Walls of Blue Coquina

by Sam Harrison

This novel is an incredible work that shows how the mere expectation of the miraculous can transform mundane reality into the powerful and beautiful.

256 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 1, 1990

Reviews

[Laura Adame · Rating 5 out of 5]

Backstory (like in recipes ): I picked up this book from the laundry room in my apartment in treasure island. Get the vibes: I live across the street from the beach and I can even see the sun set over the ocean from the small living room window at the Cove; and to the left, a wooden dock over the canal. Paradise. In apartments filled with boomers, the laundry room has a continuous exchange of different books; they do read a lot and I love it.

So I picked up this book called Walls of Blue Coquina by Sam Harrison. The cover is mostly sky over the beach. On the back, a picture of the author in a Panama Hat, a Hawaiian shirt, and a mustache. Stamped all over “St. Pete Beach Public Library”.

So I read this book blind and just went on beach vibes.

As I read through the whole book, at every moment, I was like “wait what what’s that?” (Warning: spoilers ahead). Unbeknownst to me, this book is about and inbred family who live by the Gulf of Mexico south of Tallahassee, all who have one extra pinky finger. There’s cheating, there’s fishing, and there’s a whole lot of “what is going on here?”

This book was terrible in all the best ways and I enjoyed reading it so much. Cualquier parecido a la realidad es pura coincidencia pero si es ficción, esta bien inventada. Está historia sigue al principal que es un señor ya viejo. No se si me quede con el ojo cuadrado más cuando contó que su nieta le puso el cuerno a su esposo con el motociclista gordo, o cuando contó que el hijo del principal se suicido intensamente, o cuando contó que un inquilino tenía el skeleton de su hijo difunto?!?!?! Ósea ?! Terrible!!! All of it!!! I love it!!! Wtf is happening here?!

The best parts of the book also included the constant descriptions of the Gulf: the storms in and out over it, how boating on it feels, the way the water looks, and my favorite quote: “It changes every day, like it always has, so in that way it’s the same, yes. It doesn’t go anywhere, and neither do I.”

I could not keep up w the endless twists and turns of this book, sometimes making me laugh out loud, sometimes making me stop in my tracks all together. This is a book I’d recommend to anyone who wants to read something different or anyone who wants to read about old Florida vibes and the Gulf.

And if anyone does pick it up, I would like to point out that the author *does* quote Jorge Luis Borges's "Sunset over Villa Ortuzar" before he starts. Two points on this. One, initially made me realize that this author will either write in a magic realism type of way (camp, in a way in modern slang i suppose u could say) or that he admires Borges bc of that, esp regarding a quote about a poem titled sunsets, and would describe the sunsets similarly. & Two, that after, as I reminisce about the book once I'm done and go back to it, I went back to read Borges's poem, and all I have to say is that I don't think the translation is correct but the sentiment is the same? (ugh wish I could read all the books in their original language #annakarenina #iykyk)

"Ya no sé si es un árbol o es un dios," #iykyk

[Christiane · Rating 5 out of 5]

The tight-knit Sauls family have lived all their lives in the same isolated place on the Gulf of Mexico. They are so tight-knit that cousin has been marrying cousin for generations with no adverse effects other than an extra little finger on one hand. They rent out simple cottages to visitors, run a small store and their days revolve around family, oyster boats and fishing but although their lives seem to be circumscribed they have had their share of human experiences.

And there is more to come during this strange hot summer of a “seemingly endless stretch of clear, lifeless days with the Gulf pulled flat and shiny like a green taffeta ribbon and the sky a constant blue.” That summer two guests are staying at the Sauls’ place, a big hairy biker who claims to be psychic and a sad, gentle young man who arrives with a bag of tiny bones. While the heat gets more and more oppressive and the rain is not coming, tensions rise and events come to a head.

Old Bobby Sauls is tired of the sameness of his life, the tediousness of his days and when “Psychic Ike” makes a vague prediction Bobby experiences several visions which however don’t amount to the unique and wonderful event he is longing for and he knows the Gulf has to be in it.

The Gulf in this novel is as important a protagonist as the other characters and that makes the novel so wonderful. Mr. Harrison is a poet and his descriptions of the Gulf in all its varied moods couldn’t be lovelier. The same can be said for his descriptions of the Sauls’ place. We see the little white cottages and the coral path shining in the sun, hear the wind rustling in the palmetto fronds, the shrieking gulls and the crickets and cicadas droning in the pines, we smell the sea water and the oyster shells and the coming rain …

The title, the cover, the story - it's a gem of a book.