Fat Swim, by Emma Copley Eisenberg

Although the book is a collection of discrete stories, they are interconnected like a slant rhyme; like the ways the neighborhoods in Philadelphia have unique identities, but can roll into each other with some overlap. Like how people in South Philly might also love West Philly; even though they are completely different in so many ways, the auras of each neighborhood complement each other, and there are some shared characteristics—and characters.

Characters you can feel

Even if you don’t know, or are not yourself, someone who exactly matches the description of any of the characters in the book—for example, a makeup influencer experimenting with body contouring, a mother learning about her child’s nonbinary gender identity, a fat child admiring her own body and the bodies of beautiful fat women at the pool—the characters feel like people you could know. Even if you haven’t missed lunch with your wife because you have been trapped by a man you don’t know very well oversharing his grief, you probably have a pretty good idea of what that feels like. Even if you didn’t meet them on Twitter, you may have gotten your hopes up for meeting a potential new friend for the first time.

Fat Swim takes place in a world at once familiar and aspirational; readers will feel comfortable and hopeful reading about these people. And if Philadelphia is your home, these stories will feel like home in the pleasing familiarity of reading a book or watching a show that takes place in Philly.

In and with and to our bodies

At its core, Fat Swim is about the things humans do in and with and to their bodies every day. The stories are remarkable in the way Eisenberg makes the ordinariness of having a body something sacred and worth feeling deeply. These stories can evoke visceral sensations, whether we see ourselves in the characters and their experiences or not, because we are all moving through the world in a body. And bodies are weird and real and fun and beautiful. Sometimes we forget that in our busy lives, surrounded by messaging and products that seek to separate us from our bodies. But while reading this book, you will remember, because you can’t help but feel as embodied as the characters are while they experience pleasure and pain and everything you can’t put into words that bodies feel.

A short-story page-turner

Upon finishing one story, the reader will be urged forward immediately into the next, like ferociously clicking “next episode” when marathoning a nail-biting drama where each episode ends on a cliffhanger. Fat Swim does not have a sole plot that leaves you demanding to know what comes next at the end of each chapter, but the desire to dive right into the next story gives readers the unique experience of a page turner where what happens in the next chapter isn’t a continuation of one narrative, but a new, exciting story in the same world—and it’s the world we are in right now.

An unlocked door

Living in a human body is like living in Philadelphia; it’s exciting, messy, ever-changing, gross at times, disappointing, beautiful, powerful, strong, frightening, funny, miraculous, persistent, glorious—and completely one-of-a-kind.

Without being didactic, Eisenberg shows us a window into a world of fat liberation, of queer love, of surprising and refreshing honesty. And before you know it, you realize the window is a door, and it is unlocked, and you can step into that world today, right now, and it might look a lot like your beloved neighborhood.

Getting into this book is not like sitting on the side of the pool, dipping your toes, then your legs, then slowly dropping off the ladder; it’s exuberantly cannonballing, with the goal of making the biggest splash you can, and shrieking at the pleasure of feeling the luxurious weight of your body as it buoys you.

Join Emma Copley Eisenberg in conversation with Kyle V. Hiller and authors Nathaniel Popkin, Ken Jaworowski, and Eshani Surya at the BSR Book Week Author Panel on May 20 at 6pm ET on Zoom. RSVP here.