Rating: 
Summary: shocking and truthful
Review: I thought this book was amazing. Once I started reading, I couldn't put it down. It's one of the few honest books I've ever read about what it's like to grow up female, and it's one of the few honest books about sex. I could relate to Vangie and her friend June -- to their dilemmas, their feelings and their experiences. The book is shocking in places, but that's because there's so much truth in it. It makes me think of those photos by Walker Evans in LET US NOW PRAISE FAMOUS MEN. Gibbon doesn't turn away from the un-beautiful, and the result is a book that is strong and haunting.
Rating: 
Summary: Yuck!
Review: I thought this book was pure trash. I didn't like it. I had to stop reading it, all it was about was sex. There just didn't seem to be any plot other than them having sex and their sex lives.
Rating: 
Summary: Edgy book not for the faint of heart!
Review: I truly enjoyed this book. Seldom do I read a book that I never want to end and this is certainly that kind of book. Some of the lines in the story are still stuck in my head and it's been a while since I read it. It's certainly a rated R book, so if you're more of a PG-13 kinda person, you may want to skip this one!
Rating:
Summary: Sex is not repulsive!!
Review: I would mainly like to address the topic of sex that everyone finds so astonishing in this book. First off, the way in which the main character "Vangie" adresses sex is neither vulgar nor trashy. It is true!! Sex is not something to be ashamed of and many women think about and experience sex!!! SURPRISE!!! I was refreshed after reading this book!! I am greatful that someone has finally had the guts to write down and publish what millions of women across the world experience and go through daily. It is not until we become comfortable with ourselves and our bodies that we can become comfortable with our minds and our souls.
Rating:
Summary: Not for puritans
Review: My hardcover copy, incidentally, has a much more sedate dust jacket(designed by Michael Ian Kaye) than the paperback.It's the sort of book you have to flip through to find the non-dirty bits. The elements of a plot come briefly in between prolonged and graphic (and well-written) descriptions of sexual acts. In fact I think the real plot is the old basic story of the woman who sacrifices all for the sake of love with a worthless man. In the older stories this was romantic love; here it is physical desire. Vangie (the narrator) and Del have nothing else in their young lives (except alcohol and drugs). No parents are functioning. When they are not in jail or rehab they are waitresses of factory workers. In the end Vangie survives and leaves Del and we have a feeling she may be going on to a better life (she is still in her teens). Meanwhile her best friend June fares even worse with her boy friend Ray. That affair ends in shocking violence which is the spur to Vangie's escape.
Come to think of it, puritans might find a moral in this, but they would not have read so far.
Rating:
Summary: This Book is the Real Thing
Review: Raw and uncompromising, Swimming Sweet Arrow shows us Vangie's effort to transcend the brutality in her life. Gibbon's book explores Vangie's suffering, her sassy bravado, and the grace in her grim survival. But Swimming Sweet Arrow also tells us just as much about ourselves--what moves us, why we waste and lose our lives, and how we finally find benediction.
Rating:
Summary: I am a woman of few words...
Review: READ THIS BOOK!! YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT!
Rating:
Summary: Gritty, dirty and real...Swimming Sweet Arrow does the deed!
Review: Swimming Sweet Arrow is a wonderful novel. The author has done a fantastic job of writing what, at first, seems to be a novel about sex. But once the reader moves through the story, it becomes clear that this novel is about more than the blatant sexuality of the core characters -- there's a lively tenderness at work here. Swimming Sweet Arrow is a story about love and acceptance, real life and growing up, and some very powerful friendships.The novel opens with friends Vangie and June making out with their boyfriends, Del and Ray, in the same car at the same time. One would think it would be awkward to see each other, as well as the other's boyfriend, naked all the time, but this whole invasion-of-privacy thing has only brought the two couples closer together. They share the same job at the chicken farm and the same dreams of living on their own after highschool. Swimming Sweet Arrow is a chronicle of their lives, together and separate, and the unmistakable bonds that hold them. The language is crisp and honest, nothing is held back in this novel. Maureen Gibbon has crossed a line with her prose -- and it should definitely have an NC-17 rating attached -- but it is refreshing to read something so achingly real no matter how far into the danger zone it reaches. I loved it, and can't wait to see what comes next for this author.
Rating:
Summary: Truthful
Review: Swimming Sweet Arrow is the story of Vangie, an eighteen year old girl who claims right from the start that neither of her parents ever wanted her. She lives by herself in a rundown apartment that her father occasionally visits and works on a chicken farm with her boyfriend, Del and her best friend, June. As the novel progresses, Vangie frequently examines her life and where its heading. Sometimes, she feels dependant on the people she's close to, and other times, she can't wait for them to leave her alone. Her boyfriend has gotten into trouble with his constant drinking, and is admitted to a rehab. He emerges a changed person and tries to change Vangie, too. However, his change is temporary, and it isn't long before he falls back into his old lifestyle. Vangie's friend June becomes involved in a twisted love triangle between two brothers, which is ultimately headed for disaster. When Vangie gets a job picking pears at an orchard, she starts to realize that there is a lot more out there for her, and sets out to change things for herself. The ending of the book left me with a sense of hope for her, and I knew that she was going to be okay.
Maureen Gibbon's examination of youth in this novel is explicit, harsh and truthful. She holds nothing back, even those innermost thoughts that all teenage girls have. Vangie is someone that exists inside each of us, a strong, sympathetic voice who never stays quiet for long, and is forver trying to be heard.
Rating:
Summary: the real deal
Review: Swimming Sweet Arrow turned out to be an excellent book. It has some extremely rough material that is definately directed towards a mature audience, and some might find the raw sexual content and dramatic issues hard to swallow, but others might appreciate the gutwrenching honesty this book has. Maureen Gibbon did not try to candy coat anything about this young girl's coming of age story, she told it how it was. I like the fact that someone can write fiction that isn't so narrow minded even if it deals with telling a story that some might be too uptight to handle. It was VERY VERY well written.
|
