Acquire Today The Art Of Floating Illustrated By Kristin Bair OKeeffe Readily Available As Digital Paper

Carolyn ObelOmia, my work reading buddy, for lending me this book, It was a perfect read for Mothers Day weekend, I sat in the hot tub and beside a pool to read the book and thoroughly enjoyed it! Yes, it is probably classified correctly as a womens fiction book, but it certainly was not a fluff or no nonsense narrative.
The writing was refreshing and I enjoyed the theme of the beach with the piping plovers! The book is the story about a novelist, Sia Dane, whose husband unexpectedly disappears. Then six months after his disappearance, she finds a man on the beach and the story begins, She takes him in but he doesnt talk, She works with the police to find the mans identity there are some interesting twits and turns, The author does an amazing job with having the reader think about loss, It was particularly fun to be able to relate to the New England references too, This would be a perfect book for summer beach reading!
I love the structure of this novel, and the confidence with which OKeeffe handles her chronology, The book opens, naturally, with the most fascinating moment: the appearance of the strangerfromthesea, In the second chapter we hear about the other pivotal moment of Sia Danes life, the disappearance of her husband, and soon we have scenes from the years of their marriage, from Sias childhood, from the viewpoint of a mysterious collector of lost thingsall as the current story rolls along.


In juggling all this, OKeeffe is both fearless and deft, The book has an irresistible, a delectable flow, It turns from past to present and back again without a wink, without a pause, without the least confusion, Sia Dane learns the art of floating above the moment, often as a kind of escape from realitybut OKeeffe floats as well, She floats above a great number of stories, dropping in wherever she chooses, And where she goes, I follow gladly,

I liked, especially, the many lists in the book, Theyre engaging, theyre fun, and they set the narrative spinning, This is a lovely and inventive novel, Magical writing, magical story

This book is perfect for readers who enjoy unconventional narratives and magical realism, Sia's struggle with loss and her empathy allows her to be open to another lost soul in a beautiful story of healing and love, As a bonus, there's a town full of quirky and entertaining characters that provide copious amounts of comic relief, A uniquely beautiful story, about sorrow without being sorrowful and heavy, In fact, it's the opposite of heavy, though "light" isn't quite the right word, Nor is "ethereal. " It's magical buoyancy tethered to witty realism, Hopefulness grounded in healing. And it reads like a breeze that sometimes flicks your hat off! I just finished The Art of Floating by Kristin Bair OKeeffe, “Exactly one year, one month, and six days“ after her husbands disappearance, Sia finds a lost man on the beaches of Plum Island, As the story unfolds, Sia is determined to find where this man belongs and to discover what happened to her beloved Jackson, It is a wonderful book with a compelling storyline, fascinating characters, lyrical language, and a complex narrative structure, I heartily recommend it! Many other novels have dealt with great love, tragic loss and the wrenching, exhausting task of rebuilding ones life from the ground up, but very few of them manage to pull it off with anything approaching the wit, style and grace of Kristin Bair OKeeffe in The Art of Floating.


One year, one month and six days after her beloved husband disappears without a trace, novelist Sia Dane discovers a beautiful man on the beach, dressed in a soaking, saltencrusted business suit.
She takes him home and calls him Toad, Of course she does. Did I mention shes a writer He doesnt speak, but he clearly has been through something horrific, The townspeople, an exceptionally quirky collection of New Englanders, attempt to uncover his story, Its part mystery, with a dash or two of magical realism, part womens fiction, yet in many ways this novel defies characterization, It is a bold and adventurous story that is so much more than simply the sum of its parts,

At its core, this novel is about grieving, Real grief isnt easy to write about, Healing from real grief requires that you crawl deep inside yourself and simply wait it out, And, for the writer, communicating this letmejustsitandwallowinmy grief can be a bit of a challenge, In this respect Ms. OKeeffe has been quite masterful, describing Sias withdrawal from the world in charming, lyrical prose,

One of the most captivating aspects of this original and creative novel is its structure, Sia, a writer of some renown, has been unable to bring herself to write so much as a grocery list following the disappearance of her husband, It is a joy to witness OKeeffe, a writer with a deft and elegant hand, one who takes unabashed joy in words and their playful, troublesome selves, awaken the writer in Sia.
In short chapters, some as short as a jump rope jingle, a dictionary definition, a grocery list, or, in some cases a seemingly random collection of words floating willynilly on the page, we watch in awe and wonder, cheering Sia on as she, at first tentatively, then with growing confidence, regains her writerly legs.
None of it distracts all of it delights,

Ms. Bair OKeeffe has shown herself to be a writer who not only understands her characters, but also, much like her protagonist, has a deep wellspring of compassion for them, We breathe a huge, contented sigh of relief as Sia begins to fall in love with words all over again and rediscovers their healing balm, Shimmering, rapidfire dialogue, welldrawn characters, a lively pace, and most of all an engaging voice, make The Art of Floating a stellaras in five starread and Kristin Bair OKeeffe a writer to watch.


The style, structure and welldeveloped characters make this novel ripe for discussion, In particular, book clubs will love the reading guide in the back, The questions, written by the author, promise a lively, interesting discussion, Just add wine.
I will not ruin this read for anyone by writing an indepth review because the delight comes in discovery with this book, A whimsical yet masterful accumulation of meaning about what it means to be lostand found,

Are "fresh" books still being written Kristin Bair O'Keeffe shows the answer: yes! Previously reviewed on sitelinkThe Good, The Bad, amp The Unread:


This is a rather odd sort of book, but the dreamy quality of the main narrative fits it perfectly.
Small towns are notorious for being strange, but the location for The Art of Floating is stranger than most, and this is reflected not only in the mood of the book, but also in the way it and its chapters are structured: sometimes a chapter moves the story along by telling another part of the main story, and sometimes it just pulls out snippets of whats being said, in order to add depth.
We hear not only the voices of the main characters, but also follow the development of the skipping rhyme the local girls invent in response to Sias story, and get to read the inspirational quotes rarely biblical posted anew outside the local church each week.


Odyssia Dane, Sia to most people, is the daughter of a rather eccentric mother who gave birth as a teenager, but is still very much in love with her husband and devoted to her daughter.
Sia, meanwhile, still hasnt got over the loss of her husband of nine years, Jackson, who went out to get coffee the previous spring and never came back, Sias grief is allencompassing: she didnt leave the house for the first few months of her loss, and is completely incapable of writing anything when the book starts, Before her loss, she was a successful author, who loved making lists as did Jackson, whose main job was taking care of the rare plovers who nested on the beaches close to their home.


The plovers are a big point of contention in the town, dividing its inhabitants into those who want to protect the birds by keeping the beaches closed all spring, and those who want the beaches open so badly that they are consumed by hate for the birds.
Then Sia finds a different kind of rare creature, and by caring for him she both opens up the town to an invasion of outsiders, and begins to make friends with some unlikely characters closer to home.


Toad, the silent man that Sia finds on the beach and names because naming things is what she does, becomes a media sensation, Sia and her allies want to tell the world about him in order to reunite him with his family who must be experiencing the same feelings of loss as Sia does for Jackson but they resent the intrusion of the media circus who descend on Sias house and follow her and Toad wherever they go.


Sias quest to find out Toads identity brings her into contact with the Dogcatcher, a homeless woman who collects lost things, along with notices about missing pets, and through this strange acquaintanceship begins to piece together what might have happened on the morning that Jackson disappeared.


I love this book, although it doesnt quite feel complete, Maybe that is the authors intention these characters and their home almost exist in a place outside time, just beyond our own world, I definitely want to read it again to pick up on nuances I may have missed the first time around, Even when you read regularly, it takes time to find something truly great but every once in a while, there will be a book, a poem, a story, that truly turns you on your heel, holds you in place, and keeps you loving, recommending and discussing that piece for months.
Though first described to me as “a great summer read” and “something good to take to the

beach,” Kristin Bair OKeeffes The Art of Floating was precisely that piece I needed to improve my summerand not just by giving me a book to read under an umbrella next to the waves.


Sia Danes personal story, at first glance, may appear to be a simple one: a woman welldefined and independent in her writing life and her marriage to her husband, Jack, and then griefstricken and unable to write upon his disappearance one year before the opening of the novel.
This, in and of itself, may suggest a straightforward story of grief, whether or not beautifullywritten, Even with the addition of a strange man on the beach, who Sia discovers early in the morning, would support this storyarch, perhaps with the inclusion of a romantic turn which would fulfill that “take it to the beach” mantra.
However, even if this is how Sia Danes story begins, it is hardly conclusive or summative, and we end in a very different place than we might have guessed,

What is so beautiful, haunting, and even bewildering, about this novel is the way in which Bair OKeeffe can first introduce us to a story we think we know, and twist it into something symbolic, surreal and highlybodily, which immediately removes The Art of Floating from the common “beach read” section and propels it to the realm of literary fictionand presents it as a gorgeous example of literary fiction, at that.


When I was first introduced to this title, I did the unthinkable thingsomething that I am very guilty of doing on a regular basis, despite my extreme dislike for spoilers: I read the back cover.
And I knew, deep in my gut perhaps in the same place where Sia finds her flopping fish, that this book was different, In the first line of the synopsis, it summarizes, “When her beloved husband, Jackson, disappeared without a trace, popular novelist Sia Dane stopped writing, closed down her house, stuffed her heart into a cage, and started floating.
” I read that line over and over, gushing with excitement, at the sheer potential of the novel being refreshing and different, When the book arrived at my home, I wanted so badly to break the reading order of books I had “scheduled” before this one, but I held my ground, clenched my teeth, and waited until it was Bair OKeeffes turnand, boy, was it worth the wait.


It was more than I could have bargained for, expected, or dreamed of, The events detailed on the back cover do indeed happen, for real, within the context of this novel, This reality is created and made acceptablemade beautiful and strange and heartfeltwithin the first several pages of the book, when Sia discovers the man on the beach who she names “Toad” and feels a literal wave of his sadness enter her bodyas well as a large, flopping fish in her stomach, which she feels move whenever she feels empathy for another person.
Obviously, this is outside the operational realm of our bodies and the abilities of them but that, in the end, is what makes these surreal moves so beautiful and true, when we are given that image that is, at once, strange and capable of retelling those emotions that we otherwise feel are beyond the reach of description.
In their surreal nature, they apply truth,

Kristin Bair OKeeffes novel, The Art of Floating, is too entirely beautiful to reduce to “a great summer read” or “something good to take to the beach, ” Though I did read this over the summer, and while the book did make an appearance at a water park, it was not read in that time or place out of simplicity or lack of expectation.
Rather, reading that back cover pushed my expectations to a higher level, where I wanted strangeness and originality and literaryness to thrive, And it did. This is one of the most gorgeous and emotionallydemanding novels that I have read in years, and it tackles the duality of the lost and found with renewed fervor and poignancy I havent seen in fiction“womens” or notfor quite some time.
Not only does this novel require that you open yourself to a wide range of emotions, but it demands you to open your mind to the unusual physicality of these emotions, their shift in physics, even and it even projects into you those emotions youre seeing and feeling on the pagethe frustration and need for patience with the Dogcatcher and the therapist, the split between being happy and appalled by Jilly, the love and pain felt for Jackson and Toad.
. . and the possibilities, the range of emotions and reactions, continue,

When it really comes down to it, this is such a deep and wellthoughtout examination of how we grieve and love and relate to one another, Perhaps its unrealistic to expect this much from one novel, to want a book to meet so many demands, effectively, between a pair of coversbut I feel its all been done here and I know when I read it again, Ill feel the same way.
. . and the surprises will keep coming,
.