Subtle and engaging story about a liminal society. While very much set in its time, it's not outdated. ( )

Nenna James, una joven canadiense sin medios para alquilar una vivienda en el Londres de principios de los 60, vive con sus dos hijas en una barcaza anclada en el Támesis. Ninguna de las tres pertenece ni al agua ni a la tierra firme, y comparten su existencia con unos vecinos que se encuentran, como ellas, a la deriva: Willis, un artista que intenta vender su decrépita nave a pesar de su pésimo estado; Richard, que vive a bordo de Lord Jim con su mujer, Laura, aunque ella preferiría mudarse a otro sitio; o Maurice, que ni siquiera protesta cuando su barcaza empieza a llenarse de objetos robados. Todos ellos van a contracorriente, en un espacio en el que podrían primar la sencillez y la libertad de la vida excéntrica, pero que se ve salpicado por los pequeños reveses cotidianos de cualquier existencia humana.

absolutely amazing! an extraordinary little book. i expect the way it ends is responsible for the lower ratings than it deserves, but it also is kind of perfect... ( )

“Biologically they could be said, as most tideline creatures are, to be ‘successful’. They were not easily dislodged. But to sell your craft, to leave the Reach, was felt to be a desperate step, like those of the amphibians when, in earlier stages of the world’s history, they took ground. Many of these species perished in the attempt.”

Set on a houseboat docked at Battersea Reach on the Thames, Nenna James lives on the Grace with her two daughters. Her estranged husband does not understand her desire to live on a barge, so he has been living apart from the family.

This is a character-driven novel with little plot. Nenna seems to be trying to organize her life but is not doing a good job of it. She has difficulty making decisions. Her daughters are often left to their own devices. The characters are eccentric. Maurice is storing stolen goods and Richard is an ex-soldier with an unhappy wife. Willis is an aging artist whose boat is sinking.

The title seems to be a metaphor for the lives of the people living at Battersea Reach. They are adrift and their lives are in disorder. This is a short book that won the Booker Prize in 1979. I liked it, especially the writing, but found the ending rather unsatisfying.
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Offshore is a very short book, only 141 pages, and the story it tells is almost ordinary, if you can consider people living on the Thames in moored boats ordinary in any way. The main narrative revolves around Nenna, a mother of two, living separated from her husband, Eddie, who simply refuses to live on the dilapidated barge she has purchased.

There is one character who made this book work for me, and it is Nenna’s 6-year old daughter, Tilda. She isn’t meant to be the main character, but for me the only parts of the book that had life were the ones she was central to. She sparkled, and I conjured a specific mental image of her every time she appeared on the page.

I am a quote marker, and I found that I had read this book and marked only two passages, and neither of them was striking. I compared that with the Elizabeth Taylor novel I had just read, in which I had marked passages on every few pages and had quotes of stunning elegance and wisdom to revisit when I had finished.

Here’s the best one from Offshore. I could relate to the idea that physical distance is irrelevant if emotional distances exist.

After all, she thought, if she did go away, how much difference would it make? In a sense, Halifax was no further away than 42b Milvain Street, Stoke Newington. All distances are the same to those who don’t meet.

There is nothing to dislike about his novel. Fitzgerald tells the story seamlessly, there is flow and character to the writing, but having won the Booker, I expected something more.The boats, vessels that are meant to move, are all moored at Battersea, and all the people in the novel seem to be stuck in their lives, not moving forward nor, of course, able to move backward; caught between the land and the water. Frequently during the course of the novel, characters are literally hanging above the river on precarious little boards that cross from one boat to the next. That theme and image is pervasive, and each of the characters is clearly at a crossroads in life and almost willfully choosing not to make the decisions necessary to begin their next chapter.

I wanted to be in love with this novel, but I could never make the commitment. Perhaps I had that in common with the motley crew who live in the barges and boats on the Battersea Reach. A lack of commitment would be understood by them all.

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