In the title story of Instructions for the Drowning, Steven Heighton’s newest collection of short fiction, a man dives off a dock to save his wife, who has begun to flounder in the deep water of a cottage-ringed lake. Her panic slices violently through a languid day. But, when he reaches her, the husband finds his wife’s will to survive is just as violent, and he remembers his own father’s advice: to avoid being dragged under by a drowning swimmer, there is only one way to save both yourself and the victim—knock them out cold.
The narrator actually recalls the father’s instructions delivered in a more pointed way: “If you ever jumped into the water to help a drowning man, he would try to pull you down with him.” It’s the “try to” we keep returning to as we witness not only a near drowning but also the husband’s alarm that his wife would kill him to save herself. The marriage’s many disappointments bob to the surface as the couple swing their fists, both trying to stay afloat.
