, a couple of them longer than the others, all taking place in California, around San Francisco.
The two stories that center on one’s offspring were especially touching for me. “Molten” is the story of a mother’s grief and her breaking down after the death of her teenage son. “Her Firstborn” is the story of an expectant couple where the father is haunted by and grieves for his wife’s earlier first-born child who died as an infant.
Jump is the story of a thin Hispanic twenty-two-year-old Alejandro who helps Carolee, the shift manager at Copy Copy when she has car trouble. While Dwell Time is the story of a marriage, well-adjusted at first sight but hiding its demons well.
Walk for Mankind takes place during the Watergate on the grounds of the Stanford campus about two different families and the relationship between their children, Richard Appleby and Sasha Horowitz. This long story has ties to the final story, “Things Said or Done,” which takes place thirty-five years later when Richard is fifty and Sasha is a grown woman and has little memory of the past.
In fact, most stories are about people, relationships, and families, as is the story that has given its title to the collection, a wife struggling with the loss of her husband. In short, all stories are character driven and written well with a good command of the language. Yet, they weren’t all that special for me to be excited about, literary though they may be.
The two stories that center on one’s offspring were especially touching for me. “Molten” is the story of a mother’s grief and her breaking down after the death of her teenage son. “Her Firstborn” is the story of an expectant couple where the father is haunted by and grieves for his wife’s earlier first-born child who died as an infant.
Jump is the story of a thin Hispanic twenty-two-year-old Alejandro who helps Carolee, the shift manager at Copy Copy when she has car trouble. While Dwell Time is the story of a marriage, well-adjusted at first sight but hiding its demons well.
Walk for Mankind takes place during the Watergate on the grounds of the Stanford campus about two different families and the relationship between their children, Richard Appleby and Sasha Horowitz. This long story has ties to the final story, “Things Said or Done,” which takes place thirty-five years later when Richard is fifty and Sasha is a grown woman and has little memory of the past.
In fact, most stories are about people, relationships, and families, as is the story that has given its title to the collection, a wife struggling with the loss of her husband. In short, all stories are character driven and written well with a good command of the language. Yet, they weren’t all that special for me to be excited about, literary though they may be.
March 25, 2022
My rating has nothing to do with the writing - it is masterful, and easily one of the most well-written books I've read in a long time. Each setting and sensation is described fully, especially for a series of short fiction stories. One of the stories takes place in my husband's hometown, where we live at times, and it was instantly recognizable.
The trouble here for me is that I really disliked the characters and situations. It's one sad slog after another. Lots of Drama. And not the kind that the characters rise above. They think and learn and evolve, but there isn't triumph here. A different person, living a different life, might find these wonderful, gripping, or a window into a darker experience. I think they represent a type of "victim lit" that's common. Ostensibly to understand these types of situations and people, women or children are flogged through a corner of their life so we can witness their pain. I find it voyeuristic and painful.
The author explains in a note that the publisher helped her see how these stories could be a book. I found that the book explained why none of these stories became a book on their own. The characters become muddled, or the endings don't really land the way short story endings can.
The trouble here for me is that I really disliked the characters and situations. It's one sad slog after another. Lots of Drama. And not the kind that the characters rise above. They think and learn and evolve, but there isn't triumph here. A different person, living a different life, might find these wonderful, gripping, or a window into a darker experience. I think they represent a type of "victim lit" that's common. Ostensibly to understand these types of situations and people, women or children are flogged through a corner of their life so we can witness their pain. I find it voyeuristic and painful.
The author explains in a note that the publisher helped her see how these stories could be a book. I found that the book explained why none of these stories became a book on their own. The characters become muddled, or the endings don't really land the way short story endings can.
September 10, 2019
When I started listening to Swim Back to Me, I didn't realize the book was going to be one of short stories (and it's not a secret that I love short stories). So, it was definitely a pleasant surprise and nice way to start my daily commute. Packer had a magical way of diving right into each story with ease and depth. I felt like I knew each character from the beginning, even though it had only been a short amount of time. The stories ranged from a wife struggling to understand why her husband disappeared - to two teens from total opposite families who forge a friendship. It seemed Packer focused on overcoming obstacles/disappointments in relationships the most - and it definitely resonated with me. These characters weren't just surface folk; they had emotions and questions and wonderings, just like many of us. I'm anxious to read another of Packer's book on my shelf and see how it compares to Swim Back to Me. This one didn't disappoint and it receives three stars because I genuinely liked it...just didn't move any mountains.
July 7, 2023
The short story "Moleen" provides a playlist to explore:
Molten’ Playlist
“Molten” is about a woman grieving the loss of her teenage son. How does she hold onto him? By listening to his music, which is decidedly not suburban mom fare.
Here are the songs that get her through the day.
“Save Your Generation” (Jawbreaker, Dear You)
“Fireman” (Jawbreaker, Dear You)
“Your Phone’s Off the Hook, But You’re Not” (X, Los Angeles)
“Where Is My Mind?” (The Pixies, Surfer Rosa)
“Tame” (The Pixies, Doolittle)
“Trashman in Furs” (The Geraldine Fibbers, Butch)
“Swim Back to Me” (The Geraldine Fibbers, Butch)
“Add It Up” (Violent Femmes, Violent Femmes)
“Candy Says” (The Velvet Underground, The Velvet Underground)
“Without a Trace” (Soul Asylum, Grave Dancers Union)
Molten’ Playlist
“Molten” is about a woman grieving the loss of her teenage son. How does she hold onto him? By listening to his music, which is decidedly not suburban mom fare.
Here are the songs that get her through the day.
“Save Your Generation” (Jawbreaker, Dear You)
“Fireman” (Jawbreaker, Dear You)
“Your Phone’s Off the Hook, But You’re Not” (X, Los Angeles)
“Where Is My Mind?” (The Pixies, Surfer Rosa)
“Tame” (The Pixies, Doolittle)
“Trashman in Furs” (The Geraldine Fibbers, Butch)
“Swim Back to Me” (The Geraldine Fibbers, Butch)
“Add It Up” (Violent Femmes, Violent Femmes)
“Candy Says” (The Velvet Underground, The Velvet Underground)
“Without a Trace” (Soul Asylum, Grave Dancers Union)
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