"The list of can’t do’s for a non-swimmer living by a river, is staggering. We decided we would never give up. And at the age of eight, one June day near his birthday, after we took a trail down to the river through the woods and kicked our sneakers off on the rock ledge and figured this 500th swim would be up for a fight, we heard a splash. Our dog Bo was still beside us." [pp 8-9]
There are so many fine aspects of this writing: the long “trailing” description of the walk to the river, the detail of kicking the shoes on the rock, but what is most important to notice is what is missing, a narrative voice that tells of the boy jumping into the water. Arnold accomplishes this by staying with the present, acknowledging the privacy of the spot, none other than the boy could make the splash since “Our dog Bo was still beside us”.
This absence involves the reader. The writer is not presenting a scene, he offers one to our imagination, taking us to the scene that he too can only imagine as he can only hear the sound the boy makes as he jumps into the river.
I am reminded of a similar scene from a very dissimilar scene in the movie Lawrence of Arabia. Not a river but a desert. Not a boy making a splash in the water. A man shooting a companion, a friend. We never see the man being killed. We see the effect on Lawrence as he pulls the trigger of the gun. We see his arm move as he pulls the trigger again. The sound of the gun takes us there. Sound connects. That is masterful directing by David Lean. It involves us. That is masterful writing by Bob Arnold. — JOE NAPORA
Bob Arnold
SWWIMMER
Longhouse
2026
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