I was really entinced by Ghost Wall, particularly the sharpness of setting up a highly meaningful topic within an everyday life encounter. And it is rightly so, as (bad) habits and (mis)interpretations rarely took place at a larger scale in a neutral, ´academic´ environment. Rather, ideas took out of the context are spreading with the speed of light through the simple daily interactions and communication.
Her other novel I had the chance to read, Summerwater, which has a scent of lockdown feeling although finished way before the Covid epidemics is set within one day, during the summer holidays, in the Scottish Trossack. The residents of the wooden holiday cabins do have secrets, long for privacy for all the good and wrong reasons, are undecided or just confused. But all do have a big or small issue with the residents of one of the cabins - some loud Romanians/ Bulgarians/Ukrainians/etc. Instead of regarding them as just another holidaying family in Scotland, they are judged and labelled and definitely rejected as members of the summer collective. Until all the tensions will burst out.
I just mentioned in another post I´ve written today about my fascination with beautiful nature writing. The nature intermezzo in Moss´ book are perfect such depictions, atmospheric and emotionally detailed. Except that the comparison between humans and animals is not always working. But in sounds fairy-tale-like and therefore acceptable.
An interesting aspect explored in the book has to do with cohabitation. Either in the family or in the community, sharing your space with other human being doesn´t come easy and involves a tremendous constant effort of negotiation and reconsideration.
Summerwater do echoes some lines of thought from Ghost Wall but it goes deeper into the human closets of the brain and humanity in general. It does not fully resonate with my mindset or approach but nevertheless it shares a writing philosophy and set of values.
Rating: 3.5 stars
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