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David's Reviews > Swimming in the Dark
Swimming in the Dark
by
by
David's review
bookshelves: hist-fiction, __fiction, lgbtq, z-2020, _all-time-favorites
Jul 19, 2020
bookshelves: hist-fiction, __fiction, lgbtq, z-2020, _all-time-favorites
I am a sucker for the tragedy! Who is to blame here? Society? The Party? Janusz? Ludwik? Hania? The author paints every scene with just the right details to let your mind vividly imagine every scene: from working in the fields, to the lake, to the cities, to the tram, to the gatherings of people. The sexual encounters are lean, but their placement and meaning is clear. There is so much more going on in this book.
There are parents and grand parents and societal pressures here. You must remain true to The Party to get a job. Ludwik has known from an early age that deep down he is gay, yet his shame is overwhelming. Janusz is more confident with his internal liking of guys, yet caught in the game of the party. As Janusz plays Hania for The Party, what does Hania really know?
I round this up to 5, but I am still partial to Giovanni's Room and Lie With Me. I did not feel a real tear until the very end of this story. I'm glad I read Giovanni again earlier this year. It is referenced so much throughout this book that it can almost be good to pause as soon as Giovanni gets mentioned, and go read that short tragedy, and then return to this book.
It may be hard for young readers to really understand The Cold War and the role/rule of Communism. Strangely though, the feeling of helplessness against government has returned, and much closer to home recently. Was anyone REALLY happy about their 'happiness' at the end of this book?!
There are parents and grand parents and societal pressures here. You must remain true to The Party to get a job. Ludwik has known from an early age that deep down he is gay, yet his shame is overwhelming. Janusz is more confident with his internal liking of guys, yet caught in the game of the party. As Janusz plays Hania for The Party, what does Hania really know?
I round this up to 5, but I am still partial to Giovanni's Room and Lie With Me. I did not feel a real tear until the very end of this story. I'm glad I read Giovanni again earlier this year. It is referenced so much throughout this book that it can almost be good to pause as soon as Giovanni gets mentioned, and go read that short tragedy, and then return to this book.
It may be hard for young readers to really understand The Cold War and the role/rule of Communism. Strangely though, the feeling of helplessness against government has returned, and much closer to home recently. Was anyone REALLY happy about their 'happiness' at the end of this book?!
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Quotes David Liked
“And yet, it occurs to me now that we can never run with our lies indefinitely. Sooner or later we are forced to confront their darkness. We can choose then when, not the if. And the longer we wait, the more painful and uncertain it will be.”
― Swimming in the Dark
― Swimming in the Dark
“I guess it’s nice to be away from the crowd sometimes, to be able to hear yourself think. I go mad when I’m surrounded by others all the time.”
― Swimming in the Dark
― Swimming in the Dark
“The odds had been stacked against us from the start: we had no manual, no one to show us the way. Not one example of a happy couple made up of boys. How were we supposed to know what to do? Did we even believe that we deserved to get away with happiness?”
― Swimming in the Dark
― Swimming in the Dark
“No matter what happens in the world, however brutal or dystopian a thing, not all is lost if there are people out there risking themselves to document it. Little sparks cause fires, too.”
― Swimming in the Dark
― Swimming in the Dark
“We kissed. You were mine. I realised then that this was the only thing that counted. Nothing else had ever existed. Just our lips and hips and sighs. I fell into different galaxies through you, your mouth a porthole to a better universe.”
― Swimming in the Dark
― Swimming in the Dark
“Sooner or later we are forced to confront their darkness. We can choose the when, not the if. And the longer we wait, the more painful and uncertain it will be.”
― Swimming in the Dark
― Swimming in the Dark
“I avoided you, so that you couldn’t avoid me. I didn’t want to be in the field of your power. I envied your lightness and the beauty you carried with such ease.”
― Swimming in the Dark
― Swimming in the Dark
“Because you were right when you said that people can’t always give us what we want from them; that you can’t ask them to love you the way you want. No one can be blamed for that. And the odds had been stacked against us from the start: we had no manual, no one to show us the way. Not one example of a happy couple made up of boys. How were we supposed to know what to do? Did we even believe that we deserved to get away with happiness?”
― Swimming in the Dark
― Swimming in the Dark
“Because you were right when you said that people can’t always give us what we want from them; that you can’t ask them to love you the way you want. No one can be blamed for that.”
― Swimming in the Dark
― Swimming in the Dark
“No matter what happens in the world, however brutal or dystopian a thing, not all is lost if there are people out there risking themselves to document it. Little sparks cause fires too.”
― Swimming in the Dark
― Swimming in the Dark
“This is how I lived back then– through books. I locked myself into their stories, dreamt of their characters at night, pretended to be them. They were my armour against the hard edges of reality. I carried them with me wherever I went, like a talisman in my pocket, thinking of them as almost more real than the people around me, who spoke and lived in denial, destined, I thought, to never do anything worth recounting.”
― Swimming in the Dark
― Swimming in the Dark
Reading Progress
November 18, 2019
– Shelved
November 18, 2019
– Shelved as:
to-read
December 29, 2019
– Shelved as:
hist-fiction
July 19, 2020
–
Started Reading
July 19, 2020
–
Finished Reading
August 14, 2020
– Shelved as:
__fiction
January 3, 2021
– Shelved as:
lgbtq
January 1, 2023
– Shelved as:
z-2020
January 21, 2024
– Shelved as:
_all-time-favorites
