Annie’s early infatuation with an older man turns into an intense passion that she stays loyal to. Much of the figure she is in love with is dreamed up by her own colourful imagination and not the real person she faces.  Soon it turns to the classic romantic triangle where she is the odd one out but she still remains undeterred.  Annie’s internal conflict turns into a conflict with the surrounding situation, she makes a very determined decision which she carries through but her struggle does not stop there. It follows her throughout her life. The novel also conveys the sense of continuity of life and the fact that it is impossible to run away from one’s past. It shows the hero of this adventure internally growing, evaluating and appreciating the positive in life and people she meets.

“So, he stood by her, not betraying her, he shut his mouth and carried the burden with her, he was watertight, reliable, never treacherous.  Yes, he was like a stout castle wall that would hold water and she knew it. After all the life’s experiences that had battered her shoulders like winter storms, if they had taught her anything that was to go for the genetic trait in a male that spelled trust, loyalty, kindness and durability. Peter was all that. So, with him not around, him gone, she felt this huge emptiness, a deep gaping black crevice.” As the above extract depicts, Annie learnt who and what traits had to be appreciated in life after all.

The novel is about 270 pages long, it an easy and at the same time a fascinating story to read.

Blue Boat on the Beach

BLURB

Escape from Soviet Georgia was possible for young ladies in only one way before late 90s: marriage.

But what kind of marriage?

What kind of chance is Annie prepared to take if the man of her dreams is not available?  Can she pay the price of things going wrong? Must she grin and bear Soviet rule? Or does she love her freedom more?

Later, trapped in the role of domestic drudge in the patriarchal society of Costa Rica, can she make her peace with this new life or must she find a new one again? Are freedom and happiness sweeter when you’ve paid a high price for them, or do they both end in bitterness?

In Blue Boat on the Beach Katrina Day gives readers the ground truth of the immigrant experience, helping us to understand it deeper. Blue Boat on the Beach is more than just a love story. As a story of a woman whose life the book follows from her early days till her later complications of her marriage, the upbringing of children. It is depicting the range of women’s issues from the elementary rights of women to be able to work, make a living without harassment and intimidation; to the right to experience the harmony of relationship and home life. The novel also conveys the sense of continuity of life and the fact that it is impossible to run away from one’s past. It shows the hero of this adventure internally growing, evaluating and appreciating the positive in life and people she meets.

Blue Boat on the Beach is also about general human rights. It asks vital questions about the right of movement in the modern globalised world. It asks a question if this ‘world coming closer together’ has benefited an ordinary individual. It shows the inequality of treatment of the scores of populations across the globe as well as the inequality of women in different spots of the world. So, the reader may draw the conclusion that sadly, ‘one shouts of the equality but some are more equal than others’.