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3.96 AVERAGE
3.96 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
This book is very good. Miriam is a fifteen year-old girl who collapses at school and is lucky to have lived. Told from the perspective of her father, Adam, at its base the book is about dealing with worry and uncertainty about the people you love, and the looming threat of death. Today, he points out, many of us are able to ignore worries about survival. We live in safe places and have relatively easy access to medical care (I say 'relatively easy', the book details the ingrained frustrations of Britain's National Health Service), adequate nutrition, and education. But most of the world, most of the time, has had to face suffering and death with little pause. In some sense, Miriam's health crisis compels Adam to commune with his ancestors - people who were vigilant about keeping themselves and their children safe, people who survived the Halocaust - and while he is fearful, he also forges forwards in the understanding that you want doubt. You don't want a clear story of the future. "You think you want an ending but you don't. You want life. You want disorder and ignorance and uncertainty."
Other stories are weaved into the main narrative, stories about Adam's father, and stories about the Coventry Cathedral. Both hold the common theme of redefining the present while the past looks over you. There is an intellectuality about the book which comes into fore in these interludes. And overall it is a very clever, literary book with an academic as the narrator, but it is also accessible, with short chapters with a relateable voice.
More than anything though, I wholeheartedly recommend this book because it's funny, its dark humor engages with politics, feminism, academia, the medical system, and household arrangements (while Adam teaches and writes, he is primarily a stay-at-home father). It feels contemporary even though it taps into ancient fears.
The Tidal Zone has some similarities with writing by authors such as A.M. Holmes (but less odd), and Christos Tsolkas (but much less graphic). I was also reminded of Helen McDonald's H is for Hawk for its attention to the British landscape and for its weaving of the historical and contemporary.
Other stories are weaved into the main narrative, stories about Adam's father, and stories about the Coventry Cathedral. Both hold the common theme of redefining the present while the past looks over you. There is an intellectuality about the book which comes into fore in these interludes. And overall it is a very clever, literary book with an academic as the narrator, but it is also accessible, with short chapters with a relateable voice.
More than anything though, I wholeheartedly recommend this book because it's funny, its dark humor engages with politics, feminism, academia, the medical system, and household arrangements (while Adam teaches and writes, he is primarily a stay-at-home father). It feels contemporary even though it taps into ancient fears.
The Tidal Zone has some similarities with writing by authors such as A.M. Holmes (but less odd), and Christos Tsolkas (but much less graphic). I was also reminded of Helen McDonald's H is for Hawk for its attention to the British landscape and for its weaving of the historical and contemporary.
Wonderful writing as always but I just wasn't interested in the story.
Ok, so I read this one out of all the great reviews and recommendations. I ... liked it? I just don't know what to think about it, I feel like this is the first "contemporary" fiction book I've ever read, but I'm sure that's not true, but still feel like it. I enjoyed the male perspective of it, found that to be the main reason I kept coming back to the book, but I just felt like I was being pulled from all these different directions, with Mimi's story and then the Dad, and then the marriage and then... I don't know if that wowed or annoyed me.
I guess looking at the three-star rating, I think it did annoy me enough to not fully enjoy the story. There're some parts of the book that I absolutely loved, especially those that talked about the Cathedral, those were my favorites, but the book as a whole wasna.
I guess looking at the three-star rating, I think it did annoy me enough to not fully enjoy the story. There're some parts of the book that I absolutely loved, especially those that talked about the Cathedral, those were my favorites, but the book as a whole wasna.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The Tidal Zone is my third Sarah Moss novel, and it was so good that I still want more. It's the story of Adam, a stay-at-home dad and his family. One day Adam receives a phone call that his 15-year-old daughter, Miriam, has collapsed at school, and things unfold from there. There are clear and poignant chapters about how things are going in the hospital, interspersed with the rebuilding of Coventry Cathedral after World War II (because Adam is working on a project), and Adam's father telling his own story of his life in the 1960s. Things are not neatly tied up so this may not be a book for everyone, but I love Moss' language, intelligence, and extraordinary writing about the mundane and not-so-mundane. I have dog-eared so many pages that I know I will be re-reading The Tidal Zone at some point. But not until after I finish my next three books by Sarah Moss. Up next, Night Waking...
Although try this: if you could know what is going to happen, if you could know the lives and deaths of your partner and your kids and yourself, if you could know their loves and losses, triumphs and failures, sicknesses and last moments, would you? No. You think you want a story, you think you want an ending, but you don't. You want life. You want disorder and ignorance and uncertainty.
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No