16. At the Water's Edge

When is the last time you read a book in one sitting? It's happened for me a few times. I read Into Thin Air in one night in college, so absorbed that I got downright cold in my 90 degree, walkup apartment with no air conditioning in the middle of a humid Milwaukee summer. I read Art of Racing in the Rain in one night, then was disappointed by the ending sometime after midnight. I've read a few books over the course of a plane ride, if I was lucky enough to have a layover in the middle. But, it's been awhile. Now, work/ kids/life/sleep get in the way of more than an hour of interrupted reading time. But, I had it this week for one simple reason.

Puke.

Not my puke. My kids' puke. One kid started up on Easter Sunday and rolled into Tuesday morning home from school. Midway through that day, the other son came home from school and began the process all over again. My husband was out of town for work, so it was on me to stay home with the boys. They watched the first 15 minutes of every show on Netflix - and I read. By the time the puke-fest was over and the last of the laundry was put away, this book was done.

I bought this book because I loved Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants. Her character development and period-perfect setting made that one of my favorite books of that year. When I read the jacket of this one, my expectations were high.

The basic plot involves a young couple and their friend, heading to Scotland to take care of one father's unfinished business: to prove the Loch Ness Monster is real and restore the family name. The quest teaches the female protagonist much more than she ever imagined.

The book instantly absorbs you. The scene is set with a mysterious woman who commits suicide by walking into Loch Ness and letting the water overtake her. That mystery is laid out in the prologue before Gruen leaps ahead a few years and moves into the story proper.

Maddie Hyde is the daughter of a rich man and a crazed woman, who marries into an uppity family. Her husband Ellis is emasculated because physical ailments keep him from serving in World War II. His emasculation, though subtle at first, turns out to be the razor's edge on which they all walk. So desperate to prove himself - to prove his manhood - he drags his wife and friend across the Atlantic in the middle of the war to prove to himself and the world that the monster in the loch is real.

What you learn about Ellis is that his monster is not a mythical sea creature at all.

They crossed the ocean during a war to find a monster; turns out, the monster was with them, albeit hidden, as soon as they left the shore in America.

In Scotland, Maddie discovers her husband's truth, but she finds her own as well. She becomes a contributing member of society for the first time, escaping the demons she left at home.

The plot is fantastic, the side stories are compelling, the characters are multi-faceted and the ending is fantastic. There's a Gastby-esque quality to the men in this book; you also find yourself rooting for Maddie so hard, it makes your heart ache.

So, yeah. It was good. It was fantastic. But, I think I like it even more because I could read it all at once. It's rare that you put everything else aside and just sit quietly to read for hours. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't complete quiet isolation. In between chapters, I snuck in a conference call, a workout, a few dozen tweets and a ton of "Mom, I'm gonna throw up again!" But, I could read long enough that the setting became real and absorbing. I had a few of those moments where I looked up and it took me a second to jolt back to Spokane, Washington and out of the highlands of Scotland.

I can't imagine why someone wouldn't like this book. But, you'll like it even more if you can sit on the couch on a rainy weekday and read while the rest of the world churns on. I wish one of those days for you.

Minus the puke, of course.