Eric C. Wat

In Eric C. Wat’s novel, Swim, high-functioning drug addict Carson Chow is fast approaching the point where he will either sink or swim. His mother’s dead. His grandmother needs him. His father seems estranged; his sister too. And it doesn’t help that marriage isn’t in the works, even though gays are less restricted now. It doesn’t help that his only relationships are with work, drugs and the current boyfriend, or that the boyfriend relationship is falling apart, or that the one boyfriend who might have been “the one” has moved on, or that Carson is still keeping his mother’s secret...

But swim means more than “sink or swim,” and this story of self-discovery takes its protagonist back into hurts, loves and memories, even as he tries to move forward and protect the interests of all those he cares for. On the way he’ll learn he’s both stronger and weaker than he thinks, and that others might love you truly, even when they don’t love you as you might wish.

Swim is a haunting story, powerfully describing the sensations and longings of addiction, the sensual details of the addicted body, and the needs of the addicted mind. It’s not an easy read. But Carson Chow is an oddly appealing 40-year-old protagonist, old enough to know better while still young enough to wonder why. Balanced between care for his aged grandmother and for his pre-teen niece, and between the various cultures that have shaped him, he struggles to find a path that might start to shine if he can only first find love.

“Swim,” it turns out, is not the only word with multiple meanings. “Love” has many meanings too, and surprising power in this uncompromising novel of unflinching detail and unvarnished, but hopeful reality.

Disclosure: I was given a preview edition and I love it.… (plus d'informations)