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Review
An aqueous affair, flooded with water themes . . . Hunt's writing is free of affectation and carries surprising conviction. --The New Yorker
[An] entrancing first novel. --San Francisco Chronicle
Keeps the reader consistently surprised and enthralled. --Books Quarterly
[An] entrancing first novel. --San Francisco Chronicle
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Looking at the book like that you could think that the scope of the book is too big, especially as the novel is a slim one, and somewhat surreal. Yet Samantha Hunt has created a rather magical, if a little melancholic, tale about loss and coming to terms with your own situation especially when it is not one of your choosing. As you read along you begin to realise that you aren't been given the straight forward story from the narrator, for example when people start to melt before her eyes, and so reality and her imagination inform your readers view of her world and just how she is coping with it, which doesn't always make sense initially but soon rings very true. There is also a real fluidity to her voice, and this is of course through the prose, which adds to the books watery and ethereal feel. I'm not sure that makes sense but if you read the book it might... maybe?
What I found rather surprising with this novel and what added incredible element was the story of Jude, the man our narrator obsesses over. Amongst all the named chapters there is `War Among The Mayflies' which is Jude's first hand telling of his time in Iraq and another mini short story of sorts within a story. I found this incredibly shocking and moving all in one. It seemed a very debut novel thing to do and cram a book with all an author's ideas and topics, yet it did feel very much part of the story and added a further dimension and poignancy to a stunningly written book.
`The Seas' may not have a whacking great plot running through it, and certainly not a linear one, yet it certainly has a heck of a lot to say and sometimes no plot is needed in a novel. It's a book filled with emotions which manages to say so much and affect its reader whilst being quite silent and subtle. It's a debut that takes several risks, the characters aren't instantly likeable, the feeling of melancholy throughout (though its not depressing there's very few comic breaks, but then why should there be?) and the sudden strand change of isolated North America to a war torn Iraq, yet all these risks pay off creating a rather brilliant and beautifully bizarre piece of fiction.
Jude, the man in question, is older, nearly twice her age. He returned from the Iraq War "a year and a half after the president declared the war was over." He had already served three years and seven months in the Army, but decided to stay at the front a bit longer. He needed the money. The bleak, Northeastern seaside town where they live has nothing to offer him, nor anyone else really. He doesn't own a fishing boat, which is the only way to make money in the tiny hamlet. Our mermaid is certain that Jude, now a hard drinking, womanizing sailor, is her prince. Jude, however, has problems of his own. Never having fully recovered from the traumas of battle - he was finally evacuated for Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome - he believes the young woman is forbidden to him. She is like a critical war secret he has been prohibited to reveal. "Like if I say your name or if I touch you, I'd get court-martialed, found guilty, and executed."
Ms. Hunt's narrative is sparse and somewhat random in nature, according to her protagonist's apparent whims. It almost reads like a personal journal, with chapter titles for each entry. A literary work, "The Seas" is hauntingly beautiful with lyrical, almost ethereal prose and filled with ocean imagery. An atmosphere of melancholy permeates, with mystical, fantastical elements. The young woman's angst, and the sorrows of her wounded warrior, wrench the heart. There is dark humor here also. "All mermaids do is swim around and kill sailors. Not a great job."
The characters are brilliantly portrayed, including the grandfather who is obsessed with typesetting a dictionary. He gives his granddaughter words and definitions to ponder throughout, and the story is filled with typographical games. He discovers a word in a Russian English dictionary, "razbliuto." He says there is no English equivalent. "The word means, the feelings one retains for someone he once loved," he explains, and challenges his listeners to come up with an English one word meaning. When everyone fails, the old man continues, "It's like the little house love moved out of, maybe a hermit crab moves in and carries the house across the floor of a tidal pool. The lover sees the old love moving and it looks like it's alive again." This is a poignant novel, and sometimes painful. Don't let that put you off. "The Seas" mesmerizes. It is a fabulous tale and is so worth the read. I loved this book!
Samantha Hunt has been twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has been published in the anthology Trampoline, McSweeney's, Colorado Review, Jubilat, The Literary Review, The Iowa Review, Western Humanities Review, NewMediaPoets.com, and has appeared on NPR's "This American Life."
JANA
The supernaturally inflected, often dream-like story describes her troubled friendship with a local war veteran (and alcoholic)and their attempts to make sense of their lives and perhaps to find some way out of their situations. More of a novella than a novel, and perhaps more of a modern fairy tale than a novel, The Seas leaves a long-lasting and powerful, if hard to encapsulate, impression on the reader's imagination and own dreams.
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