Man, am I glad I didn\u2019t try to rush through this book<\/a>. For the record, it is short, and the chapters probably benefit from reading like 10-12 in one sitting. But again, I have a four-year-old on summer vacation. Free idea for hard-up profs out there: feels like you could put together a pretty good syllabus with this book, Aimee Bender\u2019s The Butterfly Lampshade<\/a><\/em>, and Chloe N. Clark\u2019s Patterns of Orbit<\/a><\/em>. There\u2019s longing, there\u2019s obsessive circling back to a single cataclysmic event, there\u2019s the fear that comes with the thought of your beloved being far away, forever. I\u2019m talking, obviously, about Our Wives Under The Sea<\/em> by Julia Armfield. <\/p> What really moved me throughout my reading was how much this novel is about the importance of communication. The chapters alternate between Leah and Miri\u2019s first-person perspective, and the whole time, you are confronted with the fact that these two people are telling a different story. Not like one of them is lying, but the profoundly different way they both experience one event\u2014marine biologist<\/a> Leah\u2019s submarine sinking to the bottom of the ocean for months\u2014drives a Mariana Trench between the two of them. The reveal of what happened\/what will happen is wrenching and horrifying, but you cannot call this a horror novel. All the blurbs about \u201ca love story like no other\u201d and \u201chaunting, evocative\u201d are correct, but it feels disingenuous to call this a pure love story, too\u2014even if I share the same idea of what love means as Leah and Miri, I think. The resulting mix of deep ocean facts, honest love, and terror is very much what my beloved Bob would call \u201cChris-core.\u201d <\/p> Man, the ending of this book is perfect. <\/p> One last thing: NPR<\/em> blurbs this book as \u201cimpressive and exciting.\u201d Fuck you, NPR<\/em>. Actually read the book and say something real about it if you\u2019re gonna blurb it, Jesus. \u201cImpressive and exciting\u201d is what I said when my kid learned to climb the tall playground ladder. And even then I\u2019m pretty sure I was more excited then NPR<\/em>. God, imagining one of them saying that in their droll condescension. Our Wives Under The Sea<\/em> is so much more than impressive and exciting. Even if it is both those things. <\/p> LINKS!<\/strong><\/p> BEFORE WE DO ANYTHING ELSE LET\u2019S WATCH SABRINA IONESCU HIT A BILLION THREES IN A ROW HOLY GOD IF YOU HAVEN\u2019T SEEN THIS GLUE YOUR EYEBALLS TO THE SCREEN<\/p>![\"book:](\"https:\/\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/0aa21ba4-bb55-44fc-b35a-01dd04ca77d4_3024x4032.jpeg\")
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