Miranda July, “The Swim Team”

Remember that year I didn’t tell you about, well I spent it teaching old people to swim.

(from No One Belongs Here More Than You)

And the way she taught them is hilarious. Lacking a pool, she had them kick at the floor, flail their arms and put their faces into bowls of water. Diving practice called for belly flopping onto a bed. Our narrator didn’t tell her ex this story because it wasn’t as sexy as he guessed it would be, and might, somehow, dissolve the relationship. Now that they’re not together, and she saw him with another woman, she wants to get it off her chest but also maybe wants to be attractive or attractively honest to her ex. Like its narrator, this story is complicated and attractively honest.

3 thoughts on “Miranda July, “The Swim Team”

  1. Anonymous

    I’ve wanted to read Miranda July’s stories for so long. Sounds like they were good. I appreciate your comments and reviews on all these pieces of literature. Thank you.

    Reply
  2. hawkeye

    Of the millions of short stories in the world, I read this one over lunch today. And for the 15 minutes it took, it was like no other short stories existed for that brief moment.

    Reply

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