A door in the ocean : a memoir

Format:

Book

Title:

A door in the ocean : a memoir

Author:

McGlynn, David, 1976- author

ISBN:

9781582438290

9781619021631

Publication:

Berkeley, CA : Counterpoint, [2012]

Physical Description:

ix, 266 pages ; 24 cm

Contents:

Good People of the World -- The Open Door -- The Fish Tank -- No Man's Land -- The Ancient Shoreline -- The Hoary Deep -- Wandering in Zion -- Rogue Waves -- Hydrophobia -- Open Water.

Summary:

Personal Subject:

McGlynn, David, 1976-

McGlynn, David, 1976- (OCoLC)fst01968939

Subject(s):

Swimmers -- United States -- Biography.

Geographic Term:

Genre:

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Salem Main Library	921 McGlynn, David 2012	Searching... Unknown
Searching... McMinnville Public Library	928 McGlynn, David	Searching... Unknown

On a warm September night in 1991, in a quiet neighborhood north of Houston, Texas, David McGlynn's closest friend and teammate on the high school swimming team is found murdered on his living room floor. As the crime goes unsolved and his friends turn to drugs and violence, McGlynn is vulnerable, rootless, searching for answers. He is drawn into the eccentric and often radical world of evangelical Christianity--a journey that leads him to a proselytizing campus fellowship in Southern California, on a mission to Australia, and to Salt Lake City, where a second swimming-related tragedy leaves him doubting the authenticity of his beliefs.

In his post-evangelical life, he finds himself exiled from his parents, plunged into financial chaos, and caught off-guard by the prospect of fatherhood. A new job offers hope for a new beginning, until the possibility of losing his newborn son forces him to confront the nature of everything he believes.

The memoir's concluding chapter, which appeared in The Best American Sports Writing 2009 , celebrates the author's love for swimming, the enduring metaphor for his faith and the setting for many of his life's momentous occasions. Rough Water charts the violent origins of one young man's faith and the struggle to find meaning in the midst of life's painful uncertainties.

Author Notes

David McGlynn grew up in Houston, Texas, and Southern California. His story collection, The End of the Straight and Narrow , won the 2008 Utah Book Award and was named an "Outstanding Achievement" by the Wisconsin Librarians' Association. His stories and essays have appeared in Men's Health , The Huffington Post , Best American Sports Writing , and numerous literary journals. He teaches at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, where he lives with his wife and sons.

A lifelong swimmer, he captured a national championship in the 500-yard freestyle at the 2001 United States Masters National Championships. He continues to compete in open-water swimming races all across the country, and on most mornings is the first one in the pool.

Reviews (1)

Publisher's Weekly Review

When McGlynn's close friend and high school swim teammate Jeremy is murdered "execution-style" on a fall evening in Texas in 1991, the young man is left floundering to make sense of the tragedy. In this heartfelt coming-of-age memoir, McGlynn (The End of the Straight and Narrow, a story collection) details his emotionally grueling journey. Of the days before the killing, he writes that "It was the last time ordinariness would feel, well, ordinary." McGlynn candidly explores his struggle to come to terms with his own shameful revelry in the resulting attention lavished upon him by classmates and the likelihood that the crime would go unsolved, and describes his eventual adherence to evangelical Christianity, whereupon he took a vow of celibacy and assumed the mantle of missionary. McGlynn recounts his ongoing commitment to swimming (he describes "the water like a drug") and his constant wrestling with his faith, but after another tragedy, he would find himself searching yet again. Although the narrative is slowed by extraneous detail, McGlynn is an astute observer of relationships, and proffers insightful commentary on the power of memory to simultaneously burden and enrich the present. Beyond that, the sheer ease of his prose and the honesty of his journey are enough to keep readers moved and moving. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Good People of the World	p. 3
The Open Door	p. 35
The Fish Tank	p. 53
No Man's Land	p. 81
The Ancient Shoreline	p. 125
The Hoary Deep	p. 151
Wandering in Zion	p. 169
Rogue Waves	p. 189
Hydrophobia	p. 217
Open Water	p. 243

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Summary

Summary

Author Notes

Reviews (1)

Publisher's Weekly Review

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