|
|
|
Marshwrack, by Mark Raney. Paperback, 6” x 0.4” x 9 ".
Publisher: Mark Raney. Publication Date March 14, 2010. 168 pages, ISBN-10: 0578021366; ISBN-13: 978-0578021362. Price $19.00
Buy this book from Amazon by clicking here
 |
The detritus of the ocean has nowhere else to go but to be washed ashore when the tide comes in. This is elementary. The title of Mark Raney’s narrative of the commercial fishing community from the East Cast of America says it all. That despite commercial fishing being a family run, generation to generation hand me down affair, there is the lodestone of fate, of inevitability, of prescience, of doom that hangs large over this community unerringly.
Marsh wrack is a journal of a young acolyte who takes off from the fold to strike out on his own on similar but distant waters, faces the déjà vu, the redundancy, monotony, gloom, hope, success, all in turns and finally the inevitable tryst with death, all in a short span of time. The narrative cruises through this account with ease and rancour. The Americanism is unmistakeable, the pen-picture perfect and the poignancy of the short lived life conveyed unerringly. Beginning rather intriguingly, tracing genealogies and delving into the etymology of names it conveys in a trice the bonds that such subsistence communities strike and strive on. There is also the fleeting mention of environmental issues, the Greenpeace movement and conservation concerns which contemporises the narrative.
Echoes of the classic sea sagas, on the lines of Moby Dick and The Old Man and the Sea notwithstanding, Marshwrack makes for a good, quick read. It is racy and visible. The reader can actually feel the sea spray and smell the tangy air while the scenes unfold, all the while sitting on the sidelines.
-Dhanalakshmi Ayyer
|
|
Request a PDF file of this review by clicking here. (If your screen resolution can not be increased, or if printing this page is giving you problems like overlapping of graphics and/or tables etc, you can take a proper printout from a pdf file. You will need an Acrobat Reader though. You can also create a pdf file yourself by clicking here.)
N.B. It is essential to read this journal - and especially this review as it contains several tables and high resolution graphics - under a screen resolution of 1600 x 1200 dpi or more. If the resolution is less than this, you may see broken or overlapping tables/graphics, graphics overlying text or other anomalies. It is strongly advised to switch over to this resolution to read this journal - and especially this review. These pages are viewed best in Netscape Navigator 4.7 and above.
-Editor-in-Chief
[ Major links ]
[ Reviews with Quizzes ] [ Journal CD ] [Interviews] [ Editorials - Cumulative Index ]
[ Cumulative index of Book Reviews sorted by | Publishers | Subjects | Multimedia Reviews (cumulative) ]
[ Links ] [ Submit books/journals/software/multimedia for review ] [ Reviewers' Panel ] [ Featured Reviews ] [ Audio books ] [ My Books ]
[ Anil Aggrawal's Internet Journal of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology - Sister Publication ] [ contact us ]
Books for review must be submitted at the following address.
Professor Anil Aggrawal (Editor-in-Chief)
Anil Aggrawal's Internet Journal of Book Reviews
S-299 Greater Kailash-1
New Delhi-110048
India
Click here to contact us.
This page has been constructed and maintained by Dr. Anil Aggrawal, Professor of Forensic Medicine, at the Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi-110002. You may want to give me the feedback to make this pages better. Please be kind enough to write your comments in the guestbook maintained above. These comments would help me make these pages better.
IMPORTANT NOTE: ALL REVIEWS APPEARING IN THIS ONLINE JOURNAL ARE COPYRIGHTED BY "ANIL AGGRAWAL'S INTERNET JOURNAL OF BOOK REVIEWS" AND MAY NOT BE REPOSTED, REPRINTED OR OTHERWISE USED IN ANY MANNER WITHOUT THE WRITTEN PERMISSION OF THE WEBMASTER
|
...Marshwrack makes for a good, quick read. It is racy and visible. The reader can actually feel the sea spray and smell the tangy air while the scenes unfold, all the while sitting on the sidelines...
