For most college students, the word \childhood"" will probably evoke memories of Barbies, Legos and four-square. While we all easily remember that childhood, it might be more difficult to pinpoint that certain moment in time that causes us to leave behind that carefree, uncomplicated life forever. ??
Julie Orringer's debut novel of short stories, ""How to Breathe Underwater,"" presents characters ranging in age and background, from a child whose mother is suffering from cancer to a teenage Orthodox Jew trying to figure out her sexuality.??
Throughout this collection, all of the characters have some things in common-they are girls that all undergo some experience that jolts them into the ""real world.""
Author Orringer is currently living every aspiring creative writer's dream: young and unconventionally beautiful, she graduated from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and Cornell College, and her work now appears in publications such as The Yale Review and The Pushcart Prize anthology. (As if that's not enough, she also lives in the writer's mecca, San Francisco.) ??
With reviews hailing her first collection of short stories as ""piercing"" and ""stunning,"" her book begins to build up an aura of anticipation that can only be released through brilliant, complex prose.
However, her stories turn out to be told in deceptively simple language and depict events that may not appear overly significant, at least at first glance. ??
The story from which the title is taken is about a teenager who must deal with her brother's hatred of her for not saving his girlfriend from a sinking car. She and her brother are forced to take scuba lessons at the YMCA, and only there do they begin to reform their scarred relationship. ??
Another compelling story called ""Stations of the Cross"" reveals a young girl who unwillingly takes part in an act of racial violence that haunts her for life.
Yet another story, ""Care,"" shows a teenager in charge of watching her sister's daughter, but her drug addiction puts them both in danger.
Many of Orringer's stories deal with loss, either of a person or of innocence itself. They are heartfelt without being sentimental, and they might even bring typical college students back to the time when the lines between childhood and adulthood were finally defined.
""How to Breathe Underwater"" is published by Alfred A. Knopf.
