Laury A. Egan

This peace delivers an enthralling psychogram of a highly talented composer working on her first opera.
Both Leslie's parents had bisexual affairs. Working on her first masterpiece means coming to terms with the past for her. As a theme of her opera, she chooses a fling between the writers Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West.
While drafting her notes in a guest house in Maine, her own bisexuality is tested, her patron has a mysterious bisexual background, and the handyman is acting stranger and stranger.
Art and life are melting together here. A bit boring in the beginning the book turns out to be a pageturner!… (más)

(Mild spoilers)
I found the premise of this book really interesting - a composer working on an opera about three famous literary women who are thought to have had relationships with one another, a large lonely house in the middle of nowhere, a bit of drama and crime dashed in.
The execution of the premise was just okay though. It was fun trying to guess along with our main character what everyone else's motivations and true back story were. The little tidbits about the opera she was working on and the lives of the women featured in it were really fun, especially as a fan of Virginia Woolf. The climax of the book was quite thrilling and took some twists and turns that I had not at all expected. It was also quite interesting to see 1990s (and older) attitudes about LGBTQ people through the lens of someone writing in the 2022.
I felt like there was a lot repetition of the same points over and over with no real value added (the house is giving the main character the creeps but she's not sure why; she once saw her mother in the throws of passion with another woman...). It was also a lot of just stating how the main character felt without actually bringing us inside her head to find out why. What about the house makes her feel so uneasy? What is it about her romantic life that she finds so vexing? I felt incredibly disconnected from her the entire book, even though it was told in first person narration.… (más)

In The Swimmer we encounter Bess Lynch, a sixty-something psychotherapist, as she retreats to a cabin on Cape Cod, trying to disengage from the presences crowding her life. Her practice already handed off, she needs to make some important decisions about family, her will, and particularly her marriage. She’s on borrowed time. She has already survived much longer than a patient with Stage IV pancreatic cancer can normally expect.

As determined as Bess is to follow her plan, she’s caught up when a stunningly attractive man disrupts her solitude and proves a delightful - and desirable - distraction. As if that weren’t enough, her troubled and unreliable son crashes this groupe de deux with a surprise visit. The shock of this unannounced intrusion releases some pent-up acrimony and recrimination between mother and son. Stephen, the mysterious and handsome stranger stays (mostly) on the sideline as some long-stagnant air is cleared between Bess and her son.

The mystery of Stephen only deepens as Bess’s condition takes a sudden and nasty turn. He has knowledge of symptoms and conditions in extremis that is only vaguely explained. His solicitousness never flags, however; he is always there for Bess, doing his best to relieve her pain and her fears.

Laury Egan has delivered a touching and well-rounded performance. First, I must honor her for the skill and sharp professionalism with which she portrays her heroine. With a long career as a counselor, Bess’s observations are all expressed in terms which would be used by such a professional. She deals with two men in her lonely vigil, Stephen and her son, and she observes and interacts with them as would a doctor of psychology.

Additionally, Egan challenges herself to render a plot featuring very difficult subjects; requiring technical and emotional mastery. This is very accomplished work, of a deceptively difficult kind, and Laury Egan makes it look easy. The pacing, the exactitude of emotional tenor, and the mystery at its heart, all recommend this author, and this book very highly. Sterling work!… (más)