Learning to Swim and Other Stories is the first collection of stories by English author Graham Swift published in 1982. All eleven stories were first published in British magazines.[1]
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First edition (UK)
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Author | Graham Swift |
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Language | English |
Publisher | London Magazines Editions (UK) Poseidon Press (US) |
Publication date | 1982 |
Publication place | United Kingdom |
Pages | 146 |
ISBN | 978-0-904-38846-6 |
Nasrullah Mambrol writes that "The motif of marital unhappiness recurs in the collection as a whole. The husbands in the stories fear intimacy and invite betrayal through their inability to connect... The stories differ only in the degree of antagonism exhibited and the variety of pain-inducing strategies each story describes, since all the couples in Swift’s stories appear to stay together in order to “conceal their feelings", as the narrator of “Cliffedge” suggests, rather than seek emotional fulfilment.[2]
The collection was well received in England but was not as favourable in America. In Contemporary Authors (V.122) "more than one critic remarked that some of the tales seemed too studied and even uncompelling." Many of his works, especially short stories, leave the reader with many unanswered questions. Most questions are easily answered by considering Swift's work as a whole.[1] Learning to Swim is not a collection of happy, light tales. One critic writes, "A list of themes reads like a microcosm of the Sunday morning newspapers: infidelity to partner (three), sexual traumas (two), incest (one), age (three), suspected bestiality (one), murder and mayhem (one)."[1]