Tideland
by Mitch Cullin
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Book Summary Information
Author: Mitch CullinEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-01-31
ISBN: 080231340X
Number of pages: 182
Publisher: Dufour Editions
Book Reviews of Tideland
Book Review: Alice in Suburbia
Summary: 4 Stars
Tideland is a fascinating read that stops just short of being good enough to be considered a classic. Even if at first it seems just another updated version of Alice In Wonderland / The Wizard of Oz / The Neverending Story etc. - a child creating a fantasy world as a way of dealing with difficulties of life and a metaphor for growing up - it becomes abundantly clear very early on that Jeliza-Rose's story is a very different one from those of Alice and Dorothy. Tideland is decisively stronger and darker than those classics, and subtlety is all but forgotten; Mitch Cullin makes no attempt to disguise the horrors he writes about or to disguise his novel as a children's tale. Tideland is definitely a novel for adults, and Cullin gives the reader the awful truth straight and headlong.
That is the novel's strength but also its weakness. All too often Cullin seems to be bent on shocking the reader in any manner available to him, and the hopelessness of Jeliza-Rose's life is so obvious and overwhelming, the novel soon becomes unbearably depressing. Jeliza-Rose's optimism fails to convince; her situation is too impossible, and she is obviously far too disturbed and distorted to be taken seriously as a narrator. Which brings me to the biggest problem I had with the novel - even though I got past all the others, this kept bugging me. Cullin seems not entirely certain of the manner and style in which he narrates his story. The story is told in the past tense - in a way that hints at a long period of time passed between the event and the telling. However, Jeliza-Rose as a narrator seems sometimes aware of her situation and sometimes not; sometimes the story is told from the point of view of a little girl in a disturbed state of mind, sometimes that of a grown woman looking back at her own harsh childhood. And all too often Cullin's own voice creeps into the mix.
With that chronic stylistic problem in mind, the story of Tideland is still fascinating enough to be an excellent read. Yes, it's depressing and it's frustrating, but it's also not too long for its own good and fueled with enough humor, morbid and dark though it is, to make it quick and engrossing. Tideland is not an easy read, but a difficult and pessimistic tale. While it falls somewhat between the lines, not at all working as a mature and sophisticated children's tale and not quite complete enough to be a real literary classic - Tideland fails to reach the full of its potential but it's filled with original and enticing imagery and descriptions, and a terrific little story. I'm excited to see it transformed to the big screen by the great Terry Gilliam, because the dark and surreal imagery has great cinematic potential and Gilliam is probably the best man to bring out the book's terrific potential. It's all too likely that the film will be good enough to completely overshadow the novel, but it's still worth checking out.
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