Reviews:
Saltwater Joys
By Dianna Brown
Review by: Anne Sorbie, author of Memoir of a Good Death & Alter Ego
May 12, 2018
Saltwater Joys is a fine first book by the author, Dianna Brown. Stories of love, death, grief, survival, and redemption illuminate the life of John Lee from the opening pages through to the final chapter.
Brown’s narrative invites us into the world of outport life and into a close-knit community of hardy people. The story begins with a retrospective about Newfoundland and Canadian Confederation. It goes forward, focusing on Ireland’s Eye, a remote location accessible only by boat, where John was born. It’s this rugged land and seascape, which underlines a history of diaspora and displacement. This deserted locale becomes a harbour for the kind of disorientation that only an imposed or enforced relocation provokes in both those who leave and those who remain. John Lee becomes an example and a symbol of that disorientation. He stays in Ireland’s Eye alone for twenty years, tipping toward madness. He is overcome until he alternates between reality and hallucination between the realms of life and death. He endures an existence rife with hardship, solitude, and starvation.
Saltwater Joys is a successful regional tale, a fiction, which is beautifully imagistic, and in which Brown uses her writerly grasp of the visual to show readers how place infects and consumes her characters. This novel is also imbued with Maritime superstition and with supernatural events. The mystery that results is intriguing for readers and life altering for the John Lee character.
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Reviewed by: Crystal Roach — 5 stars
OMG!!!I just finished Saltwater Joys and it was brilliant... It kept me captivated and was hard to put down. Dianna did an outstanding job bringing the characters to life and the humble feeling Newfoundland offers. Made me homesick for Newfoundland. Hope for future books as Dianna is a amazingly talented author!!! 5 Stars hands down!
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Reviewed by: Wendy Lukasiewicz — 5 stars
First-time author Dianna Brown has written an exceptional novel about love, loss, and redemption. This was no easy feat—years of writing and rewriting went into crafting every word. John and Annabel Lee will live on forever in my memory.
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Reviewed by: Nikki Virdee
Just finished Saltwater Joys! A terrific story! I have never visited the East Coast but the description and imagery felt like I was there! The characters are great! Tears were shed while reading this great story! I’m looking forward to the sequel!x
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