Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
" Shapton] writes as confidently as she draws, and memorably conjures swimming's intense, primordial and isolating pleasures . . . Shapton's prose frequently has the density of poetry." --Dwight Garner, The New York Times
An autobiographical work about how swimming--both competitively and recreationally--has affected Shapton's life.
The artist Leanne Shapton has written a uniquely radiant autobiography, filtered through her intricate relationship to swimming. In photographs, illustrations, and subtle yet startlingly moving prose, she contemplates the act and rhythm of the sport, and how it's shaped the contours of her work even after her more ambitious athletic pursuits have slowed.
Swimming Studies is a sleek, enthralling immersion into the author's childhood in suburbia, her swimming regimen, and her musings on selfhood. Winner of the 2012 National Book Critics Circle Award in Autobiography, Swimming Studies is as essential as ever--not just for its timeless, elegant meditation on art, creativity, and passion, but for its rumination on who we are and what we do.
Synopsis
Swimming Studies is a collection of autobiographical sketches that explore the worlds of competitive and recreational swimming. From her training for the Olympic trials as a teenager, to meditative swims in pools and oceans as an adult, Leanne Shapton contemplates the sport that has shaped her life. Her spare and elegant writing reveals an intimate narrative of suburban adolescence, spent underwater in a discipline that continues to inspire Shapton's work as an artist and author, while her illustrations offer a new perspective on the landscapes and imagery of swimming. Shapton emphasizes the private, often solitary moments of athletic pursuit rather than its triumphs. This remarkable work of written and visual pieces propels the reader through a beautifully personal exercise in reflection.