When I first saw Sea Changes, by Gail Graham, sitting on my table, I had a moment of terror mingled with anticipation. If this book is any good, I thought, then it’s going to be a great one to share. But if not…that’s 400 pages of reading I just won’t get back!
Yeah, I know, it wasn’t really a great attitude. But my reading time is a precious commodity lately. Reading is an outlet for me, and one of my favorite hobbies. That said, my life is pretty, ahem, full right now.
Silly me. My worry was needless.
For one thing, the main character’s name is Sarah. How could I not love her?
OK, seriously, one thing I enjoyed about this book, immensely, was the character development. Some pretty far-fetched things happen in Sea Changes, but it all works in the context. Graham paints a world of despair, and then…and then she inserts hope. Her characters are so real I found myself dreaming about them. (I think, in one of the dreams, I was throttling Felicity, but we won’t go into that.) At the end of the book, I found myself wondering if there would be a sequel…and I hate sequels. (But, in the present climate of series of books, some of the series very well-written, I’m getting more accepting of them.)
Sea Changes is the kind of book that would make for excellent summer reading. In it, I got a glimpse of life in Australia from an American’s point of view, and I enjoyed it. It was the sort of glimpse that comes from spying, from a hidden camera, and not from being told. For example, have you considered lately just how ingrained, in your American sensibilities, the philosophy of “innocent until proven guilty” is, how it forms a foundation for how we approach our lives? That makes it sound unentertaining, I suppose, but it wasn’t, not in the least.
If you’re looking for a good novel (or even if you’re not), let me recommend Sea Changes. You can learn more about Gail Graham at her website and you can read the first chapter of Sea Changes here. Enjoy!
