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A review by andrew61
The Tidal Zone by Sarah Moss
4.0
This is a book filled with ideas and fine writing such that it is one of those reads where you want to put it down and talk to someone about all the issues that it covers.
The opening chapter shows the creation of a child in a lyrically scientific piece of prose and we then learn that the child is 15 year old Miriam. One day at school Miriam has an anaphylactic shock and stops breathing but survives after receives Cpr and is rushed to hospital. This introduction then allows a story to emerge which has a number of elements.
Firstly the narrator is Miriam's dad Adam, a house husband , and we see how the event impacts on him personally and the family as a whole. His wife is a very busy GP,Emma, and they have a younger daughter Rose. Adam struggles to understand what has happened and the terror of losing their child with the potential of it happening again causes ripples in what appears to a normal middle class English family, the sense of impotence is palpable. The dynamics of the family are really well done and the writer especially portrays Miriam, a feisty intelligent 15year old brilliantly, similarly Rose somewhat younger is well drawn. I did however struggle with Adam and Emma. I understood the anxiety Adam suffers but I found him at times less than sympathetic. This may have been a deliberate aspect of the writing but he constantly is moaning to himself about his role and feeling put upon without explicitly expressing himself to Emma beyond minor mumbling,whilst Emma is having to manage her anxiety whilst carrying on in her demanding job yet I had little feel for Emma as a person save that she is under significant stress . Whilst the book is from Adam's perspective and I can't generally criticise the portrayal of the relationships this was an aspect I am still wondering about. Perhaps it is the turning upside down of the stereotypical relationships that tests the reader .
Another thread is Adam's research on the rebuilding of Coventry cathedral after the war by Basil Spence, I really enjoyed this aspect of the story and I was googling images as I read of architecture, tapestries and glass and have added it as one of those places to visit when I retire and can tour those brown signed places of interest in the country that you constantly pass on Britain's roads.
Finally we also meet Adam's dad and his story. We know that Adam grew up on a Cornish commune and his dad ,a widowed American, tells his granddaughters of his journey to the Uk as a young man after moving from hippy commune to hippy commune in 1960's America as the Vietnam draft looms, this more than anything tells us much about who Adam is and how his character has formed.
The book fizzes with discussion of issues troubling Britain today with polemical discussions about the state of the NHS and education. I did however get a bit frustrated with Adam's insistence on a his healthy lifestyle as he plans every meal and snack for maximum health benefit and entirely sympathized with rose as she moaned about all her friend having crisps in their lunchboxes.
Overall then a very interesting read which more than anything I've read recently gives a snapshot of middle class life in England today , its anxieties and pressures, although I don't feel it entirely gave a picture of men in 21st century England if this was one of the writers intentions (which I doubt it was), rather than a good picture of the state of modern family life and parenthood .
The opening chapter shows the creation of a child in a lyrically scientific piece of prose and we then learn that the child is 15 year old Miriam. One day at school Miriam has an anaphylactic shock and stops breathing but survives after receives Cpr and is rushed to hospital. This introduction then allows a story to emerge which has a number of elements.
Firstly the narrator is Miriam's dad Adam, a house husband , and we see how the event impacts on him personally and the family as a whole. His wife is a very busy GP,Emma, and they have a younger daughter Rose. Adam struggles to understand what has happened and the terror of losing their child with the potential of it happening again causes ripples in what appears to a normal middle class English family, the sense of impotence is palpable. The dynamics of the family are really well done and the writer especially portrays Miriam, a feisty intelligent 15year old brilliantly, similarly Rose somewhat younger is well drawn. I did however struggle with Adam and Emma. I understood the anxiety Adam suffers but I found him at times less than sympathetic. This may have been a deliberate aspect of the writing but he constantly is moaning to himself about his role and feeling put upon without explicitly expressing himself to Emma beyond minor mumbling,whilst Emma is having to manage her anxiety whilst carrying on in her demanding job yet I had little feel for Emma as a person save that she is under significant stress . Whilst the book is from Adam's perspective and I can't generally criticise the portrayal of the relationships this was an aspect I am still wondering about. Perhaps it is the turning upside down of the stereotypical relationships that tests the reader .
Another thread is Adam's research on the rebuilding of Coventry cathedral after the war by Basil Spence, I really enjoyed this aspect of the story and I was googling images as I read of architecture, tapestries and glass and have added it as one of those places to visit when I retire and can tour those brown signed places of interest in the country that you constantly pass on Britain's roads.
Finally we also meet Adam's dad and his story. We know that Adam grew up on a Cornish commune and his dad ,a widowed American, tells his granddaughters of his journey to the Uk as a young man after moving from hippy commune to hippy commune in 1960's America as the Vietnam draft looms, this more than anything tells us much about who Adam is and how his character has formed.
The book fizzes with discussion of issues troubling Britain today with polemical discussions about the state of the NHS and education. I did however get a bit frustrated with Adam's insistence on a his healthy lifestyle as he plans every meal and snack for maximum health benefit and entirely sympathized with rose as she moaned about all her friend having crisps in their lunchboxes.
Overall then a very interesting read which more than anything I've read recently gives a snapshot of middle class life in England today , its anxieties and pressures, although I don't feel it entirely gave a picture of men in 21st century England if this was one of the writers intentions (which I doubt it was), rather than a good picture of the state of modern family life and parenthood .