There are only a handful of books I reread every year or so because they put into words complex emotions that are almost impossible to articulate. "The Sea of Light" by Jenifer Levin is one of those books.

"Ordinary People" is another one, and this is the book "The Sea of Light" most reminds me of--if "Ordinary People" revolved around a lesbian relationship in the world of competitive college swimming.

The novel tells the story from the point of view of several intersecting characters, but focuses principally on the experiences of three women: Brenna, a closeted lesbian swim coach struggling to feel alive three months after her lover Kay has died of cancer; Ellie, the mediocre swimmer with Holocaust-survivor parents and a lingering feeling of being unlovable; and Babe, the talented Cuban-American swimming star just trying to get through each day after surviving a plane crash that killed all of her former teammates but one.

When Babe joins Brenna's swim team and is subsequently befriended by Ellie, carefully-guarded emotions begin to unravel as each of the women try to make sense of their place in the world, and their changing relationships with one another.

Anyone who has struggled to live on after someone they love has died is likely to find a moving and uncanny portrait of grief and survival in "The Sea of Light." The genius in Levin's writing is the way this is reflected in so many small ways--in the anxiety slowly eating away at Babe's parents, in Babe's conversations with her old boyfriend Kenny (now on life support), in Brenna's attempt to push away and simultaneously cling to Kay's memory.

At the same time, the novel avoids getting too bogged down in depression and sorrow by paralleling the women's struggle with grief with their experiences of falling in love.

Levin's writing style does take a little time to get used to, since she darts in and out of the different perspectives of her characters and the dialogue is often buried in the stream-of-consciousness flow. But once you adapt to her rythm, you start to see how it is essential to Levin's success in telling the story.

Unfortunately, this novel quickly went out of print after it was published in 1994; it's hard to find a new copy anymore. But hunting down a used copy is worth it--there have been few novels before or since that so genuinely capture the human experience of love and loss.

Amazon.com: "The Sea of Light"