The Sea Lady

i've had my problems with margaret drabble over the years, probably because i loved her earliest books (which i discovered in my 20s) with such passionate intensity, the flame was bound to flicker (or should i say, the tide was bound to ebb...). in fact, i wondered, on beginning TSL, if i'd even bother to see it thru to the end. if i were still in my 20s, i might not have persevered. but see it thru i did, and i'm delighted to have done so. TSL is indeed a slowish sort of novel, not for the impatient or the very young, but a novel so full of glimmering insights--about relationships, about growing old, about love, sex, culture, and anything else one might care to seek insights about--and dazzling language that i felt renewed and positively weepy upon finishing it (5 minutes ago!). so, perhaps not for everyone, but very much for me. thank you, margaret drabble.

As always Margaret Drabble has given us a thought provoking, beautifully written story about the connections, often brief and ultimately failed, between her protagonists. Yet in the end, forgiveness and a kind of love remain. Her narrator is the unnamed Public Orator (at least until the end and even then remains mysterious) who describes the lives of the two main characters from childhood to middle age. The sea and sealife are used as the main metaphor in a most effective manner. Margaret Drabble is one of the few authors whose books I read as soon as a new one comes out, and this one did not disappoint.

I wish I could find a more imaginative way to endorse this delightfully inventive novel. Initially, I was impatient with the slow pace of the second chapter, and I also found the Public Orator to be intrusive and unnecessary. I wanted Humphrey and Ailsa to get together more quickly than they did. However, once I trusted the author, and was able to read the novel on its own terms, I began to like it better and better. I realized the value of the Public Orator only at the end of the novel when I knew more about him. Although I am not especially interested in fish, the descriptions of them also grew on me. I liked the sea squirts who were born with spines, and then lost them over time. I liked the spiffy fish who apparently committed suicide, rather than remaining confined in a tank. I liked the depictions of childhood, and of approaching old age, and the theme of how to come to terms with one's life after most of it is over. I found The Sea Lady to be surprisingly reassuring. (Sorry about the wretchedly irregular lines. This is the best my computer could do -- and I tried.)

If you fell in love with Drabble's novels while reading her early material from the 1970's, then you might not be as enthusiastic about this work. It's an uneven novel, but contains some of the loveliest evocations of childhood I think I've ever read. The novel is also, in part, a love letter to English coastal regions. Also I found the main characters, Ailsa and Humphrey, delightful. If you like witty dialogue and surprising plot twists, you'll love this. And quite honestly, I have no idea what the other earlier reviewer is talking about with "anti-Americanism." Is he/she writing about a completely different book?