![]() Edwin’s impression is of having been suddenly in a large space, “like a train station or a cathedral.” Seeking solace in the woods, he instead endures a disturbing episode of disorientation filled with music and baffling noise. That “queasy sense of overexposure that he felt on the prairies” returns. Later, in British Columbia, he discovers a land eerily devoid of people. Fear crowds his reality and distorts his perceptions. ![]() On the train ride there, Edwin “can see from horizon to horizon” and “feels terribly overexposed.” Whatever lurks seems close to his isolated homestead despite the immense distances that surround him. After six listless months in Nova Scotia, Edwin, who is “capable of action but prone to inertia,” tags along with a more ambitious countryman to Saskatchewan. ![]() In 1912, Edwin has been exiled to Canada for making improper statements about colonialism to his British parents. The first half of Sea of Tranquility moves forward in time through three stories - Edwin’s in 1912, Mirella’s in 2020, and Olive’s in 2203. John Mandel instead means to pick up where another masterpiece left off? Like Sea of Tranquility, the real-life 1961 avant-garde French film “ Last Year at Marienbad” is focused on the meaning of reality, the flow of time, and the validity of memory. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |