Reviewing Swimming in
the Dark, author Paddy RICHARDSON
The Freemans are a
dysfunctional family, with no permanent father figure, a mother who seeks
comfort in drink and dubious liaisons, two young adult sons who pretend to work
but prefer to deal, the older daughter who ran away from home years ago, and
Serena, a young girl who is targeted by the town's sexual predator but cannot
face revealing this.
The Kleins are a family of
mother and daughter, the last of a family of refugees from post-Cold War East
Germany - Leipzig. Since arriving in New Zealand, age has taken the father,
Oma and Opa (grandma and grandad), leaving Gerda, a former maternity nurse,
still believing sometimes that old Russian-controlled Leipzig was a better
place, but sometimes wracked with guilt by the discoveries of what the Russian
Stasi had been doing to the populace without her knowing. Her daughter Ilse
teaches at the local secondary school, and has been nurturing Serena's
unrecognized scholastic ability, giving her hope of getting away to university.
The story's swimming refers
to the river, a gathering place for teens and families in summer, and Ilse's
place for swimming alone at night. Serena realizes the teens are being watched
by a respected member of the community from the bridge, but she feels
uncomfortable. His attention towards her escalates to the level of sexual
abuse, and rape. She hides the resulting pregnancy as long as she can.
Ilse, out one evening for
her usual swim, discovers Serena in the beginning stages of labour, alone,
frightened and in pain. Taking Serena back home to Ilse, Serena is terrified to
let anyone know, so Gerda draws on her skills to successfully deliver Serena's
baby.
The rapist father, still
watching for her, discovers where she is in hiding. How Ilse and Gerda deal
with his aggressive arrival in their home is a triumph of rights over fear and
victimization, leaving this reviewer wanting to yell in triumph. The story's
conclusion leaves the right characters in the right situation for each, in a
quietly triumphant ending.
Publishing: 2014, Upstart
Press, Auckland NZ; paperback
ISBN: 978-1-927262-05-4
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