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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"All that you left behind was more than I was before.", December 2, 2010
This review is from: Sea Change: A Novel (Hardcover)
In one moment of tragedy, a man's life is forever altered, the perfect future with wife and child vanishing into the realm of memory. Five years later, Guy is adrift in the world and on the North Sea in a ninety-foot Dutch coastal barge, hoping to find in this new wilderness that which has eluded him on land. In fragments of past, present, and the imagining of a future undamaged by the randomness of fate, Page strips to the marrow a man yearning for continuity between past and present, from the fens of East Anglia to the landscape of America's rural south to the drift of the North Sea and the uncharted depths of an emotional abyss. From the morning of the freak accident that shatters his life with wife, Judy, and daughter, Freya, Guy finds temporary solace in his barge's isolated cabin, each night diligently melding past and what might have been.
Hope arrives unexpectedly, as it usually does, in the form of another vessel and its occupants, an opportunity for Guy to reach beyond the stasis of his emotions and embrace another reality than his current fractured existence. Between the three elements of the novel, the accident, the drifting present and the nightly diaries, Page creates a seamless narrative where truth changes shape and intention, where Guy discovers a link between his most cherished child and the world around him. Anything is possible in the netherworld Guy inhabits, even the lessening of pain and the joy of reunion. That Page plumbs such emotional depth without a touch of the maudlin makes this story a moving and thought-provoking experience. Luan Gaines/2010.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A Seafarer Unsuccessfully Tries to Escape Depression, December 19, 2010
This sad story is a character study of a man suffering depression over the loss of his 5-year-old daughter in a tragic accident and the way he has dealt with it for the five years since. To maintain his sanity, he has kept a false diary of daily life with his wife and daughter as if the daughter had never died and his wife had never left him soon after. His life is a disaster since then so the fake diary entries he writes every night are all he has to not want to end his own life.
The ending of the book is totally enigmatic except for the fact that he apparently works out his depression over his daughter's death, but may have developed depression over some other lost love or possible life possibility. His fantasy world begins to come together with his real life and a new world emerges with the meeting of a woman a decade older and her daughter a decade younger. What becomes of his real life is, as I said, enigmatic. Is there some meaning to the new direction in his later writings? Was he killed by wild animals, which would relate to his daughter's fate? Did he assume a new identity and form a new life? Did he commit suicide? I hope someone will answer these questions and a light bulb will turn on in my head because I'm definitely missing cohesion in the story line after reading this dreary tale that so intriguingly seemed to otherwise be building to something special.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Higest Praise, January 11, 2012
I felt very noble when I decided to read Sea Change by Jeremy Page. It was clear even from the summary, that this was a reflective, intelligent book. There are times when I enjoy reading books like that. This isn't really one of them. I want to be entertained. However, I decided to give it a fair shot. The book is extraordinary. I don't think I have it in me to explain how Mr. Page can illuminate both the beauty and pain of a single moment. I was captivated from the beginning, held in suspense by his deceptively leisurely narration.
In 2010, shortly after the book was released, Washington Post staff writer Ron Charles wrote, "As introspective and painful as "Sea Change" is, it remains engaging and even surprising all the way to the end. Page knows enough about real grief to be aware follows no regular stages." I take issue only with one thing that Mr. Charles said. "This is a difficult book to recommend - a voyage into dark waters all of us want to avoid - but if something about the description resonates with you, seek it out; it won't lead you astray."
It's true that the subject matter is painful, but the story is so beautiful, the main character's grief so authentic, I can't help but recommend it. It's not light reading, and I hate endings that leave major questions unanswered, but the story will stay with me. In my estimation, that earns it highest praise.
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