Motion of the Ocean

Motion of the Ocean by Janna Cawrse Esarey
Publication date: June 2nd, 2009
312 pgs. (Paperback)

"To celebrate, Graeme shaves his facial hair all wackylike: soul patch and mustache with weird hooky wings around his mouth. He looks like a '70s drug dealer, or our UPS delivery guy."

This book is part love story, part ocean adventure, part self-help, part comedy, part tragedy, part more sailing terminology than I can realistically remember. Janna Cawrse Esarey wrote this book as a way of finding the meaning of "wife" and to remember a grand adventure with her husband, the Dragonfly and the ocean.

Main Characters: Janna, Graeme, The Dragonfly and the Pacific Ocean.

The truth of the matter is that I read this book solely because one of my best friends recommended it. I am going through relationship issues (the big D-I-V-O-R-C-E, as Janna puts it) and, in a moment of severe insecurity, asked my friend, Adam (a sailor, I might add), if I was too damaged to date. His suggestion was to read this book and that it might help me figure out how to make the next relationship work. He said he had just finished it and it would be a quick read for me.

It was not a quick read. Not because I didn't like it. Because I did. I do. There is the small potential that it wasn't the right time for me to read it though. And by small potential, I mean, it was absolutely not the right time for me to read this book. I slogged through it. I started reading it in December and didn't finish until this week.

Interesting bits that were totally worth the read:

- Janna makes a lot of good points about relationships and making them work.

- She has a great sense of humour and I appreciated a lot of her jokes/references and puns.

- Learning about the places that exist in this world.

- I now know a lot more sailing terminology than I did before (which I'm sure makes Adam happy).

It was a difficult book for me. Not just because of the relationship advice (which, I might add, was pretty on point), but because I definitely could sympathize with Janna's depression and my depression made it difficult to really stay focused. And, honestly, I was happy for them to make it through, but them being happy in the end was depressing. It's easy to read a fairy tale happy ending (which I rarely do anyway, because I prefer the sad or open endings) because you know it's not real. It's a fairy tale.

This isn't a fairy tale. This is real life, two people actually working on their relationship. Which made me feel bitter.

All of that aside, Janna's writing style is great. It is easy to read, easy to understand, easy to get sucked into. Her descriptions of places and people and events are also very well written. And I did enjoy the book, in spite of my bitter feelings toward working relationships. There were parts that felt rather repetitive and also felt like she wasn't really paying attention to how her husband was feeling, which I found irksome, but overall her points were valid.

I'd rate this a 6 on my scale. It had some repetitive points and some wandering passages that seemed to have no purpose, but was a decent read and worth the effort.

This book is PG-13 for adult language, references to sex (come on, like you didn't see that coming from the title of this book...) and adult situations.

This book is not okay for people who are in the middle of a divorce (trust me, wait until you're back on even ground and THEN read it), people who have no desire to ever see the world, or sailboats named the Dragonfly (she's not always viewed in the best light being a frenemy of Janna's).

Otherwise, if you are going through a low tide relationship, you may want to read and soak up the suggestions. Maybe it will help. Maybe you'll find yourself packing up for the next hurricane. Who knows? It was a decent book though. So give it a chance!