Rating: 
Summary: Cracked Updike meets Salinger meets Springsteen
Review: As far as narratives go, this is one of the finest works I've read in recent years. Vangie is a sharply characterized protagonist, and Gibbon's prose recalls Updike as smoothly as her dialogue recalls Salinger. This book portrays a fractured couple in rural Pennsylvania in the early 1980s trying to live out the American dream in a town shattered by unemployment, poverty and drugs.Fans of "A Girl Walking Backwards" will definitely see similarities, but the prose and narrative stands out here. Recommended soundtrack: "The River" - Bruce Springsteen, "Bat Out Of Hell" - Meatloaf, "Heaven Tonight" - Cheap Trick, "Late For The Sky" - Jackson Browne. Readers may want to be aware of the frank sexual depiction that even gives Updike a run for his money.
Rating: 
Summary: unique voice
Review: Gibbon writes about American lives many never see, and she does so with great respect and feeling for her characters. She makes you see up close the hard lives and the choices being made. The writing style calls to mind both Cather and Carver, yet it is entirely unique. Other comparisons? This book is like a song by Lucinda (or Hank) Williams: it stays in your mind and plays for days.
Rating:
Summary: hey ms gibbon this is ryan ducharme i will be a 10 grader
Review: hey everyone i would just like to start out by saying THIS BOOK IS THE COOLEST! so yeah im 16 and i was a former student of hers at orono high school. i like to read harry poter books. I have to go to school tomorrow. i like to drive in my car, and race down the free way. i drive a 97 mclairin its ok. but i gg so i will keep you posted on the book. this book is so go i read it in one sitting so i think you should buy it hell buy ten!
Rating:
Summary: i was her student and i read it, its niche!
Review: hey this was a good book i really enjoyed it, i fell in love with the main character vangie. so ms. gibbon hows it going you should be very proud of yourself, its a very nice book. well cya next year. ryan ducharme
Rating:
Summary: AWESOME DI DAWESOME!
Review: I bought this book to read on a long plane ride. I finished it in the airport before ever getting on the plane. I just couldn't stop reading. It was great. There is a LOT of sex in this book but it is NOT a romance novel. Some may even be a bit shocked so I would say read the first paragraph in the bookstore because the sex starts basically from the first pages, this way if its not your cup of tea you can put it back on the shelf. I personally loved it!!
Rating:
Summary: A good read. Definitely a breakthrough novel.
Review: I got this book to (1) read on the beach and (2) to pre-read it as a gift for my 16 year old sister. The results? I read it so quickly, I was half way through the novel before I knew it. The narrative is fluid. The protagonist, Vangie, is clear and eloquent, even as she is graphic in her descriptions, pure in her honesty in telling us how she sees her life and those around her. She may divide her life between work, drugs and sex, but she has no illusions about her life and where it's going. In fact, she initially doesn't give much thought to the future, other than moving in with her boyfriend. One of the powerful elements of the book is watching the subtle shift in Vangie's sense of self and realizing how subtly you begin to care about her future. You see how little support or parenting she has had, how considering this, she is surviving even as she makes mistakes, gets up and tries again. Although I am by no means a prude, and although I did think the sexual language was appropriate for the narrator and breakthrough for the genre of the female first person narrator, I could not see myself giving this book to my sister. Vangie's window into the sexual proclivities of her and her boyfriend seemed TMI (too much information) for young adult reading. Of course, that was my own judgement call. The narrator is young, and her life is hard and raw at times. A friend who also read "Swimming Sweet Arrow" compared it to "Go Ask Alice," which I did read when I was about 15 or 16. But I'd have to reread it be able to compare the narratives for graphic content. This book is by no means great literature, but it is a novel worth reading, a protagonist's life worth considering.
Rating: 
Summary: Puzzled
Review: I kept reading this novel thinking it surely must be going somewhere. Sadly it didn't. I'm amazed that so many readers liked it. A story of two girls/women who think of nothing but sex. It rules their lives. It is their life. Of course, being a novel, no one gets STDs, AIDs, etc. Are today's women really this empty headed? For this is an empty story.
Rating: 
Summary: Over-rated tripe
Review: I read this book after reading all the glowing reviews here and couldn't believe how much I hated it. It was long and dull, repetitive and predictable, and it went NOWHERE. It was depressing and not in the way that I like. I actually hated the characters and felt a sort of repulsed pity for them...Their upbringing is NO excuse, either. There are millions of people who had similar backgrounds to this and still managed to become intelligent, sensitive people who are aware of the world around them and have many interests other than sex and drugs. To be fair, the story and characters do contain an unfortunate realism but...I sure don't want to spend my time reading about them. The narrative however flows nicely, the author's very talented...
Rating:
Summary: Over-rated tripe
Review: I read this book after reading all the glowing reviews here and couldn't believe how much I hated it. It was long and dull, repetitive and predictable, and it went NOWHERE. It was depressing and not in the way that I like. I actually hated the characters and felt a sort of repulsed pity for them...Their upbringing is NO excuse, either. There are millions of people who had similar backgrounds to this and still managed to become intelligent, sensitive people who are aware of the world around them and have many interests other than sex and drugs. To be fair, the story and characters do contain an unfortunate realism but...I sure don't want to spend my time reading about them. The narrative however flows nicely, the author's very talented...
Rating:
Summary: A knockout
Review: I read this novel straigh through. The pacing is so strong that it pulls you in. I couldn't stop reading--mainly, because the narrator, Vangie, speaks so directly, honestly. At times her voice felt searing, unmodulated, something like reading a journal. In some other hands, the recklessness of Vangie, her working-class, small town situation, more typically would receive irony, condescension. Swimming Sweet Arrow demands you to approach Vangie's life on her terms. In a way, like Zola, but with optimism. This book is unlike anything I've ever read.
| 
