New Book Alert: Broken Sea by Nigel Peace; 1960’s Romance Leads To Journeys of Self-Discovery For Protagonists

New Book Alert: Broken Sea by Nigel Peace; 1960’s Romance Leads To Journeys of Self-Discovery For Protagonists

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: The 1960’s were a time when young people all over the world woke up and strove to change the world around them. Of course many know of the American hippies and activists who protested the Vietnam War and campaigned for causes such as civil rights and women and LGBT rights. But they weren't the only ones. The United Kingdom had the mods, rockers, and hippies, young people who rebelled against conformity  and embraced the counterculture of the era. France had student riots in May of 1968. Even Communist-era Eastern Europe saw its share of protesters particularly in then-Czechoslovakia during the Prague Spring.

The Prague Spring was a period of liberal reform in Czechoslovakia, under strict Communist rule. The Spring lasted from January 5-August 21, 1968. The reforms included loosening of restrictions towards media, speech, and travel and a decentralization of the administrative government. The Soviet government was not happy with the new reforms and in August of 1968 sent Warsaw Pact tanks and troops into end the Spring. The Spring officially ended on August 21, 1968 but many artistic and cultural figures emerged from that time including Milan Kundera’s novel, The Unbearable Lightness of Being. It also produced long-term after effects as many of the people involved in the Velvet Uprising of 1989 that ended Communism forever in Czechoslovakia were also actively involved in the Prague Spring.

Nigel Peace captures that heavy time of student revolt, experimentation, and discovering one's identity in his novel, Broken Sea. Broken Sea involves a love story between a young Englishman and a Czech woman and sees them try to change their worlds and themselves.

Roy comes from a middle class family. He is studying in Manchester to be an engineer, but his heart isn't really into his studies. While vacationing in Wales, Roy encounters Eva, a student from Czechoslovakia who is studying English. The two fall in love and begin an affair in which they are challenged by their changing countries, prejudice from friends and family, and their own perspectives and expectations.

Broken Sea gives us two protagonists that contrast greatly in their backgrounds and outlooks, and both take their own journeys towards self-discovery.

For Eva, her journey is more external. She is involved with the political climate in her country even when she isn't physically there. She is captivated by the independence that she sees among her fellow students and begins to embrace a freer lifestyle including a passionate romance with Roy. However, she still can't get the events from her home country out of her mind.

Every time, Eva returns to her country, it is with a sense of trepidation, fear, and caution over a world that changes so quickly that it's hard to keep up. She sees a friend gain acceptance as a journalist during the Spring and then find his newfound reputation ruined when the tanks go marching in.

In one of several particularly gripping moments, a fellow émigré hears that Eva is returning to Czechoslovakia and asks her to locate her brother. Eva is shocked to learn that the brother was killed in public during a revolt.

The chapters with her and friends and family dealing with the Communist-governed Czechoslovakia are gripping. Tanks roll in. Leaders’ regulations become stricter requiring citizens to follow Communist rule or else. People who were once good friends become spies so it becomes more difficult to express oneself or to trust others.

Eva has a difficult time reconciling the political situation with her independence that she was able to use in England. She feels caught between the world that she once knew and the world that Roy offers and finds it hard to reconcile them.

While Eva's journey deals more with the political hemisphere, Roy's is more internal because it deals with him finding his own place in the world separate from the expectations from his class and family. He studies engineering because his family expects him to, but he is more drawn to philosophical more esoteric paths to knowledge.

Roy gets involved in counter culture ideals like vegetarianism and free love. He is filled with questions about his existence, so he becomes heavily involved in Spiritualism including visiting a creepily accurate medium. He works through his confused feelings with music. (A song for the book is available on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5pByvDwxO8)

Like many young people going off to college and university, Roy is trying to discover himself and in a time like the 1960’s, he experiments. He also finds a creative outlet in his relationship with Eva that allows him to express himself fully.

The romance between Eva and Roy has some sweet moments in which they defend one another in front of critical friends and family members. Even when they are apart, they share an almost psychic sense towards each other. Their romance is almost a release from the tension that they felt when they were surrounded by the political and personal tension.

Most of all Roy and Eva have to navigate through a world of intolerance. Where friends make unkind comments. Where governments can change quickly leaving cruel laws and a battered populace. Where even the slightest cultural difference can lead to a shift in feelings and a rift between lovers. Where sometimes the only thing you can do to fight intolerance is to discover who you really are and what the world around you is really like.