Anne suggested this book because a friend of hers had been recommending Rebanks for some time, she didn’t want to read about sheep but couldn’t resist “ I’m a sucker for anything about tides,” and then she found out it was about Eider ducks and was hooked.
A fascinating account of 70 days spent on a remote tiny rocky outcrop off the far north Norwegian coast. On her second read, “too busy thinking about ducks first time round” Anne fully got into the dynamics of the people.
On the island Anna, Ingrid and James have a common purpose, preserving an ancient tradition of collecting down from the Eider ducks. Alongside this central purpose is the “conspiracy” between Anna and James Rebanks to record the last time Anna would spend on the island, which sets up further tension and has its risks for both James and Anna.
The book illuminates the long process of preparing for the ducks’ arrival, the perils of working with nature’s variables and finally the quiet satisfaction of it all coming together.
There was universal admiration and empathy for Anna, understated with an ability to stand up to men. James gives us a portrait of Anna, in the context of the landscape and the eider ducks adding his own thoughts as brush strokes on a canvas. It is a partial view but one which reveals her character, as he slowly reveals the back story of her losing the family island to her brother, and illustrates her methods of coping with solitude and obstacles to her preferred way of life.
The group was divided between those who found Place of Tides soothing, calming, totally absorbing and warm hearted and those who were disappointed, found the note taking style repetitive and thought that the subject would have been suited to a couple of articles rather than a book. This led to the usual lively discussion where there is disagreement leading us all to a better understanding of the book, our thoughts and our reactions.
Comments about the irritating nature of his style: was the noting of the shadow of his glass falling on the page, repetition of Anna looking out of the window, but others saw these apparent non-sequiturs, referring to a boat in the distance, as neatly rounding off a descriptive passage about the process of eider duck rearing or Anna’s health, etc. This style brings the reader back to the present, the moment of writing, the author’s lived experience of the island and his companions. James retreats to his own language in his note taking to process his experience of learning the trade, getting to know Anna and Ingrid and facing his demons. He has a difficult role: one of the observer/anthropologist and also that of the initiate. Whereas the reader gains insights from his sensitive perception of life on the island he is able to clear out his mind.
There is a strong feeling of time and place, wonderful descriptions of a particular landscape embedded in its seascape. The reader enters the harsh reality of living on the edge where the land has provided a particular way of life and traditions difficult to maintain in our modern world. In working this land, the people are in touch with and dependant on nature, they have attained the knowledge of their forebears who have scraped a living over generations.
In a world crisis it may be those who are able to live on the edge who will survive as city dwellers with no such inherited knowledge and practice of harvesting the land will not.