"The Swimming Pool," by Holly LeCraw (Doubleday, $26 )
"The Swimming Pool" doesn't read like a first novel. Holly LeCraw weaves timelines, storylines and relationships with the skill of a master storyteller. Her debut novel is a love story, the tale of a dysfunctional family and a mystery, all packaged into one lovely book.
Marcella, divorced and living alone, is estranged from her daughter, still grieving her dead lover, and revitalized by her passionate affair in the present day storyline - with the son of her former love.
Jed, in the middle of it all, still grieves for his dead mother, hasn't reconciled with his father's role in that death and struggles to provide emotional support to his struggling sister. This, while pursuing the woman he has admired since his teenage years - the woman he soon realizes was his father's mistress.
The rich character ensemble is rounded out by Marcella's aloof ex-husband and daughter, Jed's sister and her family, their parents, and the beautiful setting of Cape Cod and rural Connecticut. The pace is quick, flashing back and forth between the present day, and seven years prior when Marcella first engages with both Jed and his father.
It's a lot of emotion. It's a lot of action. It may sound a bit overwrought and like a soap opera of a novel. Somehow, it's not. It's not over the top, it's not too much. The skill LeCraw demonstrates, carefully plotting the overlay of relationships and storylines, is remarkable.
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