Customer Reviews

Time and Tide

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Edna O'Brien has written a novel so bleak and despairing I'd call it a book to cut your wrists by. Is the experience of womanhood all about pain, deprivation and loss ? Is there no joy in the bargain ? You wouldn't think so, judging by the experience of Nell. The cruelty of her husband drives her to seek emotional refuge in her two sons but when they leave the nest, she turns in desperation to a series of unreliable lovers who bring her more misery. The relentless feeling of despair beating upon Nell reaches its climax when she loses Paddy, but by then, the reader is too numb to care. It doesn't help that O'Brien's prose is often dense and turgid. Some critics call it poetic or lyrical, which may be so, but the jerkiness of some of the episodes (eg, in the middle section, with her lovers) makes the narrative difficult to follow. It is sometimes even hard to tell who she's writing about. Her characterisation is also weak, though this may be deliberate. O'Brien isn't interested in anybody other than Nell. The supporting cast of characters are only there to help create the soundtrack playing through Nell's mind. The message that O'Brien delivers on motherhood isn't redemptive either. Paddy's and Tristan's alienation from Nell is, not surprisingly, reminiscent of Nell's estrangement from her own mother. The horror of Nell's emotional existence reaches a crescendo when she stares at a half crazed baglady one day on the streets and sees the ravaged face of her once young housemaid, Rita. There is no more powerful image depicting the madness and despair that will take hold of Nell. "Time and Tide" is emotionally exhausting to read. It isn't quite the artistic failure it is made out to be, but O'Brien could have lightened her touch a tad ! This is not a book for everyone.

Edna O'Brien is a different style writer then I am used to. She has a kind of poetic style in her writing which made it way to confusing to keep up with. I understood the points that she was trying to make and the gist of the story. I think 90% of the book was a lot of mumble jumble. Didn't interest me in the least, but I wanted to read it through till the end but was very disapointed.

"Time and Tide" is an excellent literary novel, very emotional in style and essence. I was deeply touched by this book, and I am very grateful to one of my friends for recommending me Edna O'Brien as an author. Snip: (...)

This was my first Edna O'Brien read, undoubtably, my last. Too choppy, the characters were poorly illustrated, (don't think I could tell you what Nell or either of her sons even looked like), each chapter took place in a different venue, presenting with a different emotion, a different character. The story lacked a sense of flow and a sense of purpose. I thought at about the 50 page mark to shelf the book; tried to convince myself that the story would improve. It NEVER did. It was terminally long on words, short on substance. As a mother , I could imagine Nell's desparation, but had not a speck of sympathy for her. She was a screw up. Nell is the reason some people should never have kids. Her character was frustratingly irritating, not just in her maternal role, but in her role as a daughter, as a wife, (did she have a friend?, a job, what'd she do everyday?), and as a woman in general. Nell was too much to endure on her own, let alone the added obstacles of lack of defined storyline, etc. Get lost Nell.

This book did not live up to a previous read "The House of Splendid Isolation", which was mysterious and adventurous. Although I like the fact that O'Brien challenges her readers and makes one search out and think about the mysteries at hand, I found O'Brien's writing style to be too confusing and ambiguous this time. She used pronouns indiscrimately without making a reference to the subject even in the previous paragraph. The writing style was so mixed. After Nell began using drugs the writing became "stream of consciousness" quite a bit; one para of a chapter was even written in the second person while the rest of the book was in 3rd person except for "soc" mentioned above. Motivations were lacking, thus some of the characters were archetyal and cliched such as Nell's husband, Rita the young housemaid, and even Nell's mother to some extent. Part iV where Paddy drowns, was too tragic, grief-stricken, and morose to even read it all. I skimmed as if "peeking through my hands" at a scary or chilling movie. I thought the descriptions and characterizations of the sons was well done and I could empathize with the vacillations of feelings between sons and mother. Nell was a real character who had lots of flaws, whom you could love yet criticize for her poor choices motivated by heart rather than head.