This is not your mother's memoir. In The Chronology of Water, Lidia Yuknavitchexpertly moves the reader through issues of gender, sexuality, violence, and thefamily from the point of view of a lifelong swimmer turned artist. In writingthat explores the nature of memoir itself, her story traces the effect ofextreme grief on a young woman's developing sexuality that some define asuntraditional because of her attraction to both men and women. Her emergence asa writer evolves at the same time and takes the narrator on a journey ofaddiction, self-destruction, and ultimately survival that finally comes in theshape of love and motherhood.