What We Thought: Swim Back to Me: Stories by Ann Packer

Book club members discussed characteristics of short story collections after reading this month’s selection, Swim Back toMe by Ann Packer. Members said that they enjoyed reading collections of short stories written by different authors or about different time periods in the same book. Most preferred light and humorous stories rather than depressing and dark ones. They agreed that the stories in Swim Back to Me show human nature and another part of our selves. Most of the members did not enjoy reading Ann Packer’s stories but they discussed her work in depth anyway.

 

Commenting about “Molten,” the story about a mother whose teenaged son has died, members discussed how, although a mother never gets over a loss like that, some stay bitter all of their lives and others are eventually able  to move on. Members speculated about the reasons a husband had for deserting both his first and second family without notice or explanation, in "Dwell Time". Perhaps he had post-traumatic stress disorder and when something triggered the behavior, he had no control over his reactions. They wondered why the first wife never told the second wife about what happened. No one spoke about the children and their feelings.

 

Although there was clearly no favorite story, some were drawn to “Jump” where a character who appeared to be uneducated and unmotivated was revealed to be totally different from a stereotype. The character in the story who had believed him to be one way was surprised and changed her reaction to him. This story could be expanded into a relationship between them.

 

Members said that they had to think more deeply about the stories and their implications to understand them. Feelings about the content of this collection were ambivalent but there was a spirited discussion and everyone expressed strong opinions.

Have you read Swim Back to Me or anything else written by Ann Packer? Please add to the discussion in the comments!

 

Here is a list of recently published short stories/essays for anyone looking to read more:

Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri

Runaway Stories by Alice Munro

Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell

Scenes From  Village  Life by Amos Oz

The Outlaw Album by Daniel Woodrell

Homesick by Roshi Fernando

Orientation by Daniel Orozco
Birds of a Lesser Paradise by Megan Mayhew Bergman
Pulse by Julian Barnes

Dear Life by Alice Munro

 

 

This Month's Selection: Swim Back to Me: Stories by Ann Packer

Swim Back to Me: Stories

by Ann Packer

Ann Packer is a talented archivist of family life, with its hidden crevasses and unforeseeable perils. In this collection of stories, Packer explores the moral predicaments that define our lives, the frailty of ordinary grace, and the ways in which we are shattered and remade by loss.

This collection is framed by two novellas. In the opener, "Walk for Mankind," Teenager Richard describes his bittersweet relationship with a rebellious, risk-taking 14-year-old Sasha, who has a clandestine affair with a drug dealer. Sasha's behavior is a reaction to her controlling father, an English professor who's spiraling downward professionally and personally. "Things Said or Done" is set three decades later, when Sasha, now 51 and divorced, has become Richard's caretaker, forced to deal with his self-destructive, narcissistic personality while recognizing the ways in which they are alike. 

With Swim Back to Me, Packer delivers shimmering psychological precision and page-turning drama: her most enticing work yet.

-- From the publisher's description
 

Have you read this? Read along with the Afternoon Book Club and comment anytime!