Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald

Offshore was published in 1979 and won the International Booker Prize that year. Her writing has been called the novelistic equivalent of a Turner watercolor.

This takes place at Battersea Reach, where a cluster of permanently moored barges forms a unique colony of people who consider leaving for land a desperate step.

Richard is their de facto leader, living with his wife Laura on a Ton class minesweeper named Lord Jim, its grey paint always new.

Maurice is an amiable young man making his living picking up men in the local public house. He has renamed his barge from the unpronounceable to simply Maurice.

Marine artist Willis lives on the Dreadnought, which is currently for sale. He asks everyone to politely not mention its growing hull leak to prospective buyers.

Our featured character is Nenna James, living on the Grace with her two young girls, Martha and Tilda. She is still married, although after her husband returned from work in South America, he moved into a room in northeast London and happily remains there despite each knowing the other's address. Nenna is ambivalent about her girls preferring to search the mud of the Thames for valuables to sell instead of attending school; the extra money is required for the latest Elvis or Cliff Richard record from Woolworth's. The three seem to care nothing for the future, and as a result, have a great capacity for happiness. Nenna takes in an Austrian student for the night, visits her sister at a London hotel, and the neighbours confide their concerns to as friends do.

This was Penelope Fitzgerald's third novel, a surprise Booker winner. Based partially on her own experience living on a Thames barge named Grace, she captures well the restlessness of the houseboat dwellers. Her novels study the subtle interactions of people in a tight-knit community, a small slice of life that begins and ends with moments of everyday humor. Without major drama, this is quiet and not necessarily recommended. The Guardian stated: "Offshore left me feeling rather like I had spent several hours on a draughty barge: cold and with dampened enthusiasm for the whole experience."

I much preferred her novel The Bookshop, which I recommend over this.

1979 / Tradeback / 208 pages

My other review for Penelope Fitzgerald:

The Bookshop