Il gusto del cloro

by Bastien Vivès, Sergio Rossi (Translator)

"Ci sei mercoledì prossimo?". Ogni settimana un ragazzo e una ragazza si ritrovano in piscina. Il primo incontro casuale diventa poco alla volta un appuntamento fisso. Si intuisce che entrambi hanno delle ferite ancora aperte di cui non vogliono parlare. Intanto vasca dopo vasca, bracciata dopo bracciata, si conoscono, dialogano, cominciano ad aprirsi l'uno all'altra. Una danza di movimenti, sguardi e sentimenti che procede delicata e poetica, tra le luci e il verde-azzurro dell'acqua, fino a una svolta inattesa.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Bande Dessinée, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, France, Contemporary

144 pages, Hardcover

First published May 26, 2008

About the author

Bastien Vivès is a Parisian who has drawn or collaborated on more than a dozen graphic novels since his published debut in 2006, including most recently The Butchery (Fantagraphics, 2021). The Angouleme Comics Festival granted Vivès the “Revelation” Award in 2009 and the prize for best series in 2015.

Reviews

[Seth T. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Language is incredible and language is ridiculous. It is lovely and it is baffling. Language is essential and lively and complicated and lusterant and mystifying and intuitive and impossible. The ability of the human creature to communicate from even the earliest age is astounding. That we, without any specially intended training, acquire the ability to make ourselves known and in turn know others is jaw-dropping. That we, no matter how long we persevere, can never perfectly communicate is agonizing. Language is beguiling. We unlock the front door of its mansion so easily as if born to burglary, intimate friends with the sneaking and the thieving by which all hidden treasures must reveal themselves. But that mansion, which we presume to have the run of, soon unveils itself to have improbable rooms and inescapable mazes. We might even amuse ourselves at the irony that those who train the most diligently in the ins, the outs, and the rules of language are most often the people least capable of making use of the stuff. Language is mystery and, as mystery, language is romance.

As expression and meaning whirl in the confounding dance of interpretation, every aspect of the tableau is made an essentiality. The words spoken. The dialect and tone with which they are produced. The face from which they come. The posture of the body that holds that face. The environment in which the expression is attempted. The body is a medium and the voice a vehicle. Communication seeks passage through these conveyances—only there are so many obstacles, so many threats to obscure intention and tarnish meaning.

A Taste of Chlorine is an evocative treatment of language, of the wonders and woes of the human spirit’s attempt to connect to others of the like. Bastien Vivès seems focused on the elusivity of that connection and the concern that even physical proximity can be alienating if language falters. In Taste of Chlorine, art and design and story conspire to sing a kind of methodical lament, a series of mechanical refrains meant to mirror the repetitive nature of the act of swimming while simultaneously signaling an anthem to the soul who struggles with human connection.



And perhaps by ironic accident and perhaps by intention, the reader’s experience of the book struggles against this same wall of misapprehension. Vivès climaxes his book with a silent underwater admission, one character to another. The words are mouthed but the character can’t quite read lips. And I don’t know if Vivès gives his readers the keys to understand or not. I don’t know if the words actually can be made out. Because while I am reading an English translation, the woman whose speech is hushed in the weight of water speaks with French lips and presumably with French words. So whether Vivès intends readers to puzzle out the meaning of her lips, I (and most American readers) will be left stumped and frustrated over the inconclusive nature of a moment fraught with importance.

And perhaps that was intentional? But purposed or not, it fits the theme the author glides along. It strikes at how simply we might be distracted from accessing the true meaning of words. A Taste of Chlorine incisively intimates how easy it is for two people to remain foreign to each other—to be shuffled from the path of understanding and hope by little more than a misplaced word and an absence of meaning. This is the story Vivès toys with and his art throughout drives this home.



For a work concerned foremost with communication, Vivès spends surprisingly little time on actual dialogue. He lets his art speak for him and for his characters. The story moves through the stealing of glances, the submergence of physiques, and what is revealed above and below the waterline.

The artist’s approach to refraction is (to me) novel and largely unprecedented. He is careful and thoughtful in illustrating the physical properties of water—which is important as nearly the entire work occurs in a public pool. When portraying that which exists below the surface, Vivès abandons his inks entirely and relies on borderless colours and the suggestion of shape to delineate form and feature. The world exaggerates underwater, taking on an alien design.



Engagingly, Vivès avoids any hard rules in his above water inks, giving even the flat, straight substance of walls and floors and benches a kind of warbling dream state, prompting the sense that even the non-pool scenes occur under water. Readers then find themselves in as much discomfort and unease as Vivès’ nameless protagonist, never being quite at home enough to trust the reliability of the narrative they encounter. Just as we lack the sea-legs required for comfortable interaction with the text, Vivès’ swimmer can never find the words to make himself known or knowable to those with whom he swims.

Language is a tricky bastard of a mistress. Vivès hits all the right notes in his exploration here. He doesn’t overwhelm with a regurgitation of theory or pedantry, but his still manages to say plenty. And if you don’t quite understand him? If his ultimate meaning sits just beyond reach? Well, that’s probably just fine. And maybe even by design.

A note about the art

One of the things about Vivès’ art that I loved and wanted to highlight is the way he draws form underwater. Check this out:



This panel is from below the surface. Vivès completely obliterates his inks and relies wholly on his simple colours to tell the story. The swimmer is pushing off the wall in the moment before launching into her next lap. Her legs are coiled in a mess of diminished flesh tones (what Vivès uses for her skin underwater), but Vivès makes certain we know what’s going on, implying the position of her left leg by having the ankle appear in the foreground where her crotch would be. Additionally, the lights from the pool’s skylight hover above and a man on the edge is partially lit brightly, telling us that his head and shoulders are above the surface.



In these two panels we see how Vivès treats the underwater when the camera is above the surface. Normal inks and colours above, no inks and the less-saturated colours below. Additionally, when the viewer’s eye approaches the scene from above the surface, Vivès takes more liberty with the refraction of the body-blobs below. It’s a lovely technique.
_______

[Review courtesy of Good Ok Bad.]

[emanumela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rarefatto. Molto ben disegnato.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Die Schwimmhalle: ein Trauma meiner Kindheit; Badekappenzwang, Chlorwasser in der Nase, die Peinlichkeit des Körpers, mit dem man nicht zufrieden ist.
Deswegen kann ich vollstes Mitgefühl für den namenlosen Protagonisten mit dem krummem Rücken aufbringen, den sein Physiotherapeut zum Schwimmen schickt.
Aber selbst an diesem absurden Ort kann es zu Begegnungen kommen. Er, der den Kopf nicht unter Wasser haben mag und Spritzwasser im Gesicht hasst, lernt in diesem Fegefeuer eine hübsche dunkelhaarige Medaillenschwimmerin kennen, die seinen (Schwimm)Stil behutsam korrigiert.



Und bald freut er sich auf diese Mittwochstreffen, kauft sich eine Schwimmbrille und lernt sogar das Tauchen.
Aber was ist es, was sie unter Wasser zu ihm sagt?

Vives erzählt seine erste Graphic Novel fast ohne Worte, nur mittels Blicken und Körpersprache. Anstrengung, Enttäuschung, Hoffnung und kindliche Freude, alles ist dem jungen Mann ins Gesicht geschrieben.
Eine wunderbar blaue Fast-Liebesgeschichte, auch für Schwimmhallenversehrte zu empfehlen, die schon bei dem Gedanken daran nach Luft japsen.
Melancholisch, still, berührend: eine ganz klare Leseempfehlung!

[Anton · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first time I read this book too fast. Probably because there is so little text in this comic. The story, I gathered, ran as follows. Some guy, bothered by his scoliosis, starts going to the swimming pool every Wednesday, and meets a girl there. In the end, he likes both the girl (even though she does not come to the pool anymore) and swimming in general. However, as I gathered after a second reading, the point of this book is not so much the story but the how and the where of its presentation.

Let’s start with the drawing style. The panels are sketchy and very reminiscent of a movie storyboard. I think you should read them as such, imagining the filmic scene they depict, to fully appreciate how well they convey the strange, dreamy world of the swimming pool. Pay attention to the aquamarine and turquoise colouring, hear the sounds accompanying the action, allow the drawings to be suggestive and evocative. Dream away at page 50, where you see only the roof of the pool. Second, there is the swimming pool itself. A place of discomfort, sometimes even disgust. But also a place where you reveal yourself, where you expect, yearn, learn and transform, where things become fluid. Most importantly, the pool is a place to go beneath the surface, where passion buds and where you touch something you do not want to give up. Then, you suddenly realise that you’ve found what you were looking for.

In one word, this comic is about atmosphere. And once you've let it soak into you, the ending of the book is not as puzzling as many believe it to be.

[Mec · Rating 2 out of 5]

Un libro di atmosfere rarefatte e sentimenti delicati.
Un amore vicino a sbocciare, due ragazzi si sfiorano, una promessa di qualcosa che potrebbe essere e non sarà mai.
Tutto molto poetico, tenue, potenzialmente struggente. Ma insufficiente.

[Pierre Kilmister · Rating 3 out of 5]

Está muy bien que no tenga mucho diálogo y se centre más en la interpretación que el lector le quiera dar a los hechos, y en parte eso no me gustó mucho. Me gustó más Polina sinceramente.

[Dustyloup · Rating 3 out of 5]

This art in this book epitomizes the feeling you get at the pool of loving it and hating it at the same time, feeling awkward and yet slowly learning, changing, growing. This story is about miscommunication between two young people at two different stages in their lives, but perhaps it's also just about that quote, loving something so much you're willing to die/never let go...
Ambiguous endings are tricky but it definitely gives good for thought

[Rahel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Das ist so eine schöne, zarte Erzählung. Ich war sehr beeindruckt davon, wie genau der Autor mit eher reduziertem Stil so viel Mimik und Gefühle vermittelt. Die Schwimmbad-Atmosphäre ist außerdem einfach nur toll getroffen und sehr melancholisch.

[Verba Non Res · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excelente. Una narración minimalista que no podría haber sido contada sin la destreza técnica de Bastien Vivès. La forma en que el autor maneja las secuencias, los planos, la perspectiva, le dan un dinamismo inusitado a un entorno por lo demás bastante monótono, ya que casi todas las escenas transcurren en una pileta de natación. Entretanto, lo que se cuenta es austera como el escenario en el que tiene lugar. Hay un protagonista, que un poco contra su voluntad tiene que empezar a practicar natación. Únicamente lo vemos en estas sesiones semanales, y poco más; casi no sabemos nada de su vida entre una y otra. Hay también una chica a la que ve en la pileta, con la que conversa y que un poco lo ayuda a mejorar su técnica. Pasa lo que tiene que pasar, o sea nada. Entendemos que al protagonista le gusta la chica, y que cada uno de esos islotes semanales se transforma en una expectativa rara vez satisfecha. Alguna vez ella se demora; otra, viene acompañada por un hombre (¿amigo? ¿novio? ¿chongo?) y el intercambio se vuelve incómodo, breve. Un día deja de ir a la pileta, no se sabe por qué. Al cabo de unas semanas, el protagonista deja de mirar a la entrada con expectativas. No hay manera de contactarla, ya que en rigor él no sabe nada de ella, ni ella de él. Toda la relación se construyó sobre ese desconocimiento y se hunda a causa de él. O sea, como pasa siempre, pero de manera más obvia; porque nuestras relaciones con los demás están hechas de expectativas, de decepciones en las que el otro, generalmente, no tiene mucho que ver.

[Kendra · Rating 3 out of 5]

This graphic novel is a hard one for me to review because I am in two minds about it. On one hand I liked it both because it is unique and slightly thought provoking. The style, originality and art all appealed to me. The story is told with the use of pictures more than it is with words, which is why it only took about half hour to read. I enjoyed the change but also look forward to getting back to words.

Now on the other hand I didn’t like it, the story cruised along at one pace. The biggest mystery if not the only one was never revealed which frustrated me (I like my questions answered).

A Taste of chlorine is hard to rate. I both liked and disliked the story, therefore it makes sense for me to rate it smack bang in the middle so 2.5 stars it is.

[Marta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Le goût du chlore (2008)

Molto belli la colorazione dominante verde acqua, i movimenti, i corpi.
Però.
Io posso accettare che lei non torni più, ma voglio sapere cosa ha detto sott'acqua; ovviamente ho rifatto le sue smorfie per capire i suoni e sono giunta alle mie personalissime conclusioni.
Poi da ricerca in rete ho trovato Vivès che dice: “C'est trop personnel. Ce sont des mots que j'avais besoin de mettre dans ce livre mais je ne dirai pas lesquels.”
(e già qui è da prendere a schiaffoni)
e poi che:
Les paroles muettes qu’articule la jeune fille sous l’eau en guise d’épilogue sont celles de la chanson ‘World of Two’ du groupe Cake
cioè questa:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1t4ap...
(una palla)
Era meglio se non dicevi niente Vivès.

[Martyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard to judge this one. I loved the art, it put across the other wordly nature of indoor pools very well, and the story was simple and realistic but I'm not sure about the payoff.

Did he invent the girl to make his swimming more fun or did he really meet her? I don't know and as to whether she said "I love you" or not, well I don't know the answer to that either. I think she probably said "I am you" because it was interesting that she faded away just at the point that he became confident with his swimming and so she was probably a fantasy creation of a lonely teen.

Very interesting and I changed my rating three or four times; that's a good sign, in my opinion, that the book is making me think.

[Marc · Rating 5 out of 5]

I used to have this book, but one of my enemies stole it. However, a very dear friend gave me a new copy, which I just finished re-reading. It’s better than I remembered. Thank you, friend.

[fer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nao terminou do jeito que eu achei que ia terminar, achei que iam desenvolver mais o relacionamento entre os dois personagens principais mas senti que acabou meio sem desenvolver muito. É uma hq bem numa vibe contemplativa.

[Suni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fumetto di una decina di anni fa, non l'opera prima di Vivès ma probabilmente quella che l'ha lanciato e gli ha fatto vincere numerosi premi.
È la storia di due ragazzi che si incontrano in piscina: lui va per curare un problema alla schiena, lei... non lo sappiamo, va a nuotare, e basta; fanno conoscenza, lei gli insegna gli stili, lui la cerca e trova nel loro "appuntamento" settimanale la motivazione per continuare a frequentare quel posto che all'inizio detestava.
Tutto bello, tutto nelle mie corde, ma alla fine la sensazione è stata che ne avrei voluto di più.
Se fosse un film sarebbe un cortometraggio e non ci sarebbe niente da dire, invece così a me è mancato qualcosa. Oltretutto il finale(*) è a libera interpretazione, il che va bene, ma se hai alle spalle una lettura di neanche mezz'ora e pochissimi dialoghi ti viene anche da pensare che magari non hai davvero capito, né hai avuto la possibilità di farlo.
Disegni e colori (principalmente variazioni del verde acqua) pazzeschi, con lo stile "liquido" tipico di Vivès che qui si amalgama col l'acquosità dell'ambientazione, ottenendo un risultato finale di rara bellezza. E si noti anche la moltitudine di prospettive, sia che il punto di vista sia quello del protagonista sia che sia esterno: da bordo vasca, dal pelo d'acqua, dal fondo della piscina, dall'alto, da più in alto ancora, e via così.

(*): io ho letto la prima versione pubblicata in Italia, da Black Velvet, ma ho scoperto che le successive ripubblicazioni (per Fandango/Coconino) hanno un finale diverso, modificato dall'autore stesso. Capite che ora sono curiosissima e conto di scandagliare ogni libreria/fumetteria che mi capiti a tiro per trovare una copia della nuova versione e a) controllare se finalmente l'epilogo sia più chiaro, o b) avere l'ennesima conferma che le opere una volta finite bisogna lasciarle stare.

[TheFierceCat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Je n'ai absolument pas compris la fin. Je ne sais pas si c'est parce que finalement, il n'y en a pas vraiment et c'est à nous, lecteurs, de l'imaginer, ou si il y en a une, mais que je n'arrive pas à l’interpréter. C'est vraiment frustrant, parce que la réponse à la seule question que l'on se pose pendant tout la BD, on pense la toucher du doigt, presque l'atteindre, et hop, c'est la fin de la BD.
Donc, finalement, je n'arrive pas vraiment à savoir si j'ai aimé ou pas. Parce que j'ai un sentiment d'inachevé, comme si je n'avais pas fini cette BD, et comme si tout ce que j'y avais lu n'avait pas servit à grand chose, puisque à la fin, on a pas la conclusion.
Ceci dit, c'est une bande dessinée qui se lit très très vite, du fait que le peu de dialogue qu'il y a ne fasse pas plus d'une dizaine de mots à chaque fois. Elle est agréable à lire malgré tout. Même si les mouvements du corps dans l'eau sont parfois peu précis, peu réalistes, et un peu bâclés.

[Gastón · Rating 5 out of 5]

Siempre me resultó difícil novelas gráficas con delicadeza y sobre tópicos que casi nadie toca, hasta que encontré a Bastien Vives y sus comics. Anteriormente leí Polina, una hermosísima novela gráfica sobre la danza y sus adversidades, ahora me encontré con El gusto del cloro y definitivamente tengo que decir que Vives hace lo que siempre busqué: historias cortas que saben mantener la belleza.
Esta novelita gráfica muestra un amor de piscina en la que dos personas se unen ante el gusto por nadar (algo que personalmente disfruto muchísimo), cómo se desenvuelven dentro de las técnicas, el agua y los días que pasan hasta volverse a encontrar. Las adversidades se develan en la natación misma, donde ambos personajes encuentran en el otro algo que buscaban. Es el agua lo que los lleva a estar despojados y verse parecidos ante la inmensidad que representa un amor. Bastien Vives lo hizo de nuevo. Arte en los detalles.

[Library at Oxley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm giving this one 5 stars. In this story, a young man with a spinal curvature swims to improve his back and meets a girl while swimming. The story is told with page after page of the most beautiful aqua drawings that manage to capture the developing rise and fall of the relationship. I was struck by how powerful the images are in conveying the experiences of the new swimmer. The first pages show exactly how it feels to take those first tentative steps in a new and strange environment where everyone else seems more competent.

The images show the illustrative skill of a true master, surprisingly simple, yet conveying new detail with each repeated read. Bastien Vives' use of perspective is glorious, often placing us right in the water with the main characters; watching as they swim by.

Whether you are a reader or a visual artist, you will treasure this book.

[Kara Trevlac · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really beautiful artwork. As someone who used to swim competitively, I found it beautiful that someone would take such a familiar location and make a story out of it. The story itself is a little weak (hence the 3 stars), but the artwork by itself is 5/5. I haven't seen too much of this type of style in graphic novels, and it was refreshing.

A quick update:
I read this back at the beginning of summer, and I still think of this book all of the time. The story has really stuck with me in a strange way, which (I think) warrants a raise in rating. This story has a beautiful simplicity to it that I think will stick me for a while to come.

[Abián Torres · Rating 5 out of 5]

Impresionante trabajo de expresión y hacer sentir con tan pocas palabras. Un viaje corto pero que deja huella a pesar de lo mundano de la historia, o quizá precisamente por eso.

[Verba Non Res · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent. A minimalist narrative that could not have been told without the technical prowess of Bastien Vivès. The way in which the author handles the sequences, the planes, the perspective, give an unusual dynamism to an environment that is otherwise quite monotonous, since almost all the scenes take place in a swimming pool. Meanwhile, what is told is austere as the setting in which it takes place. There is a protagonist who, somewhat against his will, has to start swimming. We only see him in these weekly sessions, and little else; we hardly know anything about his life between one and the other. There is also a girl he sees in the pool, with whom he talks and who helps him improve his technique a bit. We understand that the protagonist likes the girl, and that each one of those weekly islets becomes a rarely satisfied expectation. Sometimes she is delayed; one time, she is accompanied by a man (friend? boyfriend? nothing?) and the exchange becomes awkward, brief. One day she stops going to the pool, no one knows why. After a few weeks, the protagonist doesn't expect her to appear anymore. There is no way to contact her, since, strictly speaking, he does not know anything about her, nor she about him. The entire relationship was built on that ignorance and collapsed because of it. In other words, as always happens, but in a more obvious way; because our relationships with others are made of expectations, of disappointments that the other persondoes not have much to do with.

[I. Merey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read it twice from the middle to make more sense of it (if 'reading' is the right term, as there is almost no dialogue in this book).

I loved the free, loose style of drawing here and the color scheme. I could smell the pool and feel the suffocation of an unskilled swimmer. A boy with curvature of the spine must start swimming to strengthen his back. An ex local champion begins to give him some tips, then mouths something to him underwater one day. After the secret message, he never sees her again, but keeps going to the pool to find her.

Did she say 'I love you'? Was her friendship a figment of his imagination to make the swimming more interesting? I don't need to know.

[Patrouclo · Rating 4 out of 5]

QUÉ LE DIJO

[Zach Hollingshad · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve been taking swimming lessons since last year, so I was especially intrigued by this graphic novel’s focus on swimming. While my situation is different from the main character’s—he has back issues and needs exercise for rehabilitation—his journey resonated with me. On his doctor’s recommendation, he takes up swimming, and it becomes a transformative experience.

The book beautifully highlights the power of swimming, not just as physical therapy but as a way to reconnect with oneself. The character struggles at first, but through swimming, he finds renewal and even love. The illustrations are stunning, and the storytelling is rich, showing his growth with each swim. Highly recommend!

[Angie Pantigana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Si digo que no soy de cómics no miento, quienes me conocen lo saben. Pero El gusto del cloro (para mí más bien novela gráfica) ha conseguido algo muy extraño, y es engancharme a unas imágenes sin apenas texto. Hacerme partícipe de esta historia donde aparentemente no ocurre nada. Hacerme sentir que me encontraba en esa piscina con el protagonista.

[dv · Rating 4 out of 5]

Storia semplice - quasi troppo, al confine con il banale - ma resa nel disegno in maniera perfetta per quel che riguarda la piscina, il nuoto, i suoi movimenti. E con un gusto cinematografico del montaggio decisamente efficace. Il resto lo fanno i toni dell'azzurro.

[Romain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Il y a bien longtemps que je lorgne sur cette BD. Je suis un grand fan de Bastien Vivès pour son talent de dessinateur évidemment, mais aussi pour sa grande sensibilité qu’il dévoile avec des albums comme Polina, Dans mes yeux ou encore Le goût du chlore. J’ai tout de suite été attiré par le titre, je le trouve tout simplement magnifique – alors qu’il peut paraître tout à fait insignifiant. Il me revenait parfois en tête comme ça, mais je ne sais pour quelle raison, je ne l’avais jamais lu ou acheté. Comme le personnage principal, je me suis mis à la natation sur les conseils de mon kinésithérapeute. Depuis, fort de mon expérience en milieu chloré, je me suis senti prêt à plonger dans ce livre.

L’expérience a été plus que concluante, très graphique. Ceux qui sont allés à la piscine, notamment en hiver, comprendront et ne pourront que confirmer que l’ambiance est parfaitement rendue. On se retrouve dans un milieu complètement différent, hors du temps. Personne – ou presque – ne parle, les bruits sont émoussés par les remous et c’est certainement l’une des raisons pour lesquelles cet album ne propose que très peu de dialogues. Tout est dans les ambiances, les attitudes et les regards. On suit celui du personnage principal, à la première ou à la troisième personne, lorsqu’il s’égare à observer les gens, les lieux, lorsqu’il s’imprègne de l’atmosphère. Il s’attarde parfois sur une personne, on ne sait pas trop pourquoi – c’est vrai que c’est surprenant au début d’observer ses semblables affublés de slips et de bonnets de bains –, il observe les gestes, les mouvements, les techniques de nage – celles-ci sont d’ailleurs très bien illustrées.

Et puis un jour, la rencontre. Elle nage bien, elle est belle malgré son bonnet et ses lunettes. A partir de ce jour les mercredis à la piscine ne seront plus les mêmes. Son regard sera rivé vers le haut, vers la sortie des vestiaires. Puis un jour, elle lui dira quelque chose de très important, mais, certainement par pudeur, elle le lui dira sous l’eau. Il faut savoir lire sur les lèvres.

Un très bel album plein de sensibilité qui illustre parfaitement le processus selon lequel on tombe amoureux. L’univers clos, humide et silencieux de la piscine constitue un décor parfait.

Également publié sur mon blog.

[interno storie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Seconda edizione, l’autore ha riveduto il finale. Non avendo letto il primo non saprei darvi ulteriore chiarimenti, ma mi basta questo per capire che un fumetto da rileggere più volte.
Lui e lei – non sapremo mai il nome – si incontrano in piscina per qualche bracciata. Il ragazzo è perplesso, spinto dal fisioterapista per problemi fisici, tanto che si presenta scarsamente equipaggiato. La ragazza ha alle spalle un passato di medaglie e gare amatoriali.
Questi incontri dapprima occasionali sono una storia di mercoledì, di appuntamenti fissi.
Il gusto del cloro sono le parole incomprensibili che si pronunciano sott'acqua, l’incapacità di (con)fidarsi, la resistenza di stare in apnea. Ha un sapore che intrappola il naso. «Ci sei mercoledì prossimo?», il leitmotiv della vicenda sta tutto in questa domanda: bisogna attendere ancora prima di dichiarare chi si è.
Su tutto l’azzurro-piscina (esiste un colore così?) e le inquadrature cinematografiche fanno di un questo fumetto una lettura da sfogliare, tra silenzi e assenze.
Per l’ambientazione mi ricorda Effetto acquatico, film franco-islandese diretto da Sólveig Anspach, anche se lo sviluppo della storia ha risvolti differenti.

[Núria · Rating 4 out of 5]

A un chico que tiene dolor de espalda no le queda otra que ir a la piscina. Allí le llama la atención una chica. Primero se limita a observarla. Después intercambian unas pocas palabras y nadan juntos. Y no sucede nada más. A penas hay diálogos, pero la composición de las viñetas y la expresividad del dibujo son capaces de sugerir una historia riquísima y de una sensibilidad y una delicadeza exquisitas. Me ha recordado un poco a las historias de 'Rubia de verano' de Adrian Tomine (que leí hace poco) y me ha encantado que con tan poco sepa sugerir tanto. Una pequeña joya auténtica, pero pequeña sólo en tamaño.

[Alberto Martín de Hijas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Otro que mejora en la relectura, pero me ha gustado menos que Polina.