I'm a bit torn with my feelings toward this book. On the one hand, it was a really good story, well-written and atmospheric, with a unique narrative structure that alternates between the first person perspective of Juliet Partlow (the "sea wife" from the title) and that of her husband Michael through his captain's logbook. After buying a sailboat, Michael decides to quit his job as an insurance agent and convinces his wife Juliet, along with their 2 young kids Sybil (7 years old) and George (2 years old), to accompany him on a year-long sailing trip to Panama. Their journey is a harrowing one, made even more difficult by the fact that both Michael and Juliet are novice sailors, mostly learning as they go. As they head out on their journey, Michael and Juliet soon realize that navigating the tumultuous seas is just one of the challenges they must face, as some of the underlying issues that had already put their marriage in a precarious position prior to the trip begin to gradually surface. Through Juliet's reflections after the trip, supplemented by Michael's recollection of events through the log he kept during the journey, a complex picture emerges that provides deeper insight into not just their present situation but also their pasts. The story itself covers quite a bit in terms of themes — from the bonds of family to the complications of societal relationships, from strength built upon love to resilience in the face of adversity, there was definitely much to reflect upon here.
As I said earlier, this was a good story overall, well-crafted with realistic characters and an interesting premise. The mystery portion, as it pertained to the events that unfolded on the trip leading to the revelation of what happened to Michael, while not the main focus, was pretty well done. There was an ominous tone that permeated most of the story, a sense that something had to have gone terribly wrong on the trip, but we (the readers) won't find out what happened until the time was right to reveal it. The structure was effective, though it also naturally lent itself to a "slow-burn" narrative where bits of context were revealed gradually, bit by bit, and not always in a straightforward manner.
While I did like the story well enough as a whole, one thing that didn't really work for me were the elaborate descriptions of the various aspects of sailing, including loads of terminology and other technical stuff that, quite frankly, went way over my head. This bogged down parts of the story for me, and in some instances, broke the flow of my reading, which was definitely frustrating. Also, the sections that had a political bent to them confused me a bit, as I wasn't expecting politics to play a role here, for one, and two, a lot of the political stuff that came up didn't feel like it had anything to do with the rest of the story — for example, a discussion the characters would be having about parenting would suddenly veer into a drunken rant about capitalism and immigration policies (that's just one example — there were other references to politics that I picked up on scattered throughout the story). I usually get annoyed when a book I'm reading veers into political territory unexpectedly (it's a pet peeve of mine), especially when it has little to nothing to do with the story — in this instance, it definitely affected my reading experience, though luckily the rest of the story was compelling enough that it didn't completely overwhelm.
I'm glad I picked this one up and it was a good read for the most part, but unfortunately I don't think I was able to appreciate the "depth" of the story as much as I usually would have. Perhaps it is because of everything that has been going on in the world lately (plus the added stress overall in my work and family life), I've been finding it a bit of a struggle to read books that lean more toward the "heavy" side of things. But with that said, I'm grateful that I'm able to read at all during this unprecedented time, so if I'm not able to give a book 100% focus or the attention it deserves at the moment, I will try not to beat myself up too hard over it.
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