Review: Sealskin

Sealskin by Su Bristow
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I've reflected on this novel for the past few days and just cannot bring myself to recommending it, nor can I say I enjoyed it enough to give it three stars. The classic folktale of a selkie is that a young selkie female has her skin stolen by a fisherman, and unable to return to the sea, goes home with him and lives with him as his wife, bearing him children, who one day find her skin and she grabs it and runs for the sea. Thus it is a story of a woman held captive, birthing children for a man who holds hostage her true nature. There is nothing pleasant in the idea of this non-consensual relationship. Lest someone say, well that's just the way the story is, doh, we can examine some selkie origin tales that make it plain that the selkie can have her revenge for the horrific treatment she and her loved ones endure. See for example the tale of Kópakonan (Seal Woman), a version in which brutality is rewarded with harsh justice. (You'll recall the Faroe Islands as that enlightened place the sea runs red in the pilot whale slaughter festival every year. Yet, even there the selkie story shows a pushback against cruelty.) In any case, I do not feel that Bristow covered any new ground. This book begins with a violent rape, just like we've been shown women have endured since antiquity. She then bears children of her rapist. She remains the captive of her rapist. Until the moment she recovers her sealskin, grabs it and runs for the sea. Sigh. Even the tone of the novel feels somehow distant or flat, in terms of the way the community, Donald, and Mairhi (the selkie) react to her situation. I had hoped for something more in this retelling.

TW: rape

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