Ah, it was because it liked the Tesla story. Had trouble recalling who Samantha Hunt was, especially since this novel is nothing like The Invention of Everything Else and it certainly does not belong on a lust list, despite it's fantasies of lost loves. It belongs more rightly on the 2009 list of places, as does The Reliable Wife, the book club selection for January. Both of these books have a theme of "this place is driving me crazy."
The Seas takes place in remote northern coastal Maine. It is sort of like Shipping News in that it is set in a small fishing community where everyone knows everyone else and there basically is nothing to do. The poverty spawns alcoholism and insanity. The same family-based and almost inherited insanity that is the backdrop of The Reliable Wife and the citizens of Truitt, Wisconsin, isolated in a never-ending winter landscape.
In both there is a whisper of longed for abandoned love. In Maine, the author writes more Gothically and the nineteen year old heroine has probably lost her grip of reality for over a decade. Truitt in Wisconsin is more of a Shakespearean character -- doomed by the damnation of a religious fanatic mother, an adulterous wife and a community that blames him for his loses and loneliness. Maybe I just prefer the reality of the mid-West story to the dream like flow of the coastal Maine one. The "villains" are easier to hate; and redemption always trumps despair.
So tonight, in the never ending cold and snow and freezing rain of the Northeast, I will try to find a more lusty tale to warm my bones and spirit. Despite hearty soup, the weather feels like Ramadan or Lent, imposing a withdrawal from society that aligns too closely with these last two books. I need racing blood.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment