Moon Tide

by Dawn Tripp

A lush and haunting first novel, Moon Tide follows the lives of three women in a small fishing town on the Massachusetts coast, from 1913 to the Great New England Hurricane of 1938.

Through sensual and interwoven stories, Moon Tide explores the secret workings of the heart—the violence of desire and memory, the redemptive power of longing—matched against society’s rules of class and the unpredictable tempers of the natural world.

At the center of the novel is Eve, who takes refuge in silence and art after the death of her mother. Eve can sense how the past nips at the heels of the living, and her ethereal beauty inspires a quiet passion in Jake, the son of a local stonemason. For Elizabeth, Eve’s wealthy, eccentric grandmother, one summer at Westport Point extends into a lifetime. She stays on in the town year-round, building a great library in her house for the cold New England winters, haunted by the Ireland of her youth and by one man’s doomed obsession with nature. And then there is Maggie, the exotic stranger with a peculiar clairvoyance. Maggie lives in the precarious space between the locals and the rich—a balance that is ultimately compromised by Wes, a ruthless rum-smuggler, whose desire for her triggers small cruelties and then a staggering act of violence.

With lyrical prose, wisdom, and insight, Dawn Clifton Tripp maps the shifting tensions in a small town on the verge of change. Like the growing weight of a storm, the lives in Westport Point build in emotional momentum even as the Great Hur-ricane approaches, and the landscape of the earth comes to reflect the geography of the mind. A novel of love and loss, survival and revelation, Moon Tide is an extraordinary debut.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Dawn Tripp is the nationally bestselling author of five novels. Her most recent, JACKIE, a fictionalized biography of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, was longlisted for the Massachusetts Book Award and won the San Diego Writers Historical Fiction Award. She is also the author of GEORGIA, finalist for the New England Book Award and winner of the Mary Lynn Kotz Award for Art in Literature. Previous novels include GAME OF SECRETS, MOON TIDE, and THE SEASON OF OPEN WATER, which won the Massachusetts Book Award for fiction. Her poems and essays have appeared in the Virginia Quarterly Review, Harvard Review, AGNI, NPR, and Conjunctions. Her work has been translated into a dozen languages. She graduated from Harvard and lives in Massachusetts with her sons. She currently serves as chair of the board of the Boston Book Festival, and as a visiting writer at the Island School.

www.DawnTripp.com

Reviews

[Crystal · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a poet and so you may safely assume I have nothing against poetic language - not even a novel full of it. And yet I can't find it in my heart to honestly recommend this book. It's hugely overwritten. By turning all her characters in figures of her poetic imagination, the author manages to strip the book of its core. It's all smoke and no fire. Most the characters come off so wispy, by the time the monster moon tide storm ravages their small New England, the reader cannot be surprised that so many of them perished; they hardly seemed alive in the first place.

Reading this book was a bit like eating cotton candy - sweet but insubstantial.

[Kim Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

I also loved Tripp's second book about the New England coast, and together her novels show two sides of Massachusetts life.

An isolated and insular town is swept away by a hurricane in the dreamy Moon Tide while the same town in the base for the violent rum-running trade in The Season of Open Water. But whether the brutality comes in human or man-made form, Tripp is a master of showing how the tenuous peace of daily life can be suddenly shattered, throwing her characters into internal and external chaos. I consider these books to be perfect examples of "the thinking woman's beach reads" since they show how the ocean, like the human heart, is capable of changing from placid to tumultuous with every turn of the page.

[Elizabeth Cox · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dawn Tripp is an artist and Moon Tide is her canvas. I've never read anything like this before. Mrs Tripp takes the English language and presses and squeezes it between her fingers and hands to derive a suitable medium that she then splashes onto paper which becomes a product (story) much like Eve, one of her principle characters in Moon Tide, does with bits of food and flowers to make paint which she paints into beautiful pictures. I had trouble reading her lyrical prose at first, but found that I was drawn back into the book after each chapter. I couldn't wait to find out were it was going. About midway through, however, it seem, to me at least, Mrs. Tripp had tired of writing, and the second half appeared rushed and less complex than the beginning. I wish she had taken her time and had painted the ending as beautifully as the beginning.

[Julie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really disliked this novel. I didn't like the characters, didn't like the flowery strange language, hated some of the idiotic actions they took (no real person throws a fortune into a hurricane, or tries to fly with some weird bird feather contraption)... This just didn't work for me on any level, too many deaths and unrequited love.

[Bj Thomas · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really tried with this book but couldn't! The author seemed to be so wrapped up in being lyrical that the story and the characters got lost. I was so frustrated with her because I think she had a good story to tell and it got lost.

[Buchdoktor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wie ihren dritten Roman Das Liebesspiel fügt Dawn Tripp auch in Mondgischt (Moon Tide) kurze Kapitel zum Bild einer Familie und eines kleinen Ortes zusammen. Die Handlung spielt zwischen 1913 und 1938 in dem kleinen Ort Westport, der 1938 wie im Roman von einem Hurrican zerstört wurde. Es sit die Geschichte Elizabeths, die sich im alter in Gedanken immer öfter in ihre Heimat Irland zurückdenkt, ihrer Enkelin Eve und Maggie, einer Frau, die Elizabeth versorgt. Die Familiengeschichte wird ergänzt durch die wirtschaftliche und soziale Entwicklung des kleinen Fischerorts zu einem Touristenort. Anders als andere Frauen ihrer Generation hatte Elizabeth andere Sehnsüchte als makellos gefaltete Wäsche, ihr war ihr sorgfältig nach Nationalliteraturen geordentes Bücherregal wichtig. Als Handwerker, Kaufmann und Schmuggler treten in der Geschichte interessante Männerfiguren auf, die noch auf der Suche nach einem Auskommen im Zeichen des Strukturwandels sind. Fischen, das Meer, das Wetter und die Landschaft mit ihren charakteristischen vor der See geschützten Flussarmen spielen ein wichtige Rolle im Buch.

Das Zusammenstückeln der Geschichte aus den Blickwinkeln mehrerer Personen hat mich in meinem zweiten Tripp-Roman nicht mehr begeisert, dafür bin ich vom historischen Hintergrund des Romans sehr angetan, der in den Quellenangaben nachzuverfolgen ist.

"Eve weiß, dass ihr Vater seit dem Tod der Mutter in Gedanken ungezählte Bücher verfasst hat - lange Romane, schmerzerfüllte Prosagedichte. Er hat an Absätzen gefeilt, sie laut rezitiert und so lange an der Sprache geschmirgelt, bis nur noch Staub übrig war. Er hat Sätze ersonnen, die originell und verblüffend genug sind, um Stein zu erweichen, und dennoch vermag er, wenn er den Füllhalter auf das leere Blatt setzt, kein einziges Wort Tinte herauszuquetschen. Im Laufe der Jahre haben sich die ungenützten Wörter um ihn herum aufgetürmt. Er ist durch die Sprache gewandert und hat in ihrer wunderbaren Unendlichkeit die Orientierung verloren." (S. 208)

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most well-written novels i've read in some time, Moon Tide is a gorgeous saga of a town, its people, the land and the water and how their lives are influenced by their environment. Tripp paints a lavish and thrilling portrait of the landscape and creates memorable characters that continue to resonate for me. I had to read some passages aloud to my husband because they were rendered with such precision and beauty. Tripp is clearly a close listener and observer. I have never read such a stirring and true description of a storm before, particularly its sounds. I fell in love with the town of this book. I wanted to collected herbs with Maggie, read books with Elizabeth, hang around in Paris with Eve, & fall in love with Jake. I adored the pace of this novel. I savoured it like a six-course table d'hote meal where the chef has carefully and lovingly considered all the senses in order to create a feast.

[Ivy]

Sometimes you read a book that speaks to you; you go through your day thinking about it. Dawn Tripp's Moon Tide was that kind of book for me. Carefully researched, lovingly written, it is a book that evokes a time and place which are long gone. I could feel the sharp, salty bite of the New England coastline, and I recognized, or at least understood, many of the characters. Not only did Ms. Tripp bring to life the kinds of people my parents and grandparents once knew and spoke of, she described their day-to-day ways of life with the kinds of details that linger long after reading is completed.

Replete with apt literary allusions, a graceful and poetic style of writing, and a fearless sense of plot, this book is a gem--savor it!

[Megan Codera · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was immediately pulled in by the language, so beautiful I sometimes read out loud. And then each character was brought into the light gradually, with just enough mystery that I couldn't turn away. I loved the quiet of the landscape and the simple way she brought complicated people together. This was one of those stories that calmed me before/after a long day. In a way, it was like letting yourself just lay back and watch the sky and really fall into it. A cloud can transform in an instant and never be the same again...And the sky can wipe out a whole town, a whole coast of towns, taking all those complicated stories... I fell for the characters so hard I was sad when I woke this morning.

[Eleena Rioux · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed reading. can visualize the local area coastal communities that they talk about in this book. If you are from here, spend time here or have knowledge of the area then you will enjoy this read. You can see the people as they would have been, and still see so many of the mannerisms of the people then in many of the people you will meet there in similar coastal towns in the areas today. Enjoyed reading and seeing three very differnt women's view points for the same community and lives... Proves the point of what one is seeing it NOT what another is :)

[Anna Anthony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written!She captures the true soul of the cape with her beautiful sentances and very well written characters.Wish I could have read this one while laying on the beach in Cape Cod.I agree with another review that called it a "Sophisticated Beach read".I will definately read anything else that she writes.

[Lee Regan · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Tripp is an unusual stylist who filters all her characters' perceptions and emotions through their connection to the land. Haunting, ethereal, and often brutal, her novel achieves the resonance of myth". Booklist Review

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so beautifully written. It is gorgeous and lyrical on top of being a wonderful and evocative story. Read it--do yourself a favor.

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of those books that pulls you in and makes you feel like you are living right alongside the characters. Great book.

[Marciella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like a fine wine or a gourmet meal, this is one book that I slowly enjoyed. Beautifully written like poetry.

[Sybil Mcguire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author admits she was more interested in portraying the region than the people. It shows. A bit of a slog.

[Maia Gibson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Actual Rating: 2.5 stars

Conceptually, this book was appealing to me, and there were some bright spots. I did enjoy some plot points and in many places the writing was vivid. However…it was written in a way that didn’t really click with my brain. The writing style was very flowery and often switched from present to future tense, so it didn’t flow well and made it difficult (and kind of annoying) to read. While the synopsis suggested the book would focus primarily on 3 characters…it actually centered around many more than that. All of the characters were equally flat. Because the book frequently shifted from one 3rd person limited perspective to another (and perhaps because of the writing style as well), it was difficult to connect with any of them. I never felt like I had a good sense of who Eve or Elizabeth were…or what exactly the timeline of the book was or why that specifically was the timeline. Overall, I liked it enough to finish reading it, and that’s about it.

[Joseph J Lyons · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Great Work of Historical Fiction

As a surfaster, I'm intimately familiar with the intertidal zone, estuaries, the comings and goings of bait fish and gamefish.
My great-grandparents on my maternal side, were Block Island residents. I can remember grandmother's sister who was so in touch with the land she could have been a druid, and I remember my grandmother's superstitions, and tje peculiar vernacular they all share.
So much I've learned through my time on the water, and the vicarious knowledge from my grandmother about Block Island, lines up with what Ms. Tripp has written.
I don't have nearly the scope of knowledge of customs, or insight into the different interpersonal relationships .
Thank you, Ms. Tripp. Thank you for filling in so many of the blanks I have always been very interested in.
Joe Lyons

[Tracy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The prose beautiful, every paragraph like poetry. The story is a little dark and disturbing but like the pull of the moon, I could not set it down. Living in a tourist area on the coast of New England, I sympathize or get the push and pull of tourism and townies, the development of the rich with no thought to the native way of life, and the complicated relationships. Timely in the current climate, the rich versus the poor. This book is chock full of flawed characters. . . almost disturbing. . . but you are drawn into the ocean of their orbit and stay to dRown in it. Set in the 1930 in New England and covering the great hurricane of 1938, and the building boom of tourism. Forever changed by the storm, This book haunted me afterwards.

[Sandie Nease · Rating 2 out of 5]

Had potential but missed the mark.

If you love poetic language, and don’t mind lack of substance to the story line, then this book might be for you. It wasn’t absolutely terrible, i just felt like I was floating as a reader waiting to be grounded into a good story, but in the event I drifted away.

There’s so much that this book could have given to its readers, and I did love the characters, but I was left wanting for more.

If anything there’s some phenomenal quotes that could be pulled from the book to feel inspired by, but that’s about it.

[Tory · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is like a decadent chocolate cake; a little goes a long way. The prose is so beautifully written, but it gets really vague and hard to follow. The love stories rely on old tropes that I believe have had their day and need to be retired: a young woman literally rescued by a young man and in his arms as he is saving her, she realizes he is the one. Another woman realizes her feelings for a man the second time he forces himself on her. No, thank you.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a huge fan of Georgia - it was my favorite book to give as a gift last year- and this was lovely but nowhere near as powerful or even as well written. The plot itself is very conventional and the writing - which again is lovely and poetic, feels a bit overwrought.

Also, magical Negro and gratuitous lesbian sex. Meh.

[Gretchen]

3.5 stars. It took some time for my brain to adjust to the cadence of this book. the author molds words like playdough, in a way that is both beautiful and distracting. Once I got past that, I found the story line and the characters intriguing. Having spent many summer holidays in Mattapoisett, not far from where this book is set, I loved reading about the familiar places and landscapes.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I do love a story about the ‘38 Hurricane. This one I think would mean the most to someone from Westport, as it’s totally a love story to that town. I found it beautifully written, but a little overlong and bogged down.

I did enjoy the fact that I read this one during the weekend of the 86th anniversary of the ‘38. Serendipitous timing there…

[Meg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I´m glad I read this. The language was rather overwrought, but at least it was not trite or boring. The mood was more than a little melancholy, with very little redemption for much of anyone at the end.

[Melinda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, this is a new favorite! The prose was so poetic and beautiful. I literally made note of every other sentence. Maggie was my favorite. I loved her perspective. I am SO glad Eve ended up with the right person in the end! Such a beautiful book. ❤

[Mary C · Rating 1 out of 5]

I tried but couldn't get past page 28. I would read a couple sentences and forget what they were talking about. The wording was just too much.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story makes you feel as if you are in that town with these characters.

[Karen Sofarin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful and poetic. I loved the setting and the characters but not much happened.

[Nancy Wieme · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too weird.
Not my thing.