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Patty
Rating:
 
Review
In Seaboro, South Carolina, 12-yr. old Catherine (Cappy) Leary is in charge of 2-yr. old Sam while their close families prepare for the annual summer crab cook by the river. When Cappy's attention is drawn away, Sam playfully heads to the end of the dock, jumps in, and drowns. The book opens with Catherine on her 30th birthday, in the small college town to which they moved eighteen years earlier. Her father's recent passing left Catherine with a request she must honor, to return to Seaboro to strew his ashes over the river he loved so much. Old wounds are re-opened. Between the Tides is a very moving tale. It carefully explores the complications of a tragedy no one wanted to discuss, especially Catherine. Sam's drowning destroyed friendships, and left Catherine believing she was solely responsible. In Seaboro, Catherine discovers the truth and herself. The writing is beautiful, filled with metaphoric phrases and imagery, and rich references to the literature her professor father taught. Every word is carefully crafted, and each chapter is introduced with a quote by a famous author or poet.
Best Line:
"Sometimes," Alice said, "just sometimes we have to discover the truth about the past to discover our future." and "I have spread my dreams under your feet. Tread softly because you tread on my dreams." Y. B. Yeats.
Kim
Rating:
Review
Catherine Leary is not my kind of heroine. She is 30 years old, and has carried an incredible amount of guilt, shame, anger, self-loathing, fear and sadness around for the past 18 years, and all due to a tragic accident when she was a child. Unfortunately Catherine doesn't have parents that are particularly nurturing and supportive either, and she grew up in a household where quite a lot was never talked about, including the accidental drowning of a neighbor boy and Catherine's role in that, or for that matter, why her parents chose to leave their seaside home abruptly after the accident. There is more to this story than meets the eye though, with a side commotion going on with Catherine and boyfriend Thurman, and Catherine's history with her father's teaching assistant, Forrest. No big surprise that Catherine is the common denominator here, as she is the main character, but half way into the book I realized that if I had as much drama going on in my life as Catherine does, I'd take up pill-popping with Stoli chasers. The story moves along and is well written, but the characters were a turn off for me.
Best Line:
"He touched my check, whispered, "The right thing at the wrong time is never the right thing."
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