February doesn't grow old

For 25 years, Helen O'Mara has been living with the ghost of her husband Carl, who died, along with 83 other men in 1982 when the off-shore oil rig Ocean Ranger sank off the coast of Newfoundland. A historically true story that shattered many lives, Moore filters a painful event through one woman and her family. Like her first novel Alligator, Moore shifts between time-frames and character perspectives---Helen's son John is facing impending parenthood with a relative stranger and Helen is trying to move forward with her own life---but there's an emotional resonance in February that was lacking in Alligator, and the chronology moves are less distracting. Above all, Moore is a master of language: she's economical but every bloody word is so damn perfect and void of cliche. A beautiful love story and a poignant reminder that sensuality and desire doesn't end at 25 years old.