I think THE STORY OF LAND AND SEA is one of the saddest
books I have ever
read. John is a widower and is trying to raise his ten
year old daughter, Tabitha, in the shoreline town of
Beaufort in North Carolina. When his daughter, Tabitha,
becomes gravely ill with yellow fever, he will try
anything
to save her life. John believes that the sea can heal his
daughter so he boards a ship bound for the Caribbean in
the
hopes that exposure to some fresh air will cure his child.
This part of the story, with a single father dealing with
a
sick child, was profoundly sad.
The second part of the story flashes back to John's wife,
Helen, and her early life as she is also raised by a
single
father. Helen's own mother died in childbirth and her
father, Asa, struggles to nurture and provide for his only
child. John meets Helen when his Revolutionary War
regiment is stationed near her home in North Carolina.
Although Asa does not approve of Helen and John's
marriage,
the two men eventually reach a state of mutual
understanding and respect. Each of them has been widowed
and is trying to raise a child.
One of the peculiar parts of the story is Helen's
relationship with a slave named Moll. When Helen is ten
years old her father gives Moll as a gift. Helen and Moll
grow up together and the lines between slave and owner are
blurred. The two women act more like siblings than as
servant and owner as they play together, fight and share
secrets. I was surprised that some of Moll's poor attitude
was tolerated by Helen and her father.
The final part of THE STORY OF LAND AND SEA describes Asa
and John's grief
and the different ways in which they deal with their loss.
Asa essentially becomes a recluse and cuts himself off
from
most of society and John heads out west for a change of
scenery. THE STORY OF LAND AND SEA has a melancholy tone
throughout the story. It serves to remind us that, at
least in the 18th century, life can be cruel without any
glimmer of hope.
Set in a small coastal town in North Carolina during the
waning years of the American Revolution, this incandescent
debut novel follows three generations of family—fathers
and
daughters, mother and son, master and slave, characters
who
yearn for redemption amidst a heady brew of war,
kidnapping,
slavery, and love.
Drawn to the ocean, ten-year-old Tabitha wanders the
marshes
of her small coastal village and listens to her father’s
stories about his pirate voyages and the mother she never
knew. Since the loss of his wife Helen, John has remained
land-bound for their daughter, but when Tab contracts
yellow
fever, he turns to the sea once more. Desperate to save
his
daughter, he takes her aboard a sloop bound for Bermuda,
hoping the salt air will heal her.
Years before, Helen herself was raised by a widowed
father.
Asa, the devout owner of a small plantation, gives his
daughter a young slave named Moll for her tenth birthday.
Left largely on their own, Helen and Moll develop a close
but uneasy companionship. Helen gradually takes over the
running of the plantation as the girls grow up, but when
she
meets John, the pirate turned Continental soldier, she
flouts convention and her father’s wishes by falling in
love. Moll, meanwhile, is forced into marriage with a
stranger. Her only solace is her son, Davy, whom she will
protect with a passion that defies the bounds of slavery.
In this elegant, evocative, and haunting debut, Katy
Simpson
Smith captures the singular love between parent and child,
the devastation of love lost, and the lonely paths we
travel
in the name of renewal.
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