A big wet dream
The premise: A forty-something ex-collegiate swimmer decides to compete in the Olympics. We’ve all known people who decide to take on great feats at middle age. Usually, I’ve met them in bars. By the next round, they’ve let it go.
But this guy really means it. And now he’s written a book about training for the Olympics. Hodding Carter—grandson of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Mississippi newspaper editor of the same name—has been training for two years, and apparently has kept a journal. Is he a hero to all men over 40 who feel they should at least rage against the flight of youth? Or is he the self-centered jerk he sometimes portrays himself to be, bragging about neglecting his wife and kids to pursue his obsession?
Sometimes an obsession is just that—an obsession. But this book has its moments of heroism and truth. Unfortunately, it is targeted for Father’s Day, and we will not know within its pages whether Carter succeeds and actually swims in the Olympics.