Olympia

Dramatic events on water and during storms contrast with quiet, understated moments of interpersonal revelation in these seven interlinked stories chronicling three generations of a family cut adrift from their home and heritage. Narrator Peter chronicles the first meeting of his grandparents, both members of the German contingent at the 1936 Berlin Olympiad (his grandmother was a champion diver; his grandfather, a sailor). Peters family now lives in Canada, but his father sailed at the Rome Olympics. His younger sister, Ruby, is an aspiring gymnast, and all of them grapple to find their place in the family and in history. Peters own story includes his boyhood in Canada, a family trip to Germany and his eventual resettling in Spain. The opening narrative is paradigmatic of the familys struggles and of the bizarre events that mark them: Peters grandparents set out to renew their wedding vows on a raft in the middle of the lake, but his grandmother drowns in a freak accident. Years later his parents will recreate this ritual in Spain, where the lake suddenly empties when a dam is opened. Peter himself at one point attempts to break the record for the dead mans float, lying face down in a swimming pool, when a massive storm floods the town and sweeps him out of the pool. His father, a sailboat designer, is fascinated by storms to the point of obsession and becomes an amateur tornado chaser, perhaps hoping to hop aboard one someday. And Ruby, as she toils to become the next Olga Korbut, is stricken with leukemia and battles through a series of remissions and relapses. A strong sense of family bonds and an unspoken sadness pervade this work, as first novelist Bock looks lyrically at the past. The thematic use of water and air and a mystical tone finally become ponderous, but taken individually, these stories are subtle, gracefully constructed and rich in thoughts and images. (May)