Love Is Always A Brave Act.
Grab your favorite ice-cold bever- age, don a big floppy straw hat, kick off your sandals, and put your feet up. Swimming For Sunlight by bestselling author Allie Larkin is a breezy Florida novel about mermaids and dogs, people and love. That’s the perfect combination for some light, fun summer reading. The book’s main character, Katie, is
a costume designer who gave up everything in her divorce to gain custody of her dog, Barkimedes (aka Bark). She heads to Florida with Bark to spend time with her grandmother, Nan, until she can figure out her life. Fun-loving Nan was once a mer- maid performer in a roadside attraction, swimming and dancing underwater with a close- knit group of girls. Over the many years, they’ve all lost touch with one another. After a couple of Martoonis one evening, Katie suggests to Nan that she reconnect with her mermaid friends through Facebook. And, as anyone who’s ever searched for someone on social media knows – one thing tends to lead to another. Lost loves. Found friendships. A mermaid reunion and production of a brand new show. Katie’s dog, Bark, has some behav-
ioral issues and it doesn’t take the reader long to recognize where the problems originate. Katie has fears stemming from a long ago tragedy. Through the steady guidance of Nan’s friends, Katie regains much of her confidence and Bark becomes a calmer, more grounded dog. The story, like that of Dave Barry’s Lessons From Lucy, has a lot to do about age and not losing our marvels. The characters are all colorful and full of life, no matter their age. It’s what I imagine a mermaid reunion would look like, today, for the Weeki Wachee Mermaids of yesteryear. It is a sisterhood that may transcends time. “You can’t stop enjoying the good stuff because life is random,” Bitsie tells
www.TheNewBarker.com
Katie. “I’m seventy-five years old. I am going to die. Hopefully, very long before you. You’ll lose me, and it’s going to be sad, because I’m a lovely human being. But, don’t you love this moment? We don’t get this moment if all we think about is how I’m going to die. We have to live in it to keep it good.” The dog’s character in the book was inspired by the author’s own German Shepherd, Stella. “She came to us at thirteen months and was an absolute terror,” writes Allie. “Through a lot of hard work, she eventually settled in and became a functional member of our family. Then, over the course of a year, we lost our other dog to cancer, our elderly cat passed away, and we made a cross-country
move. The ways we’d taught Stella to cope were dependent on having animal buddies, a big yard, and a regular routine. Suddenly, we were living in a differ-
ent environment with different parame- ters, so Stella and I had to go back to the drawing board to figure out how to help her function in our new life. It also forced me to confront my anxiety issues, because she picks up on my nerves. I wanted to be better for Stella and it made me better for myself too.”
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Author Allie Larkin and her dog Stella.
Swimming For Sunlight by Allie Larkin Touchstone An imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc. New York, NY - 2019 Reviewed by Anna Cooke
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