Image Credit: The Library Thing
The Girl of the Sea of Cortez by Peter Benchley is a strange book. The kind of book which makes you want to sit on the fence and not decide whether you completely hate it or love it.
Here's why: The Girl is Paloma who at 16 is in love with the sea and all creatures that live in it. If God appeared before her and said he would grant only one wish to her - then that wish, without doubt, would be "gills" so that she can stay inside the sea as long as she wants, watching an ecosystem as yet undiscovered by anyone on the island on which she lives. For Paloma, watching this fantastic well balanced ecosystem on her "father's" sea-mount is a very special secret, a secret to be shared only between her, the sea and her dead father.
Her father, when alive also a lover of the sea and its inhabitants, made sure to well equip Paloma with all the necessary tools - a pirogue (a type of boat), a snorkel mask, breathing techniques which helped her stay under water for long periods and most importantly to read "signs'. Signs both from within her body signaling her when it was time to go up and out of the water for fresh breath and also signs within the sea as to when it was safe to linger beneath the sea and when to get away as quickly as possible. When this special secret is discovered and threatened to absolute destruction by her lets-make-money-real-quick fisherman-brother Jo, she gets help from unexpected quarters - her "best friend" from the sea.
Her father, when alive also a lover of the sea and its inhabitants, made sure to well equip Paloma with all the necessary tools - a pirogue (a type of boat), a snorkel mask, breathing techniques which helped her stay under water for long periods and most importantly to read "signs'. Signs both from within her body signaling her when it was time to go up and out of the water for fresh breath and also signs within the sea as to when it was safe to linger beneath the sea and when to get away as quickly as possible. When this special secret is discovered and threatened to absolute destruction by her lets-make-money-real-quick fisherman-brother Jo, she gets help from unexpected quarters - her "best friend" from the sea.
The Girl also has these very vivid descriptions of sea-life (a whole world going on down there in the sea) which is almost like watching one of those nature channel shows on TV - a show where, what happens in one second is drawn out and showed over several minutes - except you are watching it in your mind's eye here, not on TV. Paloma when alone in middle of the sea on her father's sea-mount is very alive and happiest, but when she is back home with her mother and other women of the island doing "womenly chores" she becomes a different person, a persecuted self, faking interest in what she is doing. This contrast is what touched me most personally. For I too have had to listen to useless and to me torturous gossip of women when getting chores done. And I too am happiest when left alone with my 'sea' of books.
One thing I must warn about The Girl is that large parts of this book is either told in flashback style with little to no conversations or has long paragraphs describing the vibrant sea-life which can make for pretty boring or drab read. However, Peter Benchley very cleverly and beautifully weaves in Paloma's personal life story. The story about her mother, brother, grandfather and her deceased father into what is essentially a sea-description book. That said would I recommend this book to a friend to read? Honestly, I don't know.
One thing I must warn about The Girl is that large parts of this book is either told in flashback style with little to no conversations or has long paragraphs describing the vibrant sea-life which can make for pretty boring or drab read. However, Peter Benchley very cleverly and beautifully weaves in Paloma's personal life story. The story about her mother, brother, grandfather and her deceased father into what is essentially a sea-description book. That said would I recommend this book to a friend to read? Honestly, I don't know.
Peter Benchley also wrote Jaws based on which a blockbuster movie was made with the same name.
Verdict: Form your own opinion
Rating: 2.5/5
This indeed sounds like a confusing book to make up your mind about... :s
ReplyDeleteOur eight-year-old daughter wouldn't agree about it being a dull read! She's normally more a Hobbit and Dark Materials sort of reader, but I thought it'd be nice to read to her for a change and she's fallen in love with this book.
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