Nicola Keegan’s debut is a literary coming-of age novel
that tells the story of young Philomena, nicknamed
“Pip.” When we first meet Pip, she is an energetic
nine-month-old, born in the 1960s, who wows her parents and
spectators at the local pool with her natural aquatic abilities.
Even as a child, Pip’s inner monologue is wry and sharp.

As the story unfolds, we learn that Pip is the second of four
daughters born to a very Catholic family living in Kansas. Her
father, Leonard, is a scientist who studies bats, as well as being
an amateur pilot. Her mother is a remote but loving woman. Her
oldest sister, Bron, is a brooding and sullen teen. Roxanne becomes
the burn-out, experimental sister, while the youngest, Dot, becomes
the pious and cautious one. Bron develops Huntington’s
disease, and her illness and treatment take a toll on the family.
Just when it seems like she turns a corner, Bron dies and the
family is left reeling. Leonard, who is so used to scientific
formulas that make perfect sense, cannot get his brain around his
grief. His wife retreats from them all. When the family is dealt
another sucker punch, each remaining member struggles to find their
own way to deal with the pain of their loss.

On the advice of a nun, Pip throws herself into her swimming.
Something that used to be a relaxing hobby has now become her
lifeblood --- her raison d’etre. It beats sitting at
home, obsessing over the fact that she has yet to start her period;
and her mother, who normally would be counseling her on such
matters, has taken to her bed, consumed with grief. Pip starts
competing on the local high school team, where she sweeps the
regionals and is spotted by a scout for a famed Olympic coach. She
is then invited to attend a training school in Colorado, where she
will live with a local family while attending classes and
extensive, exhausting training sessions with numerous instructors,
all under the watchful eye of Ernest K. Mankovitz, the esteemed
Olympic swimming coach.

Because swimming has become her life, Pip has learned to focus
on very specific goals at such a young age, and certain other
social norms and rites of passage have fallen away. She realizes
that she knows how to win the 200-meter, but has no clue how to
talk to a boy or navigate the world outside of competitive
swimming. Sure, she has surpassed even her family’s modest
dreams for her, but at what cost? Was it all worth it?

Keegan’s writing is beautiful, often
stream-of-consciousness, and smart. The pall of tragedy hangs heavy
over the first half of the book, but through Pip’s wry
observations of the world, the author manages to sneak a little
levity in. But for all her bluster, Pip is not an insolent
misanthrope; she’s a stunted young girl, forever on the
outside looking in: “I should be happy, but am not. My
happiness is dancing with something in a black suit I don’t
want to identify. They’re turning fast --- bright, black,
bright, black, my mind turning with them. I do not know what kind
of creature I am. The deep fatigue of continuously being girl
combined with the great width of an open future, the narrowness of
individual fate…and the infinite immeasurableness of the
human mind is making me shaky and bewildered and tired to the
marrow of my bones.” Pip is like a female Holden Caulfield,
pointing out the ridiculous aspects of life, but secretly harboring
a deep sadness about not being more entrenched in it.