nut free nerd

“Like a ribbon of weed I am flung far every time the door opens. The wave breaks. I am the foam that sweeps and fills the uttermost rims of the rocks with whiteness; I am also a girl, here in this room.”

Beautiful. Lyrical. Nostalgic. Devastating. Bittersweet. The Waves follows a group of friends from childhood into adulthood. The friends experience love and loss, grow closer together and farther apart. It’s heartbreaking to watch the wonder and carefree spirit of their childhood by the sea gradually dissipate and lose its luster as the years accumulate. And yet, there’s a sweetness there too: that nostalgia, the memories that stay with them.

What captivated me most about this novel was its narrative voice and structure. The perspective rotates through the friend group, jumping from character to character. Much of it is written in a weird blend of first and second perspective. It’s also mostly written as dialogue, with the characters telling each other what is going on. It’s the kind of narration that makes you want to read it all over again, just to notice how it’s pieced together.

The Waves really encapsulates the bittersweet settling and (dis)comfort of adulthood — how days stack up in the same work routines, how friends grow apart, how childhood dreams become altered. And the ending of this book is so sad, but so perfect: because even as this story ends, you can tell that a new one is beginning. The waves grow and crash and repeat back ceaselessly. It’s all a cycle, a process, a circle.

I read this book in August, which has always felt like a bittersweet, nostalgic month to me. In this way, The Waves is an excellent August book. I’m so glad I finally picked this one up.

Have any Virginia Woolf recommendations? I’d love to know.

Take care xx