The Mariner's Star

by Candida Clark

THE MARINER'S STAR is a short, sharp, knock-out of a book. It's a gripping, dramatic adventure and a mesmeric love story: the last hours of a woman who has lost those she loves at sea, and sets out to face her own inevitable death. Whether or not she will survive storms and shipwreck in order to kill herself, or to find redemption, makes THE MARINER'S STAR one of the most exciting, shocking, powerful novels you will ever read.

Genres: Fiction

Paperback

First published June 5, 2002

About the author

Candida Clark is the author of six novels including The Last Look (1998) and The Constant Eye (2000). She has also written film-scripts, short stories, poetry and criticism.

Reviews

[anthropomorphism · Rating 2 out of 5]

the author tries her hardest to be all poetic and splendid, but honestly she's a bit too desperate with all these adjectives everywhere. not much of a plot either? it's one thing leaving the reader to guess what's going on but not for a whole book.

[Malou · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a well written book but not really my cup of tea. I simply couldn't get into the novel's mood. I suppose I expected something different altogether.

[Georgina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh dear. This book had very little to say, but was determined to say it in a long and langorous journey through metaphor after metaphor so that, despite it's brevity, I - to emulate - foundered on the sharp rocks that edge a sea of dense and archaic vocabulary. Who was this narrator - a fishing village local with the voice of an English scholar. It tried so hard to be evocative and yet I gleaned no deep sense of sea, or sky, love or loss, love or despair or fear of either.
Style was way deeper than content.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty, pretty, pretty. I never really liked the plot, nor the ending, but Clark's a great writer who can harp metaphors with the best of them. She does have a tendency to overdo it, but then, I said the same of Atwood. It's a quieter, more flowery book, but I really liked this and would recommend it to any other fan of poetic prose.

[Chel · Rating 2 out of 5]

F2F group PMQ

Although beautifully written, this book was too slow for me. Most in the discussion group found this book to be the same except K who related to the loss and loved the writing style. This was my first book with PMQ F2F group.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think it deserves 2 3/4th starts, and I will admit that I skimmed most of the book, beautifully written and some of it was really amazing, but on a whole the book never pulled me in enough to wade through all the text.

[Roberto · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading this book was similar to take a trip on a sail boat in a windless Summer day : despite the beauty and serenity , soon we yearn for a little wind to move the boat a little faster as the pace as the boat advances is too slow.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a highly descriptive novel with very little action – not really my type of book. The story tells of a fisherman’s wife’s love and loss and the physical and emotional hold the sea has on her life.