From Publishers Weekly
Anshaw recounts the life of a one-time Olympic swimmer in three richly textured, cleverly interlinked novellas. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
When she was 17, Jesse Austin lost an Olympic gold medal in the 1968 100-meter women's freestyle swimming event by a hair to contender Marty Finch. Twenty-two years later, Jesse is still haunted by this loss and by her love affair with Marty. Her present life is shown in three possible versions: as a small-town wife; a New York City cosmopolitan woman involved in a lesbian relationship; and as a divorcee with two children. Anshaw's interesting format works well, providing excellent characterizations and three gripping plot lines. She employs wry humor and a deft style to explore the choices we make and why we make them, with cogent insights into sexuality and parenthood. The portraits of Jesse's independent-minded grandmother and her retarded brother, Willie, are very well done. Highly recommended.- Harriet Gottfried, NYPLCopyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Kirkus Reviews
For those with a yen for a choose-your-own-adventure novel, Village Voice Literary Supplement contributor Anshaw (author, as Carol White, of They Do It All With Mirrors, 1978) establishes the character of a young Olympic swimmer and then offers three separate versions of her destiny--all of them equally depressing. It was a pivotal moment--the instant before Jesse Austin leapt into the pool at the Mexico City Olympic Games when she looked over at her competitor and lover, Marty Finch, and knew the other girl was going to win the meet. After that moment, and the ones that immediately follow in which Marty is awarded the event's gold medal and Jesse the silver, Jesse's future seems almost irrelevant. Anshaw echoes her character's fundamental indifference by presenting three possible futures in which Jesse's circumstances change--though her deepest relationships (with her withholding mother, with her beloved, sharp-witted godmother, and with various men) remain roughly the same. Whether Jesse falls into the safety of marriage to a hometown man, flees to N.Y.C. to teach literature and set up housekeeping with a female actress, or operates a swimming academy in Florida while raising two children on her own, her thoughts remain on that shining moment in her past--and her obsession with knowing whether Marty Finch, her first love, coldheartedly seduced her to win the gold prevents her from moving on. Anshaw's talent for evoking realistic female relationships and sharp, memorable dialogue is eclipsed by the novel's overcalculated structure, which soon wears thin. Still, the results are intriguing--an imaginative, original work. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Holly Smith
It's the 1968 Summer Olympics and seventeen-year-old Jesse, a gold medal contender in swimming, falls in love for the first time with Marty, her main competitor. Jesse comes in second and Marty wins the gold - but is Marty the better swimmer? The novel then shifts to 1990 and portrays three paths Jesse could have chosen, each with Marty's lingering influence. On one trail Jesse is married, having her first child late in life, living in the town where she grew up. In the back of her mind she feels "She missed the one fast chance she had to slip out..." Down another path she is bringing her current lover home for a visit with her mother, trying to decide if she will admit to her that she is a lesbian. Before visiting home: "...she tries to prepare herself, get the issues lined up, sorted out, internally addressed so she doesn't get ambushed by them when she's there. This, of course, doesn't work." On the third road she is divorced with two adolescent children. "She worries she's replicating her own mother's brand of parenting, leaving the strong child to fend for herself while fighting a lifetime of battles on behalf of the weak one." Throughout Aquamarine Jesse wonders "what if?" An interesting, entertaining, warm-hearted novel, it may leave the reader wondering about her own life paths as well. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14.


Review
"Inventive . . . and as all-american as Jell-o"


Review
"Inventive . . . and as all-american as Jell-o"


Book Description
Olympic swimmer Jesse Austin is seduced and consequently edged out for a gold medal by her Australian rival. From there, Anshaw intricately traces three possible paths for Jesse, spinning exhilarating variations on the themes of lost love and parallel lives unlived. Dorothy Allison, author of Bastard Out of Carolina, writes, "I found myself wishing I could buy a dozen copies and start a discussion group, just so I'd be able to debate all the questions this astonishing novel provokes." A Reader's Guide is available.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Olympic swimmer Jesse Austin is seduced and consequently edged out for a gold medal by her Australian rival. From there, Anshaw intricately traces three possible paths for Jesse, spinning exhilarating variations on the themes of lost love and parallel lives unlived. Dorothy Allison, author of Bastard Out of Carolina, writes, "I found myself wishing I could buy a dozen copies and start a discussion group, just so I'd be able to debate all the questions this astonishing novel provokes." A Reader's Guide is available.

FROM THE CRITICS

"Inventive . . . and as all-american as Jell-o"

Library Journal

When she was 17, Jesse Austin lost an Olympic gold medal in the 1968 100-meter women's freestyle swimming event by a hair to contender Marty Finch. Twenty-two years later, Jesse is still haunted by this loss and by her love affair with Marty. Her present life is shown in three possible versions: as a small-town wife; a New York City cosmopolitan woman involved in a lesbian relationship; and as a divorcee with two children. Anshaw's interesting format works well, providing excellent characterizations and three gripping plot lines. She employs wry humor and a deft style to explore the choices we make and why we make them, with cogent insights into sexuality and parenthood. The portraits of Jesse's independent-minded grandmother and her retarded brother, Willie, are very well done. Highly recommended.-- Harriet Gottfried, NYPL

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

"'Aquamarine' is as dazzling as the gemstone, as cool as the water. Kero Ann Shaw has both flash and substance. — Rita Mae Brown

"On first read, 'Aquamarine' so captured my imagination that I found myself wishing I could buy a dozen copies and start a discussion group, just so I'd be able to debate all the questions this astonishing novel provokes about the nature of the individual and her power to determine the course of her life." — Dorothy Allison