Where the Crawdads Sing - Paean to the marsh

Don't you hate it when book descriptions are imprecise or inaccurate? I have avoided reading Where the Crawdads Sing because I was told it was mainly about an abusive father. An abusive father plays a role in the book, maybe a pivotal role, but he is not the most important character, and in fact, his part on the book's stage is small.

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Rather, the book is a love song to the marsh and the Marsh Girl. Delia Owens' lyrical writing about nature reminds me of Tracy Chevalier's At the Edge of the Orchard, or Remarkable Creatures, or Barbara Kingsolver's Flight Behavior or Prodigal Summer. Interestingly, Barbara Kingsolver has a degree in biology and Delia Owens is a zoologist.

The book is about survival - Kya, aka the Marsh Girl, is abandoned by everyone. Her mother leaves, then all her siblings leave, and finally, her abusive father leaves. She lives alone in a shack at the edge of a marsh in North Carolina - alone as in there were no other humans around. With only one day of formal schooling, and no adults to guide her, she survives. When she becomes a young woman, two men come into and out of her life, and she survives their betrayal, too.

Kya's best friends are the seagulls, the great blue heron (one of my favorite birds), and Cooper's Hawk. Owens describes the great blue heron as "the color of gray mist reflecting in blue water" who walks slowly "like a predacious bridesmaid" (Owens 109). Kya is so intimately attuned to the creatures who inhabit the marsh, she takes on some of their characteristics (read the book to find out what I mean). Kya observes the birds, insects, amphibians, and sea creatures and even mimics some of their behavior. Owens' writing almost has me scratching imaginary mosquito bites and feeling the cool mud on my feet -- it's that descriptive and engaging.

Like the best writers, her analogies and descriptions are original, yet with a veracity that makes them feel obvious. She describes the nearby town as "quite literally a backwater town, bits scattered here and there among the estuaries and reeds like an egret's nest flung by the wind" (Owens 32). And her analogies, similes, and metaphors reflect the natural world of the novel, so Kya is depicted as "trying to disappear like a bark beetle blending into the furrowed trunk of an oak" (Owens 45).

When her only real friend, Tate, teaches her to read, she reads this line: "there are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot" (Owens 125). Kya exclaims, "I wadn't aware that words could hold so much. I didn't know a sentence could be so full" (Owens 125). Indeed, I feel like Kya when I read the book - who knew sentences could be so full!

There is a plot, and it has enough twists and turns to keep the reader engaged. But the plot is not what made me love this book. The descriptions of the birds and Kya's relationship to the birds, how she crafts a life for herself, albeit lonely, and how she survives kept me riveted.

Have you read Where the Crawdads Sing? Did you love it as much as I do?!

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Owens, Delia. Where the Crawdads Sing. G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2018.

The Glass Ocean - three strong story lines by three admirable authors

Over the summer I'll blog on books I'm reading, highlight aspects of brilliance, and what I learn about writing by reading.

The Glass Ocean is a historical novel about three fascinating women. What is especially intriguing about this novel is that each of the three authors wrote one of the storylines--and they have not revealed who wrote which! It's a mystery I'm trying to unravel by reading their other books. The collaboration of Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White seamlessly meshes the storylines together, leading the reader riveted.

Three strong characters

Don't ask me which of the characters I like the most. If you did, I might say Tess, which surprises me because she is the least like me! Tess had an unconventional upbringing and uses her artistic skills to create forged paintings that get sold for a profit. She wants out of the "family business," but is strongly tied to her older sister--surprises abound there. Tess is aboard the Lusitania in 1915 to forge documents. 

Caroline is a debutante married to a wealthy steel magnate who is trying to outrun his humble upbringing and become part of New York's high society. She is also attracted to a male acquaintance from her home in the south.

Sarah is a historian whose first book, Small Potatoes, on the Irish potato famine, was a big hit, but five years later she hasn't written anything new, and paying for her elderly mother's care has drained her bank accounts.

Each of these women has a distinct, saucy or confident, sweet or serious, funny or surprising character. Their dialogue is unique to their character and their relationships reflect their values. Hmmm - maybe that's easier when you're only focusing on one character...

Three dynamic stories

Tess is participating in a scam; Caroline is fending off a potential lover and trying to rekindle love for her husband; Sarah is trying to make a comeback with a new book on her great-grandfather (who just happened to work on the Lusitania.

Who will get caught? Who will fall in love? Who will survive the German's torpedo striking the Lusitania? There is enough intrigue in each storyline to keep the reader engaged. Possibly Sarah's storyline has a bit less drama, but the romance plot keeps it going.

Pick-up-the-thread transitions

The triad of skilled authors creates a thread of transitions between the chapters, which alternate between the three characters. Read these examples:

End of chapter 10 - "Surrounded, you might say, by all his secrets"

Start of Chapter 11 - "With a flourish, Jones help up the pale pink silk tulle and linen tape lace afternoon dress, her expression like one who'd just exposed a secret."

End of Chapter 11 - "G. Forgive me."

Start of Chapter 12 - ""Pardon me," said Tess." 

End of Chapter 16 - "Don't mess with my Rubik's Cube while I'm gone..."

Start of Chapter 17 - "Caroline felt as if she were playing a game..."

Too much of this could become annoying, but I found myself looking forward to how they would connect one chapter to the next.

Reading the book convinced me, inspired me, to revisit my historical novel and introduce more trauma, conflict, and suspense to Joanna's storyline. A slave who escapes during the Revolutionary War has drama aplenty, but my biracial heroine in early 19th century England leads a charmed life. I'm going to make her life a bit more difficult!

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Williams, Beatriz, Lauren Willig, and Karen White. The Glass Ocean. William Morrow, 2018.