Culture August 11, 2009

Nicola Keegan’s novel about a Kansas girl who swims her way to the Seoul Olympics sounds drearily good-natured and uplifting, but if that’s what you’re after, you should paddle back to the shallow end. This isn’t like one of those sentimental biopics that give everybody a chance to go to the bathroom between the big races. Yes, the young heroine shatters records (and bones) and collects enough gold medals to fill a pirate’s treasure chest, but she also discovers that beating a husky East German with a 5 o’clock shadow is easier than competing against hopelessness and death.