Printed from the Charleston City Paper website: charleston.gyrosite.com

POSTED ON APRIL 18, 2007:

BOOKS ‌ Shell Shock

Mary Alice Monroe's latest likely bestseller talks turtles at the S.C. Aquarium

By Elizabeth Pandolfini

Bestselling local author Monroe stays close to home with her latest

Swimming Lessons
Mira Books,
By Mary Alice Monroe
432 pages, $21.95

"Last night, Toy dreamed again of the turtle." So begins Mary Alice Monroe's Swimming Lessons, the sequel to her bestselling novel The Beach House. Picking up five years after that book left off, the new installment returns readers to the Isle of Palms and the same group of "turtle ladies," at the beginning of the sea turtle nesting season. For readers here in Charleston, it's a comfortable setting - familiar, attractive, with recognizably Southern characters. And Swimming Lessons is a good story, heartwarming at times and with compelling characters, a perfect beach read if ever there was one. Yet the real strength of Monroe's novel - the thing that roots it so thoroughly not just in the South but right here in town - is the backstory of the sea turtle hospital at the S.C. Aquarium.

The Sea Turtle Rescue Program, as it is officially called, was created shortly after the Aquarium opened in 2000, almost by accident. Although this area is a hotspot for four different species of sea turtle (all of them threatened or endangered), until 2000 there was no facility in the state that could care for injured or sick animals. Beached turtles had to be transported to Topsail Beach, N.C., in a four- to six-hour drive, or even further south, to Marineland, Fla. Often the turtles didn't make it through the journey, and for a species seeing worrisome drops in population, any loss is devastating.

When the S.C. Department of Natural Resources approached Aquarium staff with a stranded turtle in Aug. 2000, the Aquarium agreed to take it on and to help with more strandings, as they could. Today, the Aquarium's sea turtle hospital serves as the Lowcountry's primary rescue and rehab center.

Much of this appears in Swimming Lessons. Monroe is an avid conservationist herself, and her novels often rely on the interplay between people and nature. In this case, the people are protagonist Toy Sooner, her five-year-old daughter, and the rest of the Turtle Team ladies. The Isle of Palms is so integral to the story that it nearly becomes a character itself. It's particularly interesting that nearly all the content in the novel regarding the Aquarium and its turtles is factual.

Monroe was given access to the Aquarium's medical logs, and so each turtle case in her story, from where it was found to the injuries it suffered, is authentic. Big Girl, the turtle "star" of the novel, actually underwent treatment at the Aquarium. In any other fictional work, Big Girl's gradual recovery from emaciation and weakness to strength would be little more than a metaphor for the main human character's growth and development. Yet in this book, Big Girl exists in her own right - her life story is just as valid as Toy's.

Monroe deals with Toy's personal and professional life almost equally, and although one side of the story primarily involves people and the other chiefly turtles, it's to her credit that the two work so well together here. Like the ocean that is the setting for Swimming Lessons, Toy's story ebbs and flows from one location to another, from biology to love, from animals to people.

One might even suggest this is an outgrowth of Monroe's own relation to her calling. On the question of whether she's more writer or conservationist, Monroe says, "The two are completely intertwined. My role, first and foremost, is a novelist - I'm a storyteller. But my goal is to present the story to my readers in such a way that when they close the book, they've not only read a good book, they've learned something as well."

The method must work, as Monroe's a New York Times bestselling author. That means more than just exceptional sales and public exposure for Monroe. It means that people all over the country are listening.

"I have found, to my delight, that [readers] care about the environment, they care about the sea turtles. They want to learn more," says the author. And that, in turn, inspires her to write more.

Kelly Thorvalson, the Aquarium's rescue program coordinator, is one of the staff members with whom Monroe worked closely while researching Swimming Lessons. Monroe calls Thorvalson her "mentor" in the study of injured and sick turtles. Thorvalson recalls that Monroe's research included volunteering at the hospital and helping to release several turtles back into the ocean.

There's a similarity of goals between these women, as well.

"As a conservation facility, it is just as important to educate the public on the plight of sea turtles as it is to save the individuals," Thorvalson says. "We need to help folks understand that they, too, can do things that will save sea turtles."

The Aquarium achieves that through visitor programs, outreach programs, and exhibits. Monroe does it through her books. In Swimming Lessons, no matter how much interest one has in marine wildlife, it is impossible to care for the people in the story without caring for the turtles they watch over.

"Sea turtle population decline is directly related to human activity," Thorvalson says. "They are ancient mariners, having swum the oceans for hundreds of millions of years, and we have to change the way we are doing things so they don't vanish during our lifetime."

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Sea turtles at the heart of novelist's latest works

By SUSAN L. RIFE

susan.rife@heraldtribune.com
Mary Alice Monroe takes to heart the axiom for writers: Write what you know.

Her new novel, "Swimming Lessons," and a companion children's picture book, "Turtle Summer" (Sylvan Dell Publishing), are filled with Monroe's experiences as a member of the board of the South Carolina Aquarium and The Island Turtle Team.

She lives on Isle of Palms, a barrier island in the Atlantic Ocean off Charleston, S.C., where she has become fascinated by the sea turtles that nest on the island's beaches.

"The minute we moved here, I joined the turtle team," Monroe said in a telephone conversation earlier this week. "The interest quickly turned into a passion."

The turtles that populate "Swimming Lessons" and the novel that preceded it, "The Beach House," are turtles Monroe came to know and love through her work with the turtle team, guarding the nests and supervising the hatchlings on their scramble to the sea.

In "The Beach House," the story of an estranged mother and daughter plays out against the backdrop of the nesting turtles. In the new book, Monroe's eighth novel, the story returns to the beach house, now inhabited by Toy Rutledge and her little girl, Little Lovie, as Toy works to establish a sea turtle hospital at the aquarium. The back story of sea turtles, of course, focuses on sick and injured turtles.

"All the turtles I described in the novel are actually turtles that they treated at the South Carolina turtle hospital," Monroe said.

She kicks off a book tour in support of "Swimming Lessons" this week in South Carolina, and will be in Sarasota April 5 at a luncheon to benefit the Jewish Housing Council Benevolent Assistance Program.

And although the novel gives Monroe plenty of opportunities to discuss the perils faced by sea turtles, it also focuses on the rehabilitation of relationships among the women at its core.

"It's really the next step for all the women on the team. All the women have new challenges and they face them together," Monroe said.

The picture book that is the companion book to "Swimming Lessons" emerged from a scene in the novel where Toy is surrounded by photographs she took of Little Lovie and is asking herself, "Have I been a good mother."

"That's a question we all ask ourselves, whether your child is 5 or 25," Monroe said.

She worked with fellow turtle teammate and nature photographer Barbara J. Bergwerf, who is also the author and photographer of "Carolina's Story: Sea Turtles Get Sick Too!," which earned the Florida Publisher's Association's best children's nonfiction book for 2006.

The women had discussed the children's book one night as they sat watch over a turtle nest.

"We got very excited about putting together this journal," Monroe said. The book contains photos, artwork, nature drawings and activities for school-age children.

"It's not a cute little story," she said. "It's much more."

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THE STATE NEWS

SWIMMING LESSONS

By Mary Alice Monroe.

Mira, 432 pages, $21.95

MARY ALICE MONROE is an earnest and sincere writer. She mixes her stories of women working to redeem lives gone awry with the transformative power of nature's offerings.

In "Swimming Lessons," her hardcover debut - she has 10 paperback novels to her credit - Monroe revisits a best-seller, "The Beach House," published in 2002.

In "The Beach House," Monroe described a distant daughter's homecoming and her difficult connection to her mother and a tough and pregnant teen.

"Swimming Lessons" revisits most of that cast five years later. Miss Lovie has died but lives on as an influence on most everyone's every decision. Her daughter, the now-married Cara, becomes supporting cast to Toy, now a successful single parent and S.C. Aquarium employee, and to Little Lovie, Toy's baby.

"Swimming Lessons" also revisits coastal efforts to protect loggerhead turtles.

Monroe visited the Isle of Palms for 10 years before moving there when her husband, a child psychiatrist, accepted a job at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. She became involved in sea turtle preservation efforts and intends for her books to further people's interest and investment.

"The Beach House" was dedicated to the Island Turtle Team, whose members work on the Isle of Palms and Sullivan's and Dewees islands to protect sea turtles, their nests, eggs and hatchlings.

In 2006, efforts by such volunteers along the S.C. coast led to a count of 2,552 nests. A wealth of information is available on the S.C. Aquarium's Web site, scaquarium.org.

In "Swimming Lessons," Monroe again describes the dedication of the beach patrols, but this time pays more attention to the efforts of the Sea Turtle Rescue Program and Sea Turtle Hospital. The novel educates us about life-threatening problems, including infections, injuries from boats and the mysterious debilitated turtle syndrome.

We learn about this by following Toy through her day-to-day work with rescued and recuperating turtles. Toy herself has some recuperating to do from a childhood with a mother who moved past indifference to hostility and a boyfriend who abused and abandoned her.

Cara has become a second mother to Toy and Little Lovie, as have other women on the beach. Toy even continues to live in Miss Lovie's beach cottage. But she has yet to acknowledge her own power: She has finished college, become the founder of a sea-turtle hospital, is bringing up her daughter well and has attracted the attention of a good man.

Monroe's novels focus on problems that haunt women's lives. In "Swimming Lessons":

• Little Lovie's biological father reappears to complicate matters of work, love and parenting and to reenforce Toy's self-doubt

• Cara is having difficulties getting pregnant

• Emmi is misbehaving after a divorce

• Aging Flo can no longer manage on her own

Monroe's writing is occasionally awkward (eyes pulse with meaning, for example), but the way her women solve problems is always heartening.

And certainly, "Swimming Lessons," which can stand alone, will do as "The Beach House" did and move more people to compassion and activism when it comes to the plight of sea turtles.

To ensure that is so, Monroe also has produced a companion book for children, "A Turtle Summer: A Journal for My Daughter," with photos by Barbara J. Bergwerf.

In "Swimming Lessons," Toy makes just such a scrapbook, during a crisis, for Little Lovie. In reality, Monroe and Bergwerf volunteer for the Turtle Team; Monroe is on the aquarium's board, and Bergwerf volunteers at and has documented the work of Sea Turtle Hospital.

The children's book takes us through days and nights at the beach as a mother and daughter watch a turtle lay eggs, then mark the nest, watch over it and, finally, witness a "boil," when hatchlings surge from the nest and head to sea.

Monroe mixes her concerns for women and children and sea turtles well. It's likely all will profit by her efforts.

By Reviewed by Claudia Smith Brinson

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Fresh Fiction Reviews

Reviewed by Audrey Sharpe
Posted May 25, 2007

Toy Sooner never expected much from life. Raised by a mother who never loved her and a stepfather who abused her, Toy moved in with aspiring musician Darryl Duggans at the tender age of seventeen, and gave birth to their daughter at eighteen. But when Darryl abandoned them to seek fame in California, Toy found an unexpected friend and mentor in elderly Olivia Rutledge, better known as Miss Lovie who, along with her daughter Cara and friends Florence and Emmi, taught Toy to fight for a better life.

Now at twenty-three, Toy has a daughter she loves dearly, a college degree, a job at the South Carolina Aquarium, and her cadre of "turtle team" friends who share her passion for the giant loggerhead turtles. When Toy rescues an emaciated loggerhead that washes ashore, she finds herself placed in charge of the turtle, named Big Girl, and is suddenly thrust into the role of director of a fledgling turtle hospital. As more injured turtles arrive, Toy must enlist the help of Ethan, the director of the aquarium's Ocean Tank, to secure a grant to cover the increased expenses. The weeks of working together lead to a budding romance for Toy, and a father figure for Little Lovie, Toy's daughter. But the sudden reappearance of Darryl on Toy's doorstep creates a rift between Toy and Ethan, and Toy must decide between a new life with the man she loves, or the dream of a family with the father of her child.

SWIMMING LESSONS hooked me from page one. The insight Ms. Monroe gives into the plight of the loggerheads adds a wonderful dimension to the plot, while the struggles of the strong female characters who lead the turtle team provide a wonderful counterpoint to the growing pains of the young and inexperienced Toy. The love and respect they all show one another through some very difficult situations will win your heart, and have you cheering them on to achieving their dreams. This book is a rare treat, especially for anyone who has enjoyed a life-long love affair with the ocean.

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JACKIE COOPER Reviews

Mary Alice Monroe is a writer with a cause. In most of her books she provides an environmental background that addresses some need to protect nature's children. In the THE BEACH HOUSE and again in its sequel SWIMMING LESSONS she uses the plight of loggerhead turtles as her backdrop. Wisely she puts a well-written plot in the foreground.

SWIMMING LESSONS is the story of Toy Sooner. She played a role in THE BEACH HOUSE but in SWIMMING LESSONS she is the star of the show. Toy is a single mother living on the Isle of Palms in South Carolina. She and her daughter rent a house that belonged to her beloved mentor Miss Lovie.

Still important in her life are Cara, Flo and Emmi, a collection of women who make up the group known as "the turtle ladies." Toy and her daughter Little Lovie are also a part of this group. The lives of these women sound almost idyllic but there are problems lurking beneath the surface. Flo is getting older and has to decide how she is going to face her senior years. Emmi is going through a bad divorce and doesn't know how to recapture the joy of being part of a marriage and family. Cara and her husband desperately want a baby but are so far unsuccessful and her body clock is ticking.

Toy has gotten her college degree and is working at the Aquarium in Charleston. She still fights her insecurities while gaining more and more experience with her beloved turtles. She rescues them and then cares for them.

The first third to half of the book focuses more on the turtles than on the humans in the story, and for me that was a problem. I wanted more of Mary Alice the storyteller than Mary Alice the environmentalist. But then suddenly the plot kicked in and I was hooked. I rode on the liquid wind of Mary Alice Monroe's words to the warm and heartfelt ending of the story.

There is a lot to be learned about loggerhead turtles and their plight in SWIMMING LESSONS but even better, there is a tender and dramatic story waiting to be explored. Mary Alice Monroe is a storyteller first and foremost and that accounts for her legion of admirers. The fact that she adds in an environmental angle in her books only shows the heart and depth of the woman behind the book.

Dive into SWIMMING LESSONS and let the beauty of Monroe's words and the glory of her passions wash over you. She is an exceptionally fine writer and also someone to admire for her devotion to her causes.

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