Perception and Grief

I find that almost every one of my book blurt posts start with, “well here we are,” so I figured I would start with, “I find,” this week. Anyways, this post is about M.H. Herlong’s The Great Wide Sea. Our awesome youth services librarian, Karen Yother, reads a book a week, and she really enjoyed this book. Karen has handed me some great books before, so I sat down for a great read.

This book tells the tale of three brothers and their father, almost a year after their mother passed away. The entire family is obviously devastated by their lost, and they have had a hard time coping with it. Ben, the eldest son, copes with his lost by trying to be as normal as possible. He is turning sixteen soon, and he is looking forward to getting his first car. To Ben’s surprise, his father has been planning a year long trip around the Caribbean in a thirty foot sailboat. Having his normal summer dreams stripped away, Ben is thrown into tight quarters with his father and his two brothers. Ben has always had a good relationship with his two brothers, and he gets along with them pretty well. But, Ben still can’t forgive his father for planning a year long trip without talking to the family, and he also can’t believe that his father is so willing to throw away everything that was important to his mother. After almost a full year of sailing, their father disappears just as a huge storm looms on the horizon. Convinced that his father has committed suicide, Ben buckles down to protect his brothers from the storm, and whatever else may come his way.

Although this book deals with grief and family struggles, I really enjoyed it. Through the hard times, Ben learns to put his brother’s needs first. This part of the story really touched me, because I have four younger brothers. I also thought that the portrayal of grief was very realistic. Grief can drive people to crazy things, and this book shows that. It also shows how important perception is to a relationship. We can only see people’s actions, and then we have to assume what the intent was behind those actions. If we assume that someone did something to hurt us, even if that wasn’t their intent, we can wind up hating them. This is shown very vividly in the relationship between Ben and his father. Although it isn’t necessarily a joyful book, it is exciting, and brings the topics of grief and family very realistically to life.