December 14, 2023 | ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT | By Greta Patterson
When people learn that I usually read between four to six books every Block for fun, they tend to assume I either have no social life or only take easy classes. While there are times that one, or both, of those are true, reading books for fun is essential. It reminds me why I love reading, just maybe not reading 200-pages on the different types of columns found in Italy. With all that said, let’s get into the review.
For Block 4, the true standout book and now one of my favorites of all time was “Our Wives Under the Sea” by Julia Armfield. Armfield is a young author, born in 1990, based out of London. This is her second published book, with her first work being “Salt Slow,” a collection of short stories about women and their experiences in society.
“Our Wives Under the Sea” is a short book – only 240-pages (even you can get through that in a Block) – and follows Miri and Leah, a couple who have been reunited after Leah’s deep sea diving crew went missing for six months. Miri knows that Leah has changed, yet Leah can’t bring herself to speak about the events that occurred under the sea, making this novel a compelling mystery I couldn’t put down.
This book is the definition of a slow burn, with the reader never fully knowing what happened under the sea or what is wrong with Leah. While I usually find slow burns annoying (short attention span, I know), this book did a phenomenal job of keeping me hooked, drawing me in as I wanted to discover more about Leah’s mysterious journey. The style of writing is essentially prose, as every word and sentence are beautifully written and doesn’t always follow the usual sentence structure of a traditional novel.
While the story gets weird at points, the overall weirdness is intriguing and quite interesting. Additionally, the swapping perspective between Leah and Miri makes the relationship and narrative deeply intimate. I also found the use of time intriguing, as the narrative essentially goes throughout time with Leah recalling events in the submarine as well as experiences she has had since being back on land.
There is also some recalling of Leah and Miri as a couple before the incident; allowing the readers to get to know the pair a little better. I will warn you now, the ending had me both in tears and jaw-dropped, I still don’t know if I’ve fully recovered. It was heart wrenching, beautiful, sad, understandable and mysterious. The novel doesn’t shy away from usurping your expectations of what a novel is supposed to do, making it exceptionally refreshing.
So as to not just give the book sheer praise, I will say I found certain parts to be too slow and some sections were quite repetitive towards the end. I could see someone struggling to finish this book for it is vague in certain parts and at other times leaves unanswered questions. This isn’t exactly what you always want out of a compelling novel. Another thing I found frustrating was the swapping narration, only because there were times I wanted to hear more from one of the characters and wasn’t able to.
But who knows, maybe that’s the point of the book: to not answer all the questions. Some Goodreads reviews seem to dislike Miri’s character, finding her unnecessary as the main transformation and plot surrounds Leah. On one end, I agree with this as she isn’t necessarily as “interesting” as Leah, but I also think she adds an important perspective in the book as she represents the realities of grief over losing those you love.
The book is, in short, a haunting and heartbreaking work that examines themes of loss, grief, trauma and the need to let the people we love go. To quote one Goodreads review, “this sh*t magical.”