This book has a compelling sense of intimacy that draws you into this unhappy family right away. It is a story about the characters of a family who have suffered a devastating loss, but still have to go on living every day as if things were the same, when they are very much not the same. An ordinary story made large by the circumstances of the one who is lost.

This book reads quickly due to a smooth writing style, but the structure is confusing and complicated. There is really no one in this book to like or with whom one might make a connection. And at the end of the book, I was unsure what had really happened. Maybe it is me, but deliberate obfuscation seems pointless.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was refreshing to read a novel about Southerners who were interesting people, and not gothic misfits. Obviously Ms Wingfield knows the habits of her Methodist characters well and integrates that part of their lives into the development of the story. I think Swan Lake is both brave and delightful.