The Luminous Sea - a review
There is no doubt that Melissa Barbeau’s debut novel The Luminous Sea deserves to be a Winterset Award nominee and finalist, along with Robert Chafe’s play Between Breaths and Ebb & Flow by winner Heather Smith. At the public reading of the shortlisted works the evening before the winner was announced, I was intrigued by the story which seemed to mix science fact and science fiction and thought I’d give it a try. I’m glad I did.
The story begins with a young marine researcher, Vivienne, out on the bay collecting research samples from the bay for a project trying to determine why the reasons for the recent phosphorescent tides in Damson Bay. She captures a creature, some kind of fish or other marine animal, that appears to be unique. Sounds like the start to any of a number of Alien-type movies.
But The Luminous Sea is not about some monstrous beast from the unknown destroying anyone and anything it comes into contact with. Barbeau weaves science and magic to (re)tell a very old and very human story of lust, compassion, failure, and redemption, in a compelling and beautiful way.
Barbeau’s writing is deceptive. Waves don’t tell you anything about what is happening underneath. You have to push down against the buoyancy get to the depths, using the words as dive weights, sinking further into the story and letting what lies below change what you thought the surface was telling you. And the surface can be lyrical, poetic, and evocative:
A lovely passage very early in the book, the second chapter. But it is actually an undertow, an uncertain and dangerous current that runs under the surface of the next 200 pages.
This is a book that must be read thoughtfully. To do otherwise would be to miss much of the pleasure this story delivers. And the writing is meant to be savoured.
Verdict: Even if this doesn’t sound like what you would normally read, pick this up. You won’t be disappointed.
The Luminous Sea is published by Breakwater Books.
The story begins with a young marine researcher, Vivienne, out on the bay collecting research samples from the bay for a project trying to determine why the reasons for the recent phosphorescent tides in Damson Bay. She captures a creature, some kind of fish or other marine animal, that appears to be unique. Sounds like the start to any of a number of Alien-type movies.
But The Luminous Sea is not about some monstrous beast from the unknown destroying anyone and anything it comes into contact with. Barbeau weaves science and magic to (re)tell a very old and very human story of lust, compassion, failure, and redemption, in a compelling and beautiful way.
Barbeau’s writing is deceptive. Waves don’t tell you anything about what is happening underneath. You have to push down against the buoyancy get to the depths, using the words as dive weights, sinking further into the story and letting what lies below change what you thought the surface was telling you. And the surface can be lyrical, poetic, and evocative:
“It is the kind of glassy night when sound travels miles across the surface of the sea; the air a crystal wineglass, susceptible to the slightest flick of a fingertip. The kind of night you might hear the sigh of lovers on the breeze, or the sound of a last breath.”
A lovely passage very early in the book, the second chapter. But it is actually an undertow, an uncertain and dangerous current that runs under the surface of the next 200 pages.
This is a book that must be read thoughtfully. To do otherwise would be to miss much of the pleasure this story delivers. And the writing is meant to be savoured.
Verdict: Even if this doesn’t sound like what you would normally read, pick this up. You won’t be disappointed.
The Luminous Sea is published by Breakwater Books.
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