- Paperback: 325 pages
- Publisher: Time Warner Publishing M/M (Sep 1 1993)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0446395102
- ISBN-13: 978-0446395106
- Product Dimensions: 20.1 x 13.2 x 2.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 181 g
- Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,600,698 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Library Journal
O'Brien's current fame rests largely on short stories in the New Yorker vein. But it was novels like The Country Girls ( LJ 2/15/60) and Girls in Their Married Bliss ( LJ 1/15/68) that launched her highly publicized career in the 1960s, and the loyal readership of her longer works will not be disappointed by her latest. Once naive adolescents preyed upon by society, O'Brien's characters are now battle-weary women preyed upon by society. Time and Tide ups the stakes by sending its protagonist to hell: separation from marriage and children precipitate her descent into a surreal underworld of therapy, drugs, and sexual assault. The power of the novel lies less in its hallucinatory effects than in its sustained evocation of alienation. It used to be said that O'Brien's fiction was a manual in survival tactics, but Time and Tide is not so helpful. Its expression of personal isolation and defeat registers in prose of new intensity and vigor.
- John P. Harrington, Cooper Union, New York
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
- John P. Harrington, Cooper Union, New York
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Kirkus Reviews
Acclaimed Irish writer O'Brien (Lantern Slides, 1990, etc.) explores that ``great chasm'' between mothers and would-be mothers, with smotheringly unrelieved lyricism. Nell, a typical O'Brien protagonist, with more emotions than good sense, has rebelled against her narrow Irish upbringing by marrying an older man who's as tyrannical and unbending as her devoutly Catholic but well-intentioned mother had ever been. Later, Nell's two sons, Paddy and Tristan, become pawns as Nell, trying to escape the disintegrating marriage, has to contend with her husband's cruel machinations to prevent her from taking the children with her. The couple finally divorce; Nell gains shared custody of the boys, then begins to make a new life--not all that successfully, though, for poor Nell is a bad picker. She loses her heart to philandering Duncan; accepts drugs from the evil Dr. ``Rat''; and suffers a nasty accident when sinister Boris and girlfriend Olga move in, suggesting a m‚nage … trois. She does have a job--one of those vague kinds at a publishing house--which apparently pays the rent, at least most of the time, but this is not a novel about trying to be Super Mom; rather, it is about love- -for men and for children--that is never fully requited. Nell's sons, once loving, turn away from their mother as they grow older; and when older son Paddy drowns, all that Nell has left ``is the involuntary shudder that keeps telling us we are alive.'' Poor Nell, poor mothers, poor women. A great universal theme, but Nell is just too frail and foolish to do it justice. Not O'Brien's best. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Emotional,
By A Customer
This review is from: Time And Tide (Mass Market Paperback)
"Time and Tide" is an excellent literary novel, very emotional in style and essence. I was deeply touched by this book, and I am very grateful to one of my friends for recommending me Edna O'Brien as an author. Snip: (...)
1.0 out of 5 stars
Edna O'Brien Disappoints,
This review is from: Time And Tide (Mass Market Paperback)
This book did not live up to a previous read "The House of Splendid Isolation", which was mysterious and adventurous. Although I like the fact that O'Brien challenges her readers and makes one search out and think about the mysteries at hand, I found O'Brien's writing style to be too confusing and ambiguous this time. She used pronouns indiscrimately without making a reference to the subject even in the previous paragraph. The writing style was so mixed. After Nell began using drugs the writing became "stream of consciousness" quite a bit; one para of a chapter was even written in the second person while the rest of the book was in 3rd person except for "soc" mentioned above. Motivations were lacking, thus some of the characters were archetyal and cliched such as Nell's husband, Rita the young housemaid, and even Nell's mother to some extent. Part iV where Paddy drowns, was too tragic, grief-stricken, and morose to even read it all. I skimmed as if "peeking through my hands" at a scary or chilling movie. I thought the descriptions and characterizations of the sons was well done and I could empathize with the vacillations of feelings between sons and mother. Nell was a real character who had lots of flaws, whom you could love yet criticize for her poor choices motivated by heart rather than head.
3.0 out of 5 stars
All bleakness and despair ... a book to cut your wrists by !,
By A Customer
This review is from: Time And Tide (Mass Market Paperback)
Edna O'Brien has written a novel so bleak and despairing I'd call it a book to cut your wrists by. Is the experience of womanhood all about pain, deprivation and loss ? Is there no joy in the bargain ? You wouldn't think so, judging by the experience of Nell. The cruelty of her husband drives her to seek emotional refuge in her two sons but when they leave the nest, she turns in desperation to a series of unreliable lovers who bring her more misery. The relentless feeling of despair beating upon Nell reaches its climax when she loses Paddy, but by then, the reader is too numb to care. It doesn't help that O'Brien's prose is often dense and turgid. Some critics call it poetic or lyrical, which may be so, but the jerkiness of some of the episodes (eg, in the middle section, with her lovers) makes the narrative difficult to follow. It is sometimes even hard to tell who she's writing about. Her characterisation is also weak, though this may be deliberate. O'Brien isn't interested in anybody other than Nell. The supporting cast of characters are only there to help create the soundtrack playing through Nell's mind. The message that O'Brien delivers on motherhood isn't redemptive either. Paddy's and Tristan's alienation from Nell is, not surprisingly, reminiscent of Nell's estrangement from her own mother. The horror of Nell's emotional existence reaches a crescendo when she stares at a half crazed baglady one day on the streets and sees the ravaged face of her once young housemaid, Rita. There is no more powerful image depicting the madness and despair that will take hold of Nell. "Time and Tide" is emotionally exhausting to read. It isn't quite the artistic failure it is made out to be, but O'Brien could have lightened her touch a tad ! This is not a book for everyone.
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