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3.96 AVERAGE
3.96 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Ah a new favourite
I wish I'd gotten around to this years ago!
I wish I'd gotten around to this years ago!
Really loved Sarah Moss' writing. Defs gonna be reading some more of her stuff.
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
When a teenage daughter collapses and her heart stops there is no discernable cause, the family have to accept the fact that this could happen again. A very slow, emotionally intense read.
There are books and there are books. Books you enjoy because they’re warm and cozy, or there’s a clever plot, great characters, brilliant writing or all of the above, plus more AND books you read and find uncomfortable, because they put on the table issues you don’t really want to deal with, because they might hit too close to home, and hey, fiction is for escapism, right?
The Tidal Zone was one of those uncomfortable reads for me. As a parent, you find yourself in new, worrisome situations starting with day one, and, correct me if I’m wrong, it never stops. Never. Sometimes you deal with simple issues like which diapers are the best?—and of course I’m saying “simple” just because that era is way behind me—or trying to make your daughter understand that there are other pretty colours besides pink (the struggle is SO real!), but then, one day you might just get a call that your kid fell on the playground and their heart just stopped beating. And that's when the shit gets real.
Sarah Moss writes (beautifully and quite convincingly) from the perspective of a man, choosing to reverse the traditional roles: we have an almost stay at home dad and a full time (always tired, never enough fed) medical doctor mom. What Moss also does brilliantly is the parallel between the life of the family dealing with and trying to recover after the daughter’s illness and the Coventry Cathedral, bombed in WW2 and later rebuilt (Adam, the dad - an art historian, is researching and writing a book about it).
I can’t believe I actually enjoyed a book dealing with illness and hospitals (Moss’ merit) and found so much common ground with Adam and unless you live in Canada or some utopian place, the health system issues will sound way too familiar and relatable.
Also, Miriam is probably one of my favourite teenagers in fiction right now.
***
"Stories have endings; that's why we tell them, for reassurance that there is meaning in our lives."
The Tidal Zone was one of those uncomfortable reads for me. As a parent, you find yourself in new, worrisome situations starting with day one, and, correct me if I’m wrong, it never stops. Never. Sometimes you deal with simple issues like which diapers are the best?—and of course I’m saying “simple” just because that era is way behind me—or trying to make your daughter understand that there are other pretty colours besides pink (the struggle is SO real!), but then, one day you might just get a call that your kid fell on the playground and their heart just stopped beating. And that's when the shit gets real.
Sarah Moss writes (beautifully and quite convincingly) from the perspective of a man, choosing to reverse the traditional roles: we have an almost stay at home dad and a full time (always tired, never enough fed) medical doctor mom. What Moss also does brilliantly is the parallel between the life of the family dealing with and trying to recover after the daughter’s illness and the Coventry Cathedral, bombed in WW2 and later rebuilt (Adam, the dad - an art historian, is researching and writing a book about it).
I can’t believe I actually enjoyed a book dealing with illness and hospitals (Moss’ merit) and found so much common ground with Adam and unless you live in Canada or some utopian place, the health system issues will sound way too familiar and relatable.
Also, Miriam is probably one of my favourite teenagers in fiction right now.
***
"Stories have endings; that's why we tell them, for reassurance that there is meaning in our lives."
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
I can see why people enjoy this book, but I was just a teensy bit bored.
Perhaps I'll come back to this when I'm in the mood for poetic musings
Perhaps I'll come back to this when I'm in the mood for poetic musings
I enjoyed this book, it was roughly what I expected from the back cover. The characters felt very real, there was some character development. The subjects tackled resonated as general truths (life, death, loss, etc.). Moss captured the essence of being a human being in the specific context she set out to describe. And that's the thing: I got mildly irritated by Adam's hipster upper-middle classness. She captured that brilliantly, down to his thinking and writing style (long, slightly pompous philosophical monologues). Sometimes it was too much for me, and I also wished he, as a narrator, would stop repeating himself. I'd give this book 3 stars.
It seems that most readers like this novel more than [b:Night Waking|13034366|Night Waking|Sarah Moss|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1367780374l/13034366._SY75_.jpg|14853092], but that isn't true for me. Moss explores many of the same themes of parenting, division of labor in families, and marital relations. Moss does a fine job here when exploring gender roles and norms, but this novel lacks any of the charm of Night Waking. In that novel, Moss conveys some of the frustrations of parenting by providing the protagonist with two very challenging, but endearing children. Miriam and Rose, by contrast, just come across as rather whiny and bratty.
Mild spoilers:Part of my frustration is that there is no closure to Miriam's incident. Yes, sometimes medicine can't provide answers, but I felt the complete lack of any information was not believable. The doctors think the incident was caused by a reaction to food, but they have NO IDEA what it was. We know that Miriam ate breakfast at home that day and that she ate the school lunch (later Adam mentions that the girls will now be taking packed lunch from home). School lunches are planned and recipes are followed, so why couldn't anyone figure out what Miriam ate that day? If they did allergy testing of all of the food and nothing caused a reaction, then shouldn't they be looking at another cause? Argh.
Where did Adam get the idea that his mother died as a result of the same condition? Did I miss something or did that come out of the blue? Did he just extrapolate that she drowned because of illness rather than an accident because she was "a strong swimmer?"
This is my third novel by Moss and while it's not a bad book, it is definitely my least favorite of the three.
Mild spoilers:
Where did Adam get the idea that his mother died as a result of the same condition? Did I miss something or did that come out of the blue? Did he just extrapolate that she drowned because of illness rather than an accident because she was "a strong swimmer?"
This is my third novel by Moss and while it's not a bad book, it is definitely my least favorite of the three.
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A