The Chronology of Water Summary
Yuknavitch, Lidia

The Chronology of Water Overview

The Chronology of Water is a memoir by Lidia Yuknavich, a former competitive swimmer, that tells her deeply personal story—of childhood sexual abuse, failed Olympic dreams, the loss of a child, addiction, and insecurity as a writer—through non-linear fragments of memory. The highly experimental work, which moves back and forth in time, using only the “chronology of water” to give it shape, recounts the pain and loss that Lidia encounters at every turn, in no small part because of her own self-destructive behavior. The ghosts of an abusive father and alcoholic mother drive her to use sex and alcohol as an escape before eventually finding refuge in her own writing. By retelling and reimagining her life using words, Lidia reclaims her body, rewrites the meaning of family, and gives birth to a new self, demonstrating the power of art to shape our truths and connect us to the world.