'Wave' by Sonali Deraniyagala

Wave, Sonali Deraniyagala (2)

I was very surprised that the NYT’s ranked this book in their top 10 for 2013. It is unique, but I did not think it was well written or particularly interesting after the first 35 pages. ‘Wave’ is the non-fictional account of the author’s tragic days during and after the Indonesian tsunami in 2004. She and her family were vacationing on the shores of Sri Lanka when the tsunami hit. The first 35 pages recount how she survived, but tragically lost her parents, husband and two sons. In the rest of this slim book she talks us through how she tried to live during the next 8 years. What surprised me the most was how unlikable she is throughout this book. While I expected to have sympathy for someone who has experienced such pain and grief, and actually felt guilty disliking her, her actions during the crisis and after seemed shockingly self-absorbed. I was most surprised that she didn’t go look for her family in the immediate aftermath. I don’t have children, but I would not have let anyone take me anywhere till I searched the area for my husband and I imagine that is even truer of children. Her protection mechanism of denial (they couldn’t be alive, I can’t look at any dead bodies to identify them or it’s all real) seems to be the only explanation, but that wears thin after 160 pages.