Intertidal Life

by Audrey Thomas

Intertidal Life is set on the West Coast of Canada and shows Thomas’s usual concern with language and metaphor and the uneasy relationships between men and women, women and women, and women and children. As usual, there are no answers, only questions. Nor are there heroes or heroines, only brave survivors.

Genres: Canada, Canadian Literature, Womens, Contemporary

252 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1984

About the author

Audrey Grace Thomas, née Callahan, novelist and short story writer (b at Binghamton, NY 17 Nov 1935). Audrey Thomas was educated at Smith College, Mass, and St Andrews University, Scotland, and then taught in England for a year. In 1959 she moved to Canada and in 1963 earned an MA at the University of British Columbia. From 1964 to 1966 she lived in Ghana, but eventually settled on Galiano Island. She has published more than 15 novels and short story collections, more than 20 radio plays, several broadcast on CBC Radio, and numerous travel articles, some of which featured in Air Canada's in-flight magazine.

Thomas' writing has been described as feminine; her forte is the minutiae of women's lives, and she has claimed to strive "to demonstrate the terrible gap between men and women" and "to give women a sense of their bodies." Her style is characterized by word play; she emphasizes puns, etymologies, euphemisms, words within words, and pointing to the inherent possibilities, ironies and ambiguities of language. This close attention to language highlights the act of writing itself, and the possibilities and impossibilities of communication in human relationships. Her writing is also rich with literary allusion, from Shakespeare to Conrad, and from the Bible to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Audrey Thomas is a multi-award winning author. She has been recognized provincially, winning the Ethel Wilson Prize three times (for Intertidal Life, 1985, Wild Blue Yonder, 1991 and Coming Down from Wa, 1996). She has twice been nominated for the Governor General's Award (1984 and 1985), and has been internationally recognized with the Canada-Scotland Writer's Literary fellowship (1984-6) and the Canada-Australia Literary Prize (1989). In 1987 she won the Marian Engel Award, awarded annually to a female Canadian author for her contribution to Canadian literature. In 2003 Audrey Thomas won the Terasen Lifetime Achievement Award.

(from http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.co...)

Reviews

[Lucas · Rating 4 out of 5]

From my perspective, it is a very progressive literary style which tackles gender questions of the time akin to other Canadian authors at the time such as Atwood, Wiseman, Laurence etc. The nonlinear approach is well crafted, there is a purpose to introducing events at certain points in a non-chronological path. There is an ernestness in the writing that allowed me to accept the novel into my heart without apprehensions. It reminds me of "Surfacing" by Atwood in terms of pacing, and in terms of a constant prodding of ideas from slightly different positions without a direct confrontation of the larger question.

[Deirdre · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book reads somewhat like a diary with the protagonist (Alice) going through various feelings and experiences following her husband's leaving her. The book is constructed in a way that is reminiscent of exploring tidal pools - one sees something in one pool, them moves onto another and another so while there is continuity some might see the book as being a bit disjointed.

The book resonates with my experiences on the islands of the west coast of Canada in relation to the somewhat 'hippie' feel.

While I empathized with Alice, I was impatient with some of the other characters - too much dope-smoking, not enough living.

[sam s · Rating 1 out of 5]

Picked up the book on an urge from the cover, wanted to read of women and the locality sold me. The main character complains about her failed marriage the entire book and has no resolution, hates those she’s around yet is in their company and incriminates herself. Sometimes i found her relatable. Writing is pretty weak though, at one point I laughed out loud at a metaphor

[Akimbo1 · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was keen to read this book about island life on the West Coast of British Columbia in the hippy era. I gave up reading it 3 times but kept picking it up again to give it another chance. At the 3/4 mark I lost interest in the repeating cycles of smoking pot, baking cookies, sex with her x-husband . . . The two stars is for the historical flavour of West Coast life in that era.

[James McLaughlin]

Not my favorite but it was good.

[Robert · Rating 1 out of 5]

I almost finished it. Just wasn't my cup of tea.