Jack actually won the highest German Literature prize. People in Belgium read Jack on their school reading lists. It occurred to no one that the author was the same person who wrote The End of Alice and that my interest in children was not a perverted one, but more a protective one. The more bizarre things get, the more impressed one is by A.M. Homes's skill as a realist. I read that quote, and I thought, Yes, exactly.
Life is incredibly surrealistic.
Especially where I live, in New York City, the weirdest things happen every day. So many things are so odd. You just have to be aware of it. Also, it's just part of the American surrealist tradition. The character swims across Westchester County, but it's told so realistically that you don't even notice it.