Drowning lessons

The thirteen stories in DROWNING LESSONS use water in different ways. In “Swimming,” a man’s love affair with a lake threatens his marriage; in “The Wolf House,” a pond is the setting of the reunion—and dissolution—of a group of high school friends, brought together for a funeral. “The Sink-ing Ship Man” chronicles a day in the life of an African American caretaker in charge of the only remaining survivor of the Titanic. In “El Malecón,” a toothless old Dominican man tries to recapture his lost dignity by “borrowing” a shiny convertible Cadillac and driving it along the coastal highway to his childhood village. In “The Sea Cure,” two travelers in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula confront death in the form of a mysterious woman living in an abandoned beach-front apartment complex. In “Our Cups are Bottomless" the accuracy of a legend at the bottom of a diner menu becomes a matter of life or death for a man bent on suicide.

First sentence: He placed the oars in their locks and the floating seat cushion on the backseat.

Year

2008

Language

English

Series

The Flannery O'Connor Award for short fiction

Publisher

University of Georgia Press

Editions

5

Pages

256

ISBN

9780820332109

Data source: Wikidata