A Book A Week

"I've lived my whole life with a land mind. Thinking land thoughts. But I want to think sea thoughts. I want to have a sea mind."

What defines a summer read? For me, summer reading is a mindset, a shift to addictive page-turners that pull on my emotions through either strong character drama or twisty thrills. I think a good summer read should also have some relationship to the season. That could be as simple as a book taking place in the summer or even just a tropical or vacation-like setting. The best even have both. As I've had more time to read than ever before (thanks COVID-19), I've ventured into the kinds of books I normally wouldn't read. Usually, my reading time is so limited that I choose books that I'm certain I will love. Now I have the time to explore those titles that I would normally be on the fence about. As the summer reading season begins to set in, I've vowed to be more adventurous and try to redefine what a summer read means to me.

Sea Wife by Amity Gaige is the perfect starting point for this endeavor. I mean, look at that lush tropical landscape on the cover! I'd much rather be exploring that island than being quarantined at my house, but at least I can turn to a book to transport me there. Sea Wife adheres to some of my preconceptions of a summer read while simultaneously redefining them.  This is the literary tale of a family who decides to escape the banality of suburban life by purchasing a sailboat and sailing across the waters of the Caribbean. It combines the adventure of a high seas expedition with the more intimate reflections of family life and the drama that comes within. In short, a truly riveting read that won't soon be forgotten.

"Sometimes life just writes you tiny, awful poems."

Juliet traded her dreams of earning her advanced degree in poetry for a life as a wife and mother. Her life just turned out so conventional and ordinary. She was a bright student brimming with promise when she met Michael. One marriage and two children later, and Juliet just couldn't get around to finishing her dissertation. She kept pushing out the deadline until it could be pushed no more. Finally, she had to succumb to the inevitable. The life she planned to live wasn't going the be the life she was given. That's a hard fact for a woman with a history of depressive episodes to face. Her marriage is beginning to strain under the pressure of her perennial disappointment, and Juliet is not sure things can be saved. Then Michael comes to her with a crazy idea.

Michael has a life that most men would envy. He's got a good enough job, a beautiful wife, two healthy kids, and a house in a nice enough neighborhood. Still, he can't shake the feeling that something is missing. His marriage isn't what it used to be, and he fears he is wasting the best years of his life. Inspired by fond childhood memories of sailing with his father, Michael uses his lunch breaks to escape to the local marina. He stares out at the boats, recollecting and wishing for something more. At the marina, Michael befriends an elderly man who quickly takes to talking about boats, the open sea, and the life that could be. Eventually, he presents his plan to Juliet. They can buy a sailboat, take a year off of work, and sail with the family to Panama. Life at sea would give them a chance to break from the rut of their lives, show their children a different part of the world, and maybe even help them begin to mend their broken relationship. Juliet hesitantly agrees. After all, life can't get much worse than what it already is.

"This is it. This is what a life is. A journey with no signposts. The seas roll out in every direction. There but for the grace of God."

In Sea Wife, Amity Gaige writes of a family's emotional journey that is as harrowing as the physical journey they have undertaken. In fact, the adventure at sea can almost be seen as a kind of analogy to the internal story of Juliet and Michael's emotional exploration. Gaige reveals her narrative from two separate perspectives.  The first is of present-day Juliet reflecting upon her time at sea. She is in one of her depressive states spending her days in the bedroom closet, struggling to deal with the ramifications of the family's time at sea. Nestled into this perspective is that of Michael in the form of a captain's log that Juliet is slowly reading. In this log, Gaige presents the time at sea as it chronologically unfolds, allowing her two divergent threads to slowly make their way to convergence. She veils her challenging, emotional story into that of a seafaring adventure, the kind of read that I normally gravitate to this time of year. This combination allows Sea Wife to be both a page-turner and intimate character study, the likes of which had me facing emotions I wasn't prepared to feel. I think I related more to this story because of our current quarantine situation. It was hard not to sympathize with a four-person family confined to the small space of a sailboat. It is safe to say that Sea Wife has helped me to challenge my own perception of what constitutes a summer read by forcing me to expand them. I still need the adventure and the strong character drama, but now I'm more apt to seek out the more introspective emotional aspects too. For that reason, I think Sea Wife is a must-read for any serious summer reader.

For more information visit the author's website, Amazon, and Goodreads.
(2020, 22)