The Chronology of Water: A Memoir
NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE DIRECTED BY KRISTEN STEWART
From the debris of a troubled early life comes an astonishing tale of survival, a paean to the pursuit of beauty, self-expression, desire—for men and women—and the exhilaration of swimming
THIS IS NOT YOUR MOTHER’S MEMOIR. In The Chronology of Water, Lidia Yuknavitch, a lifelong swimmer and Olympic hopeful, escapes her raging father and alcoholic and suicidal mother when she accepts a swimming scholarship which drug and alcohol addiction eventually cause her to lose.
What follows is promiscuous sex with both men and women, some of them famous, and some of it S&M, as Lidia discovers the power of her sexuality to help her forget her pain. The forgetting doesn’t last, though, and it is her hard-earned career as a writer and teacher, and the love of her husband and son, that ultimately create the life she needs to survive.
"I've read Ms. Yuknavitch's book The Chronology of Water, cover to cover, a dozen times . . . The book is extraordinary." —Chuck Palahniuk, author of Fight Club
From the debris of a troubled early life comes an astonishing tale of survival, a paean to the pursuit of beauty, self-expression, desire—for men and women—and the exhilaration of swimming
THIS IS NOT YOUR MOTHER’S MEMOIR. In The Chronology of Water, Lidia Yuknavitch, a lifelong swimmer and Olympic hopeful, escapes her raging father and alcoholic and suicidal mother when she accepts a swimming scholarship which drug and alcohol addiction eventually cause her to lose.
What follows is promiscuous sex with both men and women, some of them famous, and some of it S&M, as Lidia discovers the power of her sexuality to help her forget her pain. The forgetting doesn’t last, though, and it is her hard-earned career as a writer and teacher, and the love of her husband and son, that ultimately create the life she needs to survive.
"I've read Ms. Yuknavitch's book The Chronology of Water, cover to cover, a dozen times . . . The book is extraordinary." —Chuck Palahniuk, author of Fight Club
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Community Reviews
(2nd reading)
This book is even better the second time reading it.
Her words make my words more possible.
Raw, brutal, devastating, inspiring, and so so intimately familiar. My fucking hero.
**
(1st reading)
In a nonfiction writing workshop in college I learned to rip myself open and let myself bleed words and wounds onto paper. It isn't pretty. It's an attempt to create cohesion, A Story you can live with. How do you take your experiences and impose language on them? How do you make a narrative out of fragments and pieces of nightmares? (you don't. you make a mosaic.) My professor recommended this book to me: "THIS is what you're writing, this is what you're trying to make. See how this author did it."
And - wow. Words in a review will never do this book justice. You don't read this book, you FEEL this work of art, with its broken pieces and sharp edges, and it becomes part of you. Experiencing her words is an intimate experience. Absolute perfection.
This book is even better the second time reading it.
Her words make my words more possible.
Raw, brutal, devastating, inspiring, and so so intimately familiar. My fucking hero.
**
(1st reading)
In a nonfiction writing workshop in college I learned to rip myself open and let myself bleed words and wounds onto paper. It isn't pretty. It's an attempt to create cohesion, A Story you can live with. How do you take your experiences and impose language on them? How do you make a narrative out of fragments and pieces of nightmares? (you don't. you make a mosaic.) My professor recommended this book to me: "THIS is what you're writing, this is what you're trying to make. See how this author did it."
And - wow. Words in a review will never do this book justice. You don't read this book, you FEEL this work of art, with its broken pieces and sharp edges, and it becomes part of you. Experiencing her words is an intimate experience. Absolute perfection.
I've now read this remarkable book twice, and even as I finish it I want to start again. It's a memoir, yes, but it doesn't feel like that, and yet it does. It is heartfelt but illuminating, makes you want to cry but I also laughed out loud at some of the descriptions. It tells of the many traumas and joys of Lydia's life, and yes it can feel shocking because she's suffered abuse in different genres, but it makes you feel, truly feel, as a woman and a human body. It is also like it's title, moving like water, not linear, and I loved that, thoughts flowing and sometimes gently, sometimes like tidal waves, it's how I recall. Can't wait to see the adapted movie. And to read again.
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