Adeline
4.25 Historical literary fiction following Tom, a young English man, who works as a shanker (fisherman), but dreams of becoming a folk singer; one day he encounters Edgar, a film director from Hollywood who hires him to show him potential locations for his next movie.
This was such a lovely little read. The writing was lush and evocative, the author did such a great job recreating the bleak seaside location, the hard and monotonous life of a fisherman. The setting made me remember of how a town on the Belgian coast is keeping this tradition (of shrimp fishing with horses) alive today. The atmosphere was perfectly damp like the moody sea weather, I loved the descriptions of the ghostly, claustrophobic and threatening presence of the fog on the beach. So this was a perfectly appropriate book for this wintery season. I really liked the slow burn character centric approach, that allows us to get into Tom’s thoughts, his aspirations and hopes, his desperation for another life. There was an emotional intelligence and positivity to Tom that made this a compelling and enriching read. I liked how the author discussed various themes on art, motherhood, tradition, family, choice, happiness, working class, ambition, etc The pacing itself was good though the ending and the characters’ arc resolutions felt a bit too abrupt, and I would have liked more fleshed out scenes with side characters. Overall a quick but very enjoyable atmospheric read.
4.25 Historical literary fiction following Tom, a young English man, who works as a shanker (fisherman), but dreams of becoming a folk singer; one day he encounters Edgar, a film director from Hollywood who hires him to show him potential locations for his next movie.
This was such a lovely little read. The writing was lush and evocative, the author did such a great job recreating the bleak seaside location, the hard and monotonous life of a fisherman. The setting made me remember of how a town on the Belgian coast is keeping this tradition (of shrimp fishing with horses) alive today. The atmosphere was perfectly damp like the moody sea weather, I loved the descriptions of the ghostly, claustrophobic and threatening presence of the fog on the beach. So this was a perfectly appropriate book for this wintery season. I really liked the slow burn character centric approach, that allows us to get into Tom’s thoughts, his aspirations and hopes, his desperation for another life. There was an emotional intelligence and positivity to Tom that made this a compelling and enriching read. I liked how the author discussed various themes on art, motherhood, tradition, family, choice, happiness, working class, ambition, etc The pacing itself was good though the ending and the characters’ arc resolutions felt a bit too abrupt, and I would have liked more fleshed out scenes with side characters. Overall a quick but very enjoyable atmospheric read.