WALK THE DARKNESS DOWN

A troubled couple journeys through despair and compulsion as they struggle with loss.

After the accidental death of their young daughter two years ago, Les and Marlene’s marriage has foundered. Les seeks respite from his grief in drug use and long stints as a commercial fisherman in an unnamed region of the Northeastern U.S., while Marlene befriends sex workers in the hope of creating a therapeutic maternal role for herself. The two have effectively abandoned one another without formally separating, and the story charts their eventual confrontation with the trauma they have been unable to accept. A notable strength of the work is the engaging backdrop it provides of maritime culture in a declining town. There are consistently sharp and memorable descriptions of land and sea and of the ecological disruptions which form a counterpart to the human world (communities of horseshoe crabs, red-winged blackbirds, and American bullfrogs endure their own systemic challenges here). The author clearly knows this world well; the daily lives of those in the fishing trade, at work and at home, are rendered with a strong sense of authenticity. Several sections that document the routine dangers, professional tensions, and economic realities faced on a scallop boat are particularly gripping. Less successful are the rather stale scenes and occasionally implausible dialogue charting the psychological mechanics of Les and Marlene’s failing relationship or Marlene’s interactions with Josie, her ersatz daughter, and the pimp who eventually reclaims the girl. The novel is written in a style that oscillates, a little awkwardly, between brisk realism and a sometimes-strained poeticism: “He stares straight ahead, eyes glittering and indignant....Music floats pendulously through the apartment and the tired night sighs with a dry wheeze.” Nevertheless, beyond these distractions, the vision of a coastal region and its cultural milieu offered here is often poignant.

A bracing story of grieving, coping, and reaching for the terms of recovery.