This August, Argonaut Books and Leith Kino are joining forces for a special Book Fringe collaboration. “When you talk about The Swimmer will you talk about yourself? Adapting John Cheever’s 13-page short story into feature length, filmmaker Frank Perry brought The Swimmer’s vision of mid-century American suburban life with help from a screenplay written by his wife Eleanor. A hazy, sun-drenched odyssey through an affluent neighbourhood in Connecticut, The Swimmer opens with a strange introduction to its main character. Half-naked and bursting out of the woods, Burt Lancaster’s Ned Merrill gleefully exclaims that he plans on finding his way home not through walking but through swimming a path through his neighbours' pools. Along his journey, Merrill’s encounters with fellow members of the upper-middle class progressively reveals what truly lies beneath the swimmer’s cheery demeanor and a dark undercurrent at the heart of this seemingly idyllic lifestyle. Now a cult classic, Perry’s film long went underappreciated and is now considered a landmark work that features a career best performance by Burt Lancaster and a laser sharp critique of the American Dream.