“The thought that presses from the darkest place.
“What it says.
“To stare directly at it. What it might mean.
“You are alone.”A harrowing fever dream of being lost to an unforgiving ocean, "Beyond the Sea" is a triumph of a survivor tale. Paul Lynch's exploration of the evolving relationship between veteran fisherman Bolivar and disinterested youth Hector within the prison of a boat is grim and existential.
Based on the true story of Salvadoran fisherman Jose Salvador Alvarenga, the novel uses sparse punctuation and short sentences to contrast the vastness of the sea. Hector examines an unlived life, while Boliver struggles with a dark, illicit past full of mistakes and bad decisions.
“Hector’s sorrowful, weighted eyes are the yes of a man watching his own life from some remote place without capacity to shout warning.”
Lynch has quickly emerged as one of my favorite writers, having secured the top spot in the 2024 Scooties with his incredible work "Prophet Song." His bleak, gutting stories incorporate contemporary issues -- the environment, geopolitics, degradation -- and challenge every emotional chord, leaving you feeling, well, like you've just survived a ship wreck.
“The countenance of a child growing before him as he crawls along the beach, his cry broken, he has not the breath to speak, to put into words, he wants to say it over and over again, home, I can go home now, but the words will not come. He falls before the child, it is a little girl, and he lifts his head and thinks, you believed. A feeling now of the world he once knew. And it is then he finds the breath to speak, and he seeks not to frighten her, speaks in his own tongue.
“I am only a fisherman.”
"Beyond the Sea" is a worthy entry into the company enjoyed by Hemingway, Melville, and Golding, and its ending is cleverly open to broad interpretation. The book will leave you exhausted and emotionally shaken -- but a thankful witness to deepest elements of man's soul.
“He thinks, what is life but waiting.
“He closes his eyes and listens.
“Always waiting upon the awaited thing. But what if you hold what is given?”
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