Review: Few writers will ever reach this level of wordcraft...
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 09 14, 2011
After reading this amazing story, it comes as no surprise to learn that Chris Longmuir is an award-winning novelist. Her wordsmithing here lies somewhere between prose and poetry, between storytelling and story lifting. You need only consider the unique title "A Salt-Splashed Cradle" to realize she is no ordinary novelist.Based in 1830's Scotland, this historically convincing tale recounts the hardships and joys of fisher people living on the edge of poverty, under the weight of landowning royalty. Belle is an emotionally damaged but beautiful Invercraig townie who marries young Jimmie Watt, a fisherman who doesn't care that her delicate frame and sensibilities are not suited to the physical demands of fishing life. As Jimmie's absences aboard whaling ships keep him away for seemingly longer and longer periods of time, he leaves behind a family who desperately needs him. And the more he is away from the Craigden, the more Belle and her three children become ostracized not just from her mother-in-law, Annie, and the Watt family, but from the entire village. The results of those simmering hatreds will leave you breathless.Though Belle's questionable moral decisions lie at the center of this gripping historical drama, the reader is left with diverse emotions for her and all the other complex and memorable characters that populate this unconventional book. Like the best literary works, this story does not loan itself to easy plot predictions but will absolutely immerse you in a place and time you'll not soon forget."A Salt-Splashed Cradle" drips with historical accuracy, and even the scenes aboard a whaling ship seem to have been recounted directly from an 1800's whaler, almost as if Chris Longmuir boarded those ships and chopped them free from the arctic ice herself. An awe-inspiring work by an author who has definitely earned her accolades.