Nani Power begins The Sea of Tears by saying it's "all about love" and wondering what isn't. "Every story we hear, every scrap of news, everything we arch our ear toward is ultimately all about love and how we ruin it or seek it or run for it, how we destroy ourselves or others when we feel its loss, or how magically we cure when it is attained." And The Sea of Tears is indeed about love, about the diverse pathways that lead to it, complete with detours, dead ends, and unexpected passages.
Each of the six main characters also comes with one or more stories of loss or unrealized dreams. Yet Power has a compassion for them that doesn't lead us to pity. They are too complex, too real for that. Whether overcoming grief, ghosts, emptiness, or just a lack of inspiration, the characters develop gently before us, learning to listen to the myriad voices they hear (some internal, some not) and embracing the self knowledge that they discover as a result. We can begin to see this type of journey in the titles of the book's four tales: The Broken, The Brave, The Hidden, and The End.
Each of the six main characters also comes with one or more stories of loss or unrealized dreams. Yet Power has a compassion for them that doesn't lead us to pity. They are too complex, too real for that. Whether overcoming grief, ghosts, emptiness, or just a lack of inspiration, the characters develop gently before us, learning to listen to the myriad voices they hear (some internal, some not) and embracing the self knowledge that they discover as a result. We can begin to see this type of journey in the titles of the book's four tales: The Broken, The Brave, The Hidden, and The End.
A Washington, D.C. hotel sets the scene for the six intersecting lives. First we meet Iraqi-born Jedra, the hotel's maintenance man, who knows that all is not well within the building's walls. He is enamored of Phyllis, a front desk receptionist. The beautiful Phyllis has entered a new phase of her life, once isolated as a "weird" child with an inexplicable knowledge of heaven. A guest at the hotel, an Iranian engineer named Khouri, begins his path to love when he impulsively dances with hotel maid Patricia. A practical single mother, Patricia is also an aspiring poet in search of that first true poem. We find the reclusive Daniel in his long-term guest room. An American who grew up in Brazil and thinks he is still living there, he spends his days writing his "life in recipes" and complaining about the dreadful "imported" meals. When he demands to speak to the hotel chef, Leslie, she visits him hoping to find another soul who is passionate about food. Bored with trendy cooking and having abandoned an earlier attempt to make up a country in order to invent its cuisine, Leslie is in dire need of inspiration.
Although the current action spans a short period of time, each story encompasses much more, in some cases a lifetime or multiple generations. Power deftly takes us through different planes of existence with a cast of supporting characters who play out in memories, visions, confessions. She tells us stories of Khouri's ancestors that he doesn't know. She gives us shifting perspectives to see each character from the inside as well as to see each character from another's eyes. Jedra sees Phyllis as out of reach. Jedra and Khouri begin with an animosity toward each other based on the histories of their native countries. Daniel sees Leslie as the maid who cared for him as a boy.
Power also builds on the idea that these characters are but some examples of the lives around us--that she could have chosen other hotel guests or employees to follow, for example, perhaps the other people we see fleetingly in the book, and their stories would also revolve around love. Rather than making her compelling characters seem ordinary, this has the opposite effect: it encourages us to think that each person we run into is in some way extraordinary.
Power also builds on the idea that these characters are but some examples of the lives around us--that she could have chosen other hotel guests or employees to follow, for example, perhaps the other people we see fleetingly in the book, and their stories would also revolve around love. Rather than making her compelling characters seem ordinary, this has the opposite effect: it encourages us to think that each person we run into is in some way extraordinary.
Power's writing has been described as sensory and sensual. Her language in The Sea of Tears is no exception, filled with descriptions for all the senses. We are immersed in the feeling of sweat, of flower petals on bare skin; the sounds of CNN, a Josh Groban song, clanking pipes, Sufi poetry by Rumi; the tastes and aromas of food--Moroccan, Brazilian, Persian; rich images like Phyllis "the Peach" and the "evening light" that "grew as dim and blue as plums."
