Florence Adler Swims Forever

Esther wakes up to a seemingly normal day and then remembers that her daughter is dead. She mentally lists the people who know this and the people who are at risk of finding out. She is especially worried that Isaac and Gussie will spread the secret. She knows that she needs to let Gussie see Fannie. She has been keeping notes of all the lies she has told Fannie about Gussie’s whereabouts, and she coaches Gussie on these lies before taking her to visit Fannie.

Before Esther and Gussie see Fannie, they run into Dr. Rosenthal, who tells Esther that Fannie’s blood pressure is higher than it should be; if it keeps rising, they might have to deliver the baby prematurely. Esther is perturbed and asks the doctor if he thinks Fannie knows about Florence’s death. The doctor says Fannie hasn’t given any indication that she does. The doctor says that some friends visited Fannie but that he hasn’t seen Isaac in days. He also tells her that though he initially thought the plan to keep Florence’s death secret was cruel, the fact that Fannie is now a month farther along in her pregnancy than the last one has somewhat changed his mind.

Fannie and Gussie are thrilled to see each other. Both Fannie and Esther ask about Isaac, and they both lie about seeing him. Fannie also asks about Florence, which relieves Esther’s anxiety that Fannie might have guessed the truth. Fannie says that Florence never responded to the letter she gave to Isaac, and Esther thinks about how much she always disliked refereeing fights between her daughters. She recalls that the girls grew apart, the biggest shift occurring when Fannie met Isaac. Esther didn’t mind Isaac’s quietness or poverty, but his sense of entitlement bothered her. She didn’t know how to convey her concerns to Fannie. Meanwhile, Florence and Fannie continued to grow apart as Fannie lost interest in swimming. Esther told herself that the two would grow close again when they were older, but now they will never get the chance. Esther wonders whether Gussie and her new sibling will face similar problems.

Gussie reveals that Stuart is teaching Anna to swim. Fannie is surprised, wondering why Florence isn’t teaching her and whether Stuart and Anna are an item. Esther pretends not to know or care. Fannie complains that she hasn’t seen Gussie twirl her baton—a lie that Esther had told Fannie before to excuse Gussie’s absence—and Esther hastens Gussie away.

Outside the hospital, Esther asks Gussie whether Stuart is really teaching Anna to swim. Esther is enraged by the prospect of Anna wearing Florence’s bathing suit. When she gets back to the apartment, she asks Anna to take Gussie to the grocery store. When they are gone, Esther looks into Florence’s room for the first time since her death. As she looks for the bathing suit, she stumbles on Anna’s immigration paperwork, learning in the addendum that Joseph was engaged to Anna’s mother. She feels like a fool and suddenly understands why she was the one to approach Joseph when they met. She realizes that Anna probably thinks that Esther knows the truth, but in truth, Esther feels disoriented by the information.

The nurses come to visit Fannie twice a day to check her blood pressure. They also visit her during meals and find other excuses to stop by and check on her. Isaac doesn’t seem to be to be worried about her blood pressure. He stops by only occasionally and briefly. Fannie accepts these long absences but worries that Isaac is not visiting Gussie; she is concerned about the impact their absence is having on Gussie. Fannie also wonders whether there is something wrong with Isaac. During his last visit he excitedly told her that he put down a non-refundable deposit on property in Florida, which caused Fannie to have an anxiety attack.

Fannie waits all day for Florence to visit, hoping she will stop by before taking the train to New York to leave for France. When it is clear Florence will not visit, Fannie decides to call Florence at home and goes to the nurses’ lounge to use the phone. She reaches her father, with whom she makes small talk until she mentions Florence; he then passes the phone to her mother. Fannie asks Esther about which train Florence is taking and is surprised that Esther doesn’t know. She wonders if Florence is still so mad at her that she refuses to talk. Mary, one of the nurses, interrupts the call and asks Fannie to get back to bed.

In the morning Fannie wakes up to find a note from Bette explaining that Florence stopped by at night but didn’t want to wake her: The note assures Fannie that Florence loves her and will be thinking about her and the baby for the next few weeks. Fannie doesn’t understand why Florence didn’t leave a note herself. She has an anxiety attack, and Dr. Rosenthal runs in to see her blood pressure spiking. He says that he might have to induce labor; this sobers her, and she calms down. The doctor tells her that she is no longer allowed to get out of bed and gives her a sedative. She has never felt more alone.

On the day Florence was supposed to have sailed to France, thoughts of Florence’s death distract Joseph. Stuart approaches him with a letter from Burgess; enclosed is a check for the deposit Florence sent him for the trip. Joseph invites Stuart for a drive to the Highlands, and Stuart accepts.

Stuart and Joseph make small talk, and Stuart asks Joseph if he knew that Trudy Ederle, the first woman to swim the English Channel, is from Atlantic Highlands. Stuart also asks why they are going to the Highlands; Joseph is planning to look at the Lafayette, the ship that Florence would have sailed on, but decides not to tell Stuart this because he doesn’t want to dampen the mood. Joseph remembers the first time he saw the Highlands. It was his first glimpse of America when he was arriving to Ellis Island as an immigrant. Joseph tries to imagine what Florence’s voyage would have been like, but all he can think of is Florence at five years old swimming her first laps in the Hygeia Baths. She was the only girl who could swim.

Stuart asks Joseph whether he ever regrets keeping Florence’s death a secret. Joseph answers by telling Stuart that he used to wonder why his family sent his brother and him to America rather than their father, who could make a better income. He realizes now that his parents were trying to give their children every opportunity they could: That is what he is trying to do for Fannie and her baby.

The Lafayette’s horn blasts. Stuart begins to cry, and Joseph wonders whether Florence lives on in the people that loved her most.

Later, Joseph drives to the bank to open an account for Anna’s parents with the money from Burgess. Joseph arrives at his office in the afternoon, where he is met by Mrs. Simons, his secretary, who has been helping him with correspondence and organization since Florence’s death. He asks her to send a telegram to Anna’s parents to tell them about the account, which contains $1,200 dollars. Mrs. Simons informs him that Eli Hirsch is asking Joseph to cochair his campaign, which Joseph did not expect. His greater worry is that no amount of money will cut through the bureaucratic tape imposed by the American government.

Joseph invites Isaac to dinner, and Isaac tries to refuse, citing work. Joseph is annoyed because he knows that Mrs. Simons does most of Isaac’s work for him. He therefore insists, and Isaac comes along. Joseph asks Isaac about whether he has visited Fannie and tells him about her new regimen to keep her blood pressure down. Joseph mentions that Isaac seems distracted. Isaac tells him about the Florida property and pitches for him to invest. Joseph thinks it’s a bad idea to invest in property that Isaac has never seen. Joseph ends up telling him that if he can pay for the property then he should be able to pay his loan off, or at least pay for some of costs of Fannie’s hospital room. Isaac leaves without a word.

Esther is cold and distant when Joseph arrives at home. He wonders whether he should tell her about the drive to see the Lafayette, but he doesn’t. He asks about Anna, and Esther says that she’s probably with Stuart and that she wants Anna out of the house. 

After leaving Joseph, Isaac heads to the hospital. He imagines telling Fannie all of the lies that her family has told her and then admitting to her that he is a terrible father to Gussie and that he suspect that Hyram’s death was his fault. Isaac was thrown off when Joseph brought up the loan. He hates being beholden to anyone, and he feels beholden to everyone due either to information that they know about him or money that he owes them.

At the hospital, Isaac finds that Fannie’s room is pitch black because of her new regimen. He realizes he wasn’t thinking about her and that he can’t responsibly reveal anything. He remembers that when they first met, he was much better at talking to her. He would go to the bakery multiple times a week to buy challah and finally invited her to walk on the boardwalk. Now, he asks her what she thought of him the day they met. He gets into bed with her, and she tells him that she thought that if she didn’t touch him, she would die. He asks her if she worried that he wouldn’t be enough. Before she can answer, he feels the baby and then her body. They have sex.

Isaac’s encounter with Fannie makes him feel better. He is prepared to apologize to Joseph the next morning, but Joseph apologizes first. Isaac goes to dinner at the Adlers’ and sees Fannie two more times that week. However, his good mood is ruined when he gets a note about meeting Vic Barnes, whom Isaac is trying to bring in on the Florida deal. Vic wants to meet at the Covington, which Isaac hates to go to because of the hotel’s antisemitic policy. Nevertheless, Isaac agrees, only to fail to convince Vic to buy into the deal. After Vic leaves, Isaac sees Anna with Stuart. Isaac goes to them, makes small talk, and invites himself to go rowing with Stuart, hoping Stuart might invest.

In the morning, Isaac regrets the invitation. Isaac has never rowed and struggles to get into the boat despite Stuart’s helps. Isaac tries to make small talk with Stuart about Anna and her application but stops because Stuart is visibly uncomfortable. Isaac begins his pitch, but before he can finish, a wave crashes into the boat, and Isaac ends up in the ocean. Stuart saves him, and when they’re back on shore, Isaac tries to finish the pitch. Stuart admonishes him for trying to sell him on a bad deal and for going on the boat without knowing how to row or swim.

Stuart watches a storm form on the horizon from his lifeguard tower. He worries that the storm will interfere with his swim lesson with Anna. Gussie comes to see Stuart: They watch the porpoises, and after some time Gussie asks him if he would have married Florence if she had not died. He avoids her question but thinks to himself that he would have told Florence how he felt about her when she returned from France. Gussie gives Stuart a small rock and asks her to marry him.

That evening, Anna and Stuart go to The Covington’s pool for her lesson. As Anna takes off her dress, he considers her swimsuit: He immediately recognized it as Florence’s, but where it seemed like a second skin on Florence, it could be taken off of Anna. He shakes away the thought and leaps into the pool, pulling Anna in behind him. Anna is now a much better swimmer. They banter and he tells her about Gussie’s proposal: He told her that he would marry her when she was 20 if she still wanted to marry an old man. The conversation becomes serious, and he tries to tell Anna that he and Florence were never together, though he loved Florence. Anna asks what he loved about Florence, but when he explains, Anna looks like she is crying. Stuart asks her about her parents, and she tells him about the extra letters and about the account that Joseph opened. Stuart asks if she would like to go, but Anna says she likes where they are, and Stuart is happy to stay, too.

At his boardinghouse, Stuart receives a package that includes Anna’s cardigan and a note from his father. Stuart thinks that his father may have watched him with Anna and is annoyed, but he is also annoyed that he didn’t kiss her.

Anna is aware that Esther has been upset with her, but Anna doesn’t know why. Esther tells Anna to go read to Fannie, and when Anna asks if Fannie wouldn’t prefer Esther, Esther says she can’t bear to see Fannie today. When Anna walks into Fannie’s dark room, she pulls the blinds apart slightly. Fannie says they will get in trouble, and Anna asks what Esther does when she reads to her. To Anna’s bewilderment, Fannie tells her that her mother doesn’t read.

Anna reads F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender Is the Night to Fannie. When she pauses to drink water, Fannie starts talking about the main character’s mother and her disapproval of marriage. She asks whether Anna thinks that not being beholden to anyone is better. Anna can’t hold back and asks whether Isaac is hard to please. Fannie says that she feels like she has been holding her breath for eight years. Anna says she understands, remarking, “I think most women make some sacrifices for their own security, or the security of the people they love” (193). Fannie replies that Rosemary Hoyt, the main character of Tender Is the Night, doesn’t make sacrifices. Anna retorts, “I think it’s possible that Mr. Fitzgerald wrote a woman who doesn’t exist” (193).

Anna arrives back home to a letter from her mother saying that the American consulate demanded a trust in the family’s name but not how much money is needed in the trust. Her mother is thinking of going to Vienna because she heard the American consulate in Austria is friendlier. She writes that the Americans think that Hitler’s government will soon be toppled, but she does not believe so based on what is happening in the streets and newspapers. Anna thinks back to her own experience of going through 25 government agencies to get her student visa. Anna knows that she can’t ask Joseph for more help. She decides to see Eli Hirsch. When Esther asks her to take Gussie with her, Anna refuses Esther’s requests for the first time.

At the American Jewish Committee’s grand office, Eli Hirsch agrees to see Anna without an appointment. Anna tells him her mother’s story and asks him about what would change if Anna married an American. He explains that it would be much easier for her to get citizenship and bring her parents over. She asks if he would be angry at his daughter if she decided to marry a non-Jewish person instead of going to college. He tells Anna that he might forgive his daughter in these trying times.

Anna returns home, fetches some of the money her mother tucked away for her, and purchases a beautiful emerald-green bathing suit. When she gets home, she kisses Florence’s suit and puts it back in the drawer where she found it.

When Anna arrives at the beach that evening, Stuart invites her to come have a drink with his friends and then try swimming in the ocean. During their prior lesson, she wanted to ask him to go to a diner when they walked past one, but she was afraid of appearing to usurp Florence’s role. At the bar they go to now, Stuart pulls out Anna’s chair for her and introduces her to his friends. A girl named Lillian asks Anna if she is going to the Lifeguard Ball, which Anna has never heard of. She says yes anyway, and Stuart is so happy that he squeezes her hand. Lillian asks Anna how she met Stuart and if they’re seeing each other, taunting Anna by saying that all of the girls are in love with Stuart. Anna finishes her beer and goes to the bathroom to get away from Lillian. Stuart comes to find her and they leave.

Stuart apologizes for Lillian and jokes about his love life. Anna is happy and teases him back. When they arrive at the ocean, he asks her if she would like to swim. She takes off her dress nervously, and he tells her that she looks beautiful. He senses that something is wrong, and she tells him about her parents’ situation and about Eli Hirsch’s suggestion that she marry an American. Stuart is angry and asks whether any American will do. He says that it’s too dark to swim and that he told his friends he would meet up with them after they were done. She hopes that he will look back as he walks away, but he never does.