Summary

The second section of the book is short, at only five chapters. They move across different time periods but focus on Lidia’s relationships with her father and the writer Ken Kesey.

“Baptismal” tells of a visit Lidia and her sister pay to their parents in Florida as adult women. They are at the beach. Their mother is at the shore, while the sisters and father play in the ocean. Lidia hears her mother shout and sees her running. Her father is face down in the water. Lidia gives him mouth to mouth resuscitation as he lies limp. He suffers hypoxia, or suffocation under water. It does not result in death but causes him to lose his memory.

In “Swimming with Amateurs” Lidia describes in detail swimming with Ken Kesey in a reservoir one moonlit night as they banter. She then...