The Chronology of Water

The Chronology of Water by Lidia Yuknavitch

At first, I had assumed this was a novel rather than a memoir. It was interesting how it lead with writing and connected the origin of the book. The author loved to swim. She was good enough to get college scholarships, but not quite good enough to make the olympics. Her college swim career faded out as she was more interested in sex and drugs than school. She grew up mostly in Washington State before moving to Florida in high school. Her mother abused alcohol, while her father sexually abused her sister (and to a lesser extent the author). She was attracted to both men and women and would spent much of her adult life with sex, drugs and alcohol. She had a stillbirth that she had trouble admitting to. She spent time with Ken Kesey's writing group, despite not being enrolled at the time. Overall, it sounds like a rough life, with swimming and water being an ongoing theme. She has an interesting voice to her work.