Thursday, April 1, 2010

Sink or Swim: Real Life Stories on the Clearwater. The Life Center. Kamiah, ID.

Ed Jacoby aspired to very little. Perpetuating wild pranks was always more fun than studying.

During his freshman year at the University of Idaho, he partied his grade point average down to 1.0. Flunking out, he took a job at a tire and rubber company, ended up in a body cast, lost his job – and drowned his misery in alcohol.

Ed was sinking fast.

Then his new wife, Jean, threw him a life buoy. “What do you really want to do?” she asked.

He hesitated, remembering a dream. “Coach.”

“Then, let’s make you a coach.”

His father-in-law said, “If you’re going to coach, I expect you to be a very good one — an Olympic coach.”

Like that’s ever gonna happen, Ed thought.

The raging waters, with turbulent twists, take the Jacobys to a place beyond anyone’s craziest imaginations.
***

Seven stories, nine “swimmers” gasping for air in voracious life-sucking whirlpools. They crash against jagged rocks — cheap sex, deaths of loved ones, abandonment, suicide attempts, drug additions, impending long prison terms, killers chasing them — and each search the shoreline for a rescue team. Will they find a lifeline? Will they sink — or swim?

0 comments: