Swampy’s Sunday Books: ‘The Sea and the Stars’ by Robert Wilder
The Sea and the Stars by Robert Wilder
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Robert Wilder stepped a bit too far in his prose involving detailing so much Daytona Beach and Florida history. I LOVE Florida history and volunteer and work hard to keep the memories live. However, I have to judge this book involving story telling and this one gets stuck in the sand.
The history is great and should be the primary reason for reading this book. The thing of that is,is that some of the history is off or missing. It is a book of fiction, but I feel if he wanted to drape a story over Florida history, he might as well follow a bit more closely instead of bending to the needs to tell the story.
The story is a problem. You follow a person in his life that has a specific goal in mind. Unfortunately, that is all you follow. Much else happens and the story drags. Making the reading even harder is the pages of Florida history in between. A good editor should have pulled Wilder’s chain. I’m having trouble imagining someone not interested in Florida history getting through this book.
Seems to me the truth of this story is that the reader is reading Wilder’s life experiences in Daytona Beach growing up. At least, I hope so. That’s what got me through the book. After reading the very unsatisfying ending, it’s the best I can hope I got from the book.
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