Freedom Swimmer, written by Wai Chim, takes place in Communist China. The book first begins in a village near the ocean north of Hong Kong during the famine caused by China’s Great Leap Forward (this famine lasted from around 1959 to 1962, sometimes called the Three Years of Natural Disasters) in the winter of 1962. During that sad winter Ming becomes an orphan after his mother’s death. After being orphaned he moved into a dormitory with three other boys (Tian, Wang, and Cho) and started working in the fields. Things pretty much stay the same for years after that. That is until the Communist Party makes a reeducation program to send students to the village to learn about both hard labor and life outside the city. Ming ends up becoming close friends with one of the boys from the city named Li. As events caused by the Communist Party and its laws/rules start to have more of an impact on Ming and Li a plan is formed between the two to escape and reach the safety of British controlled Hong Kong (technically Ming had a similar plan earlier in the story). The only thing that stands in their way are guards, watch dogs, and miles of shark infested waters.
Before you stop reading this review and refuse to read Freedom Swimmer because you think it is only about two guys swimming to Hong Kong just hear me out. The book is about more than swimming. Throughout the story the reader learns about the hardships that many people in China faced under the Communist Party. The book has interlocking stories from Ming’s love story, Li falling through the ranks of the Communist Party, Tian trying to memorize lines from Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong (which he stops trying after a while) and more that help form the story and help push Ming and Li to plan to escape. The attempted escape to Hong Kong is also at the end with only a few swimming parts scattered around the book, so it is not entirely about swimming (for those of you who think that since it has swimming in the title it is mostly about swimming). There are also some great quotes like “it doesn’t matter where they’re from, all desperate men are the same” which appears a couple of times in the book. It means that when people are desperate for freedom they are all the same even if they are from different places/religions/etc.. If anything, the book is more about friendship, hope, and a chance of freedom as the characters try to not be arrested for both their thoughts/opinions against the Communist Party and for trying to escape.
Freedom Swimmer is a great book. Its story is sometimes unpredictable, making you want to keep reading and not put it down. The story inspires hope and shows that when you put your mind to it, put in the effort, plan it out, and don’t turn back, freedom will seem closer than ever before. The story may not end how many would expect it to end (this is all I’m saying, I will not spoil the ending for you) making it an interesting and exciting book, from beginning to end, to read.
