Sea Creatures--Book Review

The essence of this book is that we are all sea creatures, each with our bundles of idiosyncrasies and brand of kryptonite.  If we don't adapt to the inevitable storms, we drown. Even those who survive have their bruises.

The story is about a couple and their son who move from near Chicago to South Florida. The son does not speak. The couple themselves do not sleep; they met in what they refer to as "detention" a place where those who cannot sleep go for therapy.  More I cannot relay without giving away too much.

There are several stories going on in the novel, so many that instead of the book being cohesive it appears as if it's a loose confederation of incidents that relate to Frankie (the son) and Georgia (the mother).   There is a touching portion at the very end related to a character named Charlie who is a reclusive artist, and Georgia, but even that is just one of many incidents and relationships that Georgia describes. Charlie gets a lot of ink, but so does her father and Graham (her husband), to a lesser extent her step mother Lidia and even her dead mother. There's a neighbor, an old friend, a kid in a hospital, a pediatrician--all encounters that seem to live almost independently as opposed to components of a cohesive whole.  I felt there needed to be more of a focus.

So, while I did not dislike the book, I am not going to grab strangers and suggest they read it.  It may grow on me, as often is the case, as time goes on.