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A review by hetauuu
The Tidal Zone by Sarah Moss
5.0
Last summer, just around this time actually, I read and thoroughly enjoyed my first Sarah Moss novel, the enigmatic [b:Ghost Wall|38922230|Ghost Wall|Sarah Moss|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1521962112l/38922230._SY75_.jpg|60493489]. It took me a long time to pick up The Tidal Zone despite buying it almost right after reading [b:Ghost Wall|38922230|Ghost Wall|Sarah Moss|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1521962112l/38922230._SY75_.jpg|60493489], because I am too much of a library gal to the point where I neglect my own books for more library hauls. But now that I've started dedicating my reading time to the many great books I own but haven't read yet, it was finally time to pick up my second Moss read.
Thank goodness I did.
The Tidal Zone opens on any parent's worst nightmare: Adam gets a call from his daughter's school, saying there has been an incident. His fifteen-year-old daughter Miriam, Mim or Mimi for short, has collapsed and stopped breathing on a field on school premises, out of nowhere. For a short time, Miriam was dead. Luckily, she was resuscitated and hospitalized rapidly, but that, understandably, does not take away the pain and fear a parent feels when they realise their child is mortal. A new normal begins for the Goldschmidt family - Adam, Miriam, mom Emma, a doctor, and Rose, the youngest daughter. A sense of mortality and the reality of just how unknown and unexpected life is sets in with the family, affecting each member in its own, unique ways.
The decision to narrate the story from Adam's point of view really worked for this novel. Not only is Adam the father of Miriam and Rose, but he is the more hands-on parent, a stay-at-home dad, unemployed except for a few classes a year teaching at the local university. He spends his days working on the history of the Coventry Cathedral, as well as, of course, taking care of the kids and household duties. It never felt like to me that Moss was trying to 'flip the script' and write some heroic stay-at-home dad and distant, busy working mom story as some kind of shock value or novelty. Adam acknowledges how unusual it tends to be that he, a man, stays at home while his wife works, and is also very cognizant of the fact that women tend to be the ones who take on household labor more, even on top of their paying 9-to-5 jobs. But it is the fact that Adam is the one that stays home that brings out the bond he has with his daughters, especially Miriam. Had the book been written from Emma's point of view, it would have been very different. Not because Emma loves her daughters any less, but because the dynamic in their interpersonal relationships is different.
I have to admit, the chapters on the Coventry Cathedral did not initially make sense to me. However, as the story progressed, I saw a lot of parallels between the creation of Coventry Cathedral and the raising of a child. You have all of these plans and ideas, and you are proud of what you create, you want to keep your creation safe. However, there comes that point when that is no longer in your hands, when your creation goes out into the world and is subject to it, and you are unable to stop that from happening. For Adam, that awakening is Miriam's incident. He can no longer keep his child safe in the way he has done before, or at least in the way he thought he was able to before. Same goes for the Coventry Cathedral: no matter how many plans the architect responsible for the rebuilding had for his creation, not all of them could be fulfilled, he could not micromanage to the point he would have liked to. It is incredibly scary to realise that those we love are as much subject to the world around us as we are, and that the line between now and then, between life and death, is incredibly thin. We are powerless in front of that line, there is only so much we can do. The Coventry Cathedral's rebuilding is also a result of it being bombed, seemingly out of nowhere, during World War II. And somehow, the city, the cathedral, and the people, were able to move on from that destruction. Will the Goldschmidts be able to move on from theirs, and adapt to the new normal?
The characters in this novel are fantastic. We have Adam, who is a loving and doting father, by no means a perfect one. He is not immune to making mistakes, but he also acknowledges them and has a lot of respect for his family. Emma's occasional absence from the book feels very true to her absence from the everyday family dynamic: an overworked doctor, she is the family breadwinner with the world on her shoulders, and finding the balance between work and family is tough. Adam and Emma's marriage is strained, but never in an overly dramatic way, but rather feels like a natural result of the surroundings. Miriam is fantastically feisty and sarcastic, a witty 15-year-old growing into her own skin and finding her views and voice. She reads Edward Saïd and Simone de Beauvoir, lectures her dad about plastic waste and the global food crisis, and declares herself too cool for a myriad of things. Her voice as a teenager is incredibly real and authentic, but her snarky demeanor does not entirely hide her fear and anguish caused by her condition. It is a very balanced and realistic portrayal. Little Rose is a bit too young to understand most things, especially about her sister's condition, and she gets caught up on her interests and solutions - just like a kid does. The characterisations in this book are razor-sharp, the family dynamic lively and interesting.
Adam's parents play an important role in the narrative as well. His father was born in the US, a child of Jewish immigrants who moved to the US to run from the horrors Jewish people face in Europe. His mother was an English woman, whom his father met while in the States, who drowned suddenly and unexpectedly in her 30s, when Adam was very small. The death of his mother makes Adam think the disease Miriam has could be genetic, which the doctors either dismiss or ignore. He is desperate to find out that this didn't just happen out of nowhere, that there is some explanation, something to blame. This exploration of older generations of the family is yet another example of how Moss is able to weave a wide net of stories and narratives from one starting point, yet keeping it all coherent and tied together.
With just two of her books under my belt, Moss is shaping out to be a potential favorite author. [b:Night Waking|9959239|Night Waking|Sarah Moss|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328051620l/9959239._SY75_.jpg|14853092] and [b:Bodies of Light|20329476|Bodies of Light|Sarah Moss|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1394318715l/20329476._SY75_.jpg|28179074], here I come.
Thank goodness I did.
The Tidal Zone opens on any parent's worst nightmare: Adam gets a call from his daughter's school, saying there has been an incident. His fifteen-year-old daughter Miriam, Mim or Mimi for short, has collapsed and stopped breathing on a field on school premises, out of nowhere. For a short time, Miriam was dead. Luckily, she was resuscitated and hospitalized rapidly, but that, understandably, does not take away the pain and fear a parent feels when they realise their child is mortal. A new normal begins for the Goldschmidt family - Adam, Miriam, mom Emma, a doctor, and Rose, the youngest daughter. A sense of mortality and the reality of just how unknown and unexpected life is sets in with the family, affecting each member in its own, unique ways.
The decision to narrate the story from Adam's point of view really worked for this novel. Not only is Adam the father of Miriam and Rose, but he is the more hands-on parent, a stay-at-home dad, unemployed except for a few classes a year teaching at the local university. He spends his days working on the history of the Coventry Cathedral, as well as, of course, taking care of the kids and household duties. It never felt like to me that Moss was trying to 'flip the script' and write some heroic stay-at-home dad and distant, busy working mom story as some kind of shock value or novelty. Adam acknowledges how unusual it tends to be that he, a man, stays at home while his wife works, and is also very cognizant of the fact that women tend to be the ones who take on household labor more, even on top of their paying 9-to-5 jobs. But it is the fact that Adam is the one that stays home that brings out the bond he has with his daughters, especially Miriam. Had the book been written from Emma's point of view, it would have been very different. Not because Emma loves her daughters any less, but because the dynamic in their interpersonal relationships is different.
I have to admit, the chapters on the Coventry Cathedral did not initially make sense to me. However, as the story progressed, I saw a lot of parallels between the creation of Coventry Cathedral and the raising of a child. You have all of these plans and ideas, and you are proud of what you create, you want to keep your creation safe. However, there comes that point when that is no longer in your hands, when your creation goes out into the world and is subject to it, and you are unable to stop that from happening. For Adam, that awakening is Miriam's incident. He can no longer keep his child safe in the way he has done before, or at least in the way he thought he was able to before. Same goes for the Coventry Cathedral: no matter how many plans the architect responsible for the rebuilding had for his creation, not all of them could be fulfilled, he could not micromanage to the point he would have liked to. It is incredibly scary to realise that those we love are as much subject to the world around us as we are, and that the line between now and then, between life and death, is incredibly thin. We are powerless in front of that line, there is only so much we can do. The Coventry Cathedral's rebuilding is also a result of it being bombed, seemingly out of nowhere, during World War II. And somehow, the city, the cathedral, and the people, were able to move on from that destruction. Will the Goldschmidts be able to move on from theirs, and adapt to the new normal?
The characters in this novel are fantastic. We have Adam, who is a loving and doting father, by no means a perfect one. He is not immune to making mistakes, but he also acknowledges them and has a lot of respect for his family. Emma's occasional absence from the book feels very true to her absence from the everyday family dynamic: an overworked doctor, she is the family breadwinner with the world on her shoulders, and finding the balance between work and family is tough. Adam and Emma's marriage is strained, but never in an overly dramatic way, but rather feels like a natural result of the surroundings. Miriam is fantastically feisty and sarcastic, a witty 15-year-old growing into her own skin and finding her views and voice. She reads Edward Saïd and Simone de Beauvoir, lectures her dad about plastic waste and the global food crisis, and declares herself too cool for a myriad of things. Her voice as a teenager is incredibly real and authentic, but her snarky demeanor does not entirely hide her fear and anguish caused by her condition. It is a very balanced and realistic portrayal. Little Rose is a bit too young to understand most things, especially about her sister's condition, and she gets caught up on her interests and solutions - just like a kid does. The characterisations in this book are razor-sharp, the family dynamic lively and interesting.
Adam's parents play an important role in the narrative as well. His father was born in the US, a child of Jewish immigrants who moved to the US to run from the horrors Jewish people face in Europe. His mother was an English woman, whom his father met while in the States, who drowned suddenly and unexpectedly in her 30s, when Adam was very small. The death of his mother makes Adam think the disease Miriam has could be genetic, which the doctors either dismiss or ignore. He is desperate to find out that this didn't just happen out of nowhere, that there is some explanation, something to blame. This exploration of older generations of the family is yet another example of how Moss is able to weave a wide net of stories and narratives from one starting point, yet keeping it all coherent and tied together.
With just two of her books under my belt, Moss is shaping out to be a potential favorite author. [b:Night Waking|9959239|Night Waking|Sarah Moss|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328051620l/9959239._SY75_.jpg|14853092] and [b:Bodies of Light|20329476|Bodies of Light|Sarah Moss|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1394318715l/20329476._SY75_.jpg|28179074], here I come.