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.
This article appears in Aug 6-12, 2009.