February Read

I'm not generally a reader of contemporary literary fiction - with a few notable exceptions, such as A. S. Byatt's Possession or Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace; I prefer to let a few decades go by, to read a number of reviews, and generally delay until the novel is no longer contemporary.

However, I recently picked up Lisa Moore's February because, in some way, this novel touched a chord for me. It may have been the fine reviews or the regional setting, but it was probably the focus on the Ocean Ranger disaster that decided me. I do admit to a certain - fascination - with sea disasters. I think it has something to do with the near inevitability of death despite ongoing health and activity. This novel promised to explore the very elements of sea disasters that I find both fascinating and impossible to fully grasp. I was hooked, but I fully expected to set the novel aside after reading a few pages and to wait the requisite decade before picking it up again - at which time I would surely enjoy it.

So, it was much to my surprise that I found that the novel was splendid - right now. It managed to deeply canvass the ongoing effects of grief - for individuals, families, communities - without ever self-indulgently dwelling on that emotion. People carried out their lives, healed - or didn't heal - in their own ways, with the disaster and its corresponding losses underpinning every act both inevitably and silently.

I am now looking forward to reading Alligator, her earlier, award-winning novel. Perhaps I will have to begin reading new pieces more expeditiously - I'm clearly delaying gratification far too long.