Jamie Smith's Reviews > Walking the Wrack Line: On Tidal Shifts and What Remains

It took me awhile to figure out this book, because it was definitely not what I was expecting. I ordered it from my library based on the title, and assumed it would be a book concerning the biology and, perhaps, natural history of the seashore. As a result, I was surprised to find that the bits of flotsam she picked up just served as jumping off places for essays having nothing to do with the sea, meditations on relationships, habits, and a sense of loss that comes with the realization that eventually everything falls apart.

Only after I glanced at the Dewey Decimal call number on the book’s spine did I realize what was going on. It was definitely not a natural history book. A quick internet search showed me it was 814 – American Essays in English. So, the book is what it is; if there were unmet expectations they were on me, not the author.

Having made that discovery I finished the book. Hurd has an evocative writing style, and an elegiac mood fills the essays. For someone confronting the struggles of life, and the inevitable diminishment that leads ultimately to dissolution, the writing provides some consolations. Everyone must make that journey, and we must all face what the future holds, embracing the joys and enduring the sorrows. With that in mind, her metaphor of using the broken bits that wash up on shore to find beauty and meaning in life works elegantly.