ben_parker's review
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
neil_denham's review
2.0
Glad that I no longer have to spend any more time in this mans head.
Do fancy visiting Coventry Cathedral though.
Do fancy visiting Coventry Cathedral though.
thisotherbookaccount's review
4.0
Follow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/thisotherbookaccount
Humans are bags of water and blood. Children are that too, but smaller and even easier to break. They could die from a peanut allergy you don’t know about, walk into a van while you aren’t looking, choke on a pancake during breakfast, get mauled by a neighbour’s dog or, if you’re in the US, shot in the classroom.
Children are not good for my anxiety, so I can imagine what the family in this book has to go through after the elder daughter collapses and stops breathing.
This is a slice-of-life look at how a family makes sense of a shocking event, even if it doesn’t always have answers. We never find out why Miriam collapses and stops breathing. The family, then, has to live with the fear of the daughter dying for real next time, if the condition is genetic in nature, if the other daughter will eventually suffer the same fate — all while maintaining (or trying to) a sense of normalcy around the house. But is ‘normalcy’ normal? What tragedies are other families carrying that we don’t know about? I am not a parent, but Moss’ writing draws out the worst nightmare of every parent and how an event like that can drive a wedge straight through a family and an otherwise happy marriage.
Moss also made an interesting choice of telling the story from the perspective of a stay-at-home father. Big chunks of this book are about the father preparing breakfast, checking in on the daughter, doing the laundry, picking the daughter up from school, bringing the other daughter for her follow up — you get the idea. It’s domestic life brought to life on the page in wonderful, nuanced details.
My only complaint is that there are chapters in this book about the rebuilding of a bombed cathedral, which runs parallel to the main narrative. I see what Moss is trying to do. She’s trying to compare the rebuilding of a cathedral with the rebuilding of a family. However, once you figure out what she’s trying to do, those chapters become really boring articles from the latest issue of Architecture Digest.
This book is a little too long, but I am happy to have discovered a new author whose works I cannot wait to dive into.
Humans are bags of water and blood. Children are that too, but smaller and even easier to break. They could die from a peanut allergy you don’t know about, walk into a van while you aren’t looking, choke on a pancake during breakfast, get mauled by a neighbour’s dog or, if you’re in the US, shot in the classroom.
Children are not good for my anxiety, so I can imagine what the family in this book has to go through after the elder daughter collapses and stops breathing.
This is a slice-of-life look at how a family makes sense of a shocking event, even if it doesn’t always have answers. We never find out why Miriam collapses and stops breathing. The family, then, has to live with the fear of the daughter dying for real next time, if the condition is genetic in nature, if the other daughter will eventually suffer the same fate — all while maintaining (or trying to) a sense of normalcy around the house. But is ‘normalcy’ normal? What tragedies are other families carrying that we don’t know about? I am not a parent, but Moss’ writing draws out the worst nightmare of every parent and how an event like that can drive a wedge straight through a family and an otherwise happy marriage.
Moss also made an interesting choice of telling the story from the perspective of a stay-at-home father. Big chunks of this book are about the father preparing breakfast, checking in on the daughter, doing the laundry, picking the daughter up from school, bringing the other daughter for her follow up — you get the idea. It’s domestic life brought to life on the page in wonderful, nuanced details.
My only complaint is that there are chapters in this book about the rebuilding of a bombed cathedral, which runs parallel to the main narrative. I see what Moss is trying to do. She’s trying to compare the rebuilding of a cathedral with the rebuilding of a family. However, once you figure out what she’s trying to do, those chapters become really boring articles from the latest issue of Architecture Digest.
This book is a little too long, but I am happy to have discovered a new author whose works I cannot wait to dive into.
rebuiltbybooks's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
nadiandr's review
3.0
Stories have endings; that’s why we tell them, for reassurance that there is meaning in our lives. But like a diagnosis, a story can become a prison, a straight road mapped out by the people who went before. Stories are not the truth.
Begin with brokenness. Begin again. We are not all, not only, the characters written by our ancestors. I have told my stories now, and we are still here, and the day is hardly begun.
Begin with brokenness. Begin again. We are not all, not only, the characters written by our ancestors. I have told my stories now, and we are still here, and the day is hardly begun.
_dunno_'s review
4.0
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."
athenamatisse's review against another edition
5.0
What a brilliant story.
An exposé of modern middle class english life.
Complicated stuff the author has simplified in words but not in meaning. A satisfying reading experience.
An exposé of modern middle class english life.
Complicated stuff the author has simplified in words but not in meaning. A satisfying reading experience.
dieweltinbuechern's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
betweenbookends's review against another edition
4.0
4.5/5 :)
This book is such an incredible exploration of what it means to be alive. There's the constant argument of how inconsequential, insignificant our lives are in the grand scale of things and yet how ridiculously self important we feel. Sarah Moss doesn't shy away from being very current in her setting and story. Certain references I felt were very British and went over my head, but besides a few rare sections, it didn't in any way inhibit my reading pleasure of this book. And the writing is just stunning. This book is an experience, I felt myself living and breathing with the characters and it feels like they are carrying on with their own lives but I just am not reading about them anymore. Read it, read it. Read it.
This book is such an incredible exploration of what it means to be alive. There's the constant argument of how inconsequential, insignificant our lives are in the grand scale of things and yet how ridiculously self important we feel. Sarah Moss doesn't shy away from being very current in her setting and story. Certain references I felt were very British and went over my head, but besides a few rare sections, it didn't in any way inhibit my reading pleasure of this book. And the writing is just stunning. This book is an experience, I felt myself living and breathing with the characters and it feels like they are carrying on with their own lives but I just am not reading about them anymore. Read it, read it. Read it.
kitty_kat21's review against another edition
2.0
One of the biggest disappointments of the year. The first chapter was amazing but that was it. I HATED Miriam, she is the most pretentious teenager ever. I strongly disliked Adam and his stay-at-home father martyrdom. I skipped over the boring cathedral parts and fumed over the derogatory commentary on the working class. Basically any one who works at a nursery school or a worker in a leisure centre is uneducated and we must not be like them at all costs. This whole book epitomises FIRST WORLD MIDDLE CLASS PROBLEMS and I just was so over it. Adam's wife is a GP and so he shamelessly jumps the queue for test results or consultations with specialists, above people who actually have severely sick children and need the NHS because they have no other option. Ugh this book just made me feel icky and it is the embodiment of everything that is wrong with British society. A state of the nation book indeed.