Devotion by Hannah Kent (review)

Too much is trying to be said in this passage. Both the ship and the magistrate appear to be offering their perspective in this sentence, and Tarwin might be trying to get too much out of what could be a simple, beautiful image. Imagine the last two phrases standing alone in a sentence: “Now mangroves with their green-topped twisted roots squirm in the shallow waters under the drizzle, adrift, thick impassable mangroves with their flecks of birds.” This sentence creates a beautiful, living image, one uncluttered from the confused thoughts created by the first half of the sentence. A lot of potential dwells in these pages. The book has its beautiful and beautifully tense moments, moments that breathe life into characters. The sad truth is that not every moment of a novel can convey beauty or hit with the same depth. Tarwin’s subsequent novels will, I hope, find that balance that might allow readers to understand the dull-yet-important moments clearly, which will allow them to cherish even more those moments of depth at which he excels.