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A review by veelaughtland
The Tidal Zone by Sarah Moss
4.0
I was relieved, to say the least, to find after reading this book that I wasn't disappointed by it. YouTube hype can often ruin a book for me, but luckily this one passed with flying colours. It might not be one of my favourite books I've ever read, and it's too early to say if it will be in my 2016 favourites list, but it was definitely a highly entertaining read.
The book follows the narrator Adam, a stay-at-home dad who receives a phone call from his 15 year old daughter Miriam's headteacher to say she has collapsed at school. Miriam's heart stops and she stops breathing, but is luckily brought back by a teacher who performs CPR. However, the reason for her collapse is shrouded in mystery, and from here we follow Adam and his family, and witness how they try and deal with this situation and the fear that it may happen again.
Sarah Moss is a truly excellent writer, and has a real way with words. At times the narrative lapses into stream of consciousness territory, but luckily this didn't put me off, instead managing to emotively communicate Adam's heartbreak and fear with regards to Miriam's health. Moss also managed to effectively capture Adam's frustration and the isolation he feels surrounded by his other young daughter Rose and his wife Emma, as each family member has a completely different way of dealing with Miriam's situation.
I really liked that Moss drew a great deal of attention towards Adam's status as the primary caregiver to his family. I feel as though this kind of gender-bias sexism towards men who aren't the family breadwinner is still rife today, and is something that is rarely talked about, so I thoroughly enjoyed Moss's portrayal of Adam's often-isolated perspective.
One element of the book that I didn't particularly enjoy however were the chapters on Coventry Cathedral, written from the perspective of Adam when he was trying to take his mind off his familial situation by throwing himself into project work for a local university. Although some of these chapters were interesting (e.g. chapters on the bombing of the cathedral itself), most of the time these little asides took me out of the flow of the story and I found my mind wandering off. Although I can understand why Moss included them, I just felt like they didn't capture me in the way they did for other people.
Overall though I am very happy that I read this book, and I will definitely be checking out more of Sarah Moss's work because I think her writing style is fantastic.
The book follows the narrator Adam, a stay-at-home dad who receives a phone call from his 15 year old daughter Miriam's headteacher to say she has collapsed at school. Miriam's heart stops and she stops breathing, but is luckily brought back by a teacher who performs CPR. However, the reason for her collapse is shrouded in mystery, and from here we follow Adam and his family, and witness how they try and deal with this situation and the fear that it may happen again.
Sarah Moss is a truly excellent writer, and has a real way with words. At times the narrative lapses into stream of consciousness territory, but luckily this didn't put me off, instead managing to emotively communicate Adam's heartbreak and fear with regards to Miriam's health. Moss also managed to effectively capture Adam's frustration and the isolation he feels surrounded by his other young daughter Rose and his wife Emma, as each family member has a completely different way of dealing with Miriam's situation.
I really liked that Moss drew a great deal of attention towards Adam's status as the primary caregiver to his family. I feel as though this kind of gender-bias sexism towards men who aren't the family breadwinner is still rife today, and is something that is rarely talked about, so I thoroughly enjoyed Moss's portrayal of Adam's often-isolated perspective.
One element of the book that I didn't particularly enjoy however were the chapters on Coventry Cathedral, written from the perspective of Adam when he was trying to take his mind off his familial situation by throwing himself into project work for a local university. Although some of these chapters were interesting (e.g. chapters on the bombing of the cathedral itself), most of the time these little asides took me out of the flow of the story and I found my mind wandering off. Although I can understand why Moss included them, I just felt like they didn't capture me in the way they did for other people.
Overall though I am very happy that I read this book, and I will definitely be checking out more of Sarah Moss's work because I think her writing style is fantastic.