Review of "Nightswimmer" by Joseph Olshan
- Megan Diedericks
- Mar 28
- 2 min read
I feel the need to swear, but I'll abbreviate it: JFC!!!
I felt like the main character (Will) was way more driven by loneliness than obsession. He has this deep want to be loved; to be the centre of someone's universe. It also comes across as though he's lonely around the people who love him, as though they don't know him—he's more in tune with them, than they are with him. Of course with this mix of first- and second-person narration (which I loved!!!), it took me a while to realize his perception of that wasn't always fact.
It comes across as if some of the blurbs on the back of this book (at least on my copy, which I found at a secondhand bookstore) completely missed so much of the plot. There are universal truths, but the alienation, and the way Will and the men around him perceive the world, aren't metaphorically linked to straight people too. It's specifically because they are gay, loving other men in the 90s, and while—as written in the book too—the prospect of men holding hands was becoming more commonplace, it didn't change the fear Will experienced (however briefly mentioned). It didn't change the way people perceived him and the ones he loved.
Will's inner struggles with himself, his fear of abandonement, etc. were all portrayed so well too. Like I said before, at the core, all Will wanted was love, and at every corner all he was confronted with was unrequited love. Whether it be from him, or directed at him.
The emotion, to me, most prevalent in this book is obviously loneliness. Death, grief, love—they all seem to have profound loneliness in common in Nightswimmer.
I will also say I don't think I've ever truly felt like a book had a perfect ending, until I got to the last page of this one. Not to mention, it's so beautifully written!
Anyway, to whom it may concern: if this book took place today, Will would have had a love-hate relationship with Instagram and the term "situationship", and he'd have been obsessed with these songs: "illicit affairs" by Taylor Swift, "Like I Can" by Sam Smith, and "Lookalike" by Conan Gray.
