Haunts of the Black Masseur

The Swimmer as Hero

by Charles Sprawson
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Pleasure and compulsion, obsession and danger -- that's it exactly, Caitlin. On six occasions my husband has swum the length of Donner Lake -- 2.7 miles -- and never with a wetsuit. The only reason he hasn't yet swum from Alcatraz to San Francisco is that I've begged him not to. To me, the notion is terrifying -- to him, sublime. I suspect he'll someday do as he pleases while I watch from the shore, paralyzed, wondering why I didn't marry a golfer.