Book Review: Swallow the Ocean

One day about a week ago, like so many who love the rich literary life in the Minneapolis area, I found myself craving the company of words. I looked, as I often do, to the Loft Literary Center website to see what they had around the corner. I found a publication reading for Swallow the Ocean by Laura Flynn, a professor of the University of Minnesota's Writing program. The book is a memoir about growing up in 1970s San Francisco as her mother was drifting further into the grasp of paranoid schizophrenia. For anyone in the area, the reading is Thursday, February 28th at 7 pm, at the Loft. The event is free and open to the public and is cosponsered by nami.org (National  Alliance  on Mental  Illness)

As the book began, Laura's mother, Sally didn't seem so bad.  She loved her daughters and her husband, had  a few  eccentric habits like reading about the paranormal, and meditating, and she  had  a hard time throwing things away. But more and more Sally's world becomes something very different than the one her husband and children experience. Laura's father is the first to break away when he and Sally get divorced. He becomes a weekend father, while Laura, her older sister Sara, and her younger sister, Amy stay with their mother, and somehow learn to adapt. They help shop for Sally when she is afraid to leave their apartment. They learn the difference between good and evil products as to not upset their mother. They learn to keep their friends out of their home, which had become messy and barely passable with the clutter Sally will not dare throw away.

This memoir is very well crafted. Their mother's illness was always a shadow in their lives, but Laura and her sisters proved resilient, relying on each other, and the games they played with their Little Women character dolls. The girls pulled Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy in and out of situations Louisa May Alcott never imagined. My point is that these little girls are so much more than their mother's daughters, and it is to her credit that Flynn does not get so wrapped up in the illness that she forgets to include the simple pleasures of childhood.

The illness is a shadow, but does not overshadow.

I'll stop here, as not to tempt myself into any spoilers. But whether your looking for a good book to read-- or someone to read to you. Next Thursday's reading seems like a good place to be, if you can. If you can't-- just read the book.