Swimming Pool Sunday

Rating:
Summary: Good read, has a charm all its' own
Review: In Melbrook, England Louise and Barnaby Kember are divorcing each other. In spite of their personal animosities towards each other, they still go to the annual charity swimming party. However, this year a tragedy occurs when their daughter is injured in a poolside accident.

Louise's lawyer and lover, Cassian Brown convinces her to sue her neighbor for negligence in the accident, which she does. By doing so, she has alienated the townsfolk. Meanwhile, Barnaby blames her for the accident. As the couple turns even more acrimonious towards one another, neither realize that the ambitious Cassion has his own agenda, and does not care what happens to his lover, her daughter, or the rest of her family as long as she further his political and social plans.

In a rather short period of time, Madeline Wickham has earned the reputation for writing about the effects of life's disasters on relationships. Her latest novel, SWIMMING POOL SUNDAY, enhances her deserved reputation by depicting the impact of a trauma on a couple already too deeply buried under personal troubles to even notice how they are being used. The secondary characters add humor while providing insight into the lead characters. Ms. Wickham scribes a winning tale about the down side of family relationships.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: excellent -- beyond chick-lit
Review: This is realistic stuff, and not everyone has a happy ending, whether or not you think they may deserve one. The main characters in this story are the members of the Kember family: divorcing parents Barnaby and Louise, and their two young daughters Amelia and Katie. The family, after a massive day of arguments, decide to attend the town's "Swimming Day", a tradition of their neighbors and friends, Hugh and Ursula, where they invite everyone over to swim, with a donation to charity.

Katie suffers an injury during the outing, and from there the rest of the story springs forth: the town gossips and takes sides about who is at fault; Louise's boyfriend Cassian convincing them to sue their friends; Hugh, Ursula and their daughter-in-law Meredith reliving the fact that Simon, their 28-year-old son, died a few years beforehand, and feeling both sorrow for Katie's condition and anger and betrayal over their lost friendship.

It is well-done, and reminiscent of Maeve Binchy's work in how various characters and storylines are fleshed out and attended to in order to round out the tale involving multiple lives in a town.