Review: Swim to Me

Swim to Me, by Betsy Carter.
(Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2007, ISBN: 1565124928)

Once upon a time, before Disney World and Universal Studios became defining destinations, visitors to Florida found unusual attractions down every road. One of them was (and still is) Weeki Wachee Springs, featuring a "city of live mermaids." The author's story is an invention that fits snugly into the real history of the site and its performers.

Delores is a girl from the Bronx who loves to swim and who dreams of becoming a Weeki Wachee mermaid. She finds more success than she ever imagined, becoming a weather girl for a local TV station (forecasting from a bathtub in her mermaid tail) and, ultimately, the star of a combination circus/aquatic show. The fairy tale quality of the book is balanced by the back story of her unhappy family life and the breakup of her parents' marriage.

The novel takes place around 1970, and it is full of product and song placements that will make readers of a certain age smile with recollection.

Disney World has just opened as the story comes to its climax, and Walker chooses to focus on the success that Weeki Wachee Springs achieves in putting on a fabulous new show that produces jealousy in Walt Disney himself. Left unspoken is what every reader knows: that Disney's creation will come to dwarf attractions like the one in the book.

An excellent choice for book clubs.