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    Last Light over Carolina
    Last Light over Carolina
    Last Light over Carolina
    Audiobook9 hours

    Last Light over Carolina

    Written by Mary Alice Monroe

    Narrated by Sandra Burr

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    Every woman in the lowcountry knows the unspoken fear that clutches the heart every time her man sets out to sea. Now, that fear has become a terrible reality for Carolina Morrison. Her husband, shrimp boat captain Bud Morrison, the only man she’s ever loved, is lost and alone somewhere in the vast Atlantic fishing grounds, with a storm gathering and last light falling.

    As the action unfolds on this one terrifying, illuminating day, Carolina and Bud Morrison look back across thirty years of love and loss, joy and sorrow. Carolina walked away from a well-to-do upbringing to marry Captain Bud Morrison. She embraced his extraordinary lifestyle by the sea and the customs of a historic shrimping village. Yet lately, hard times and the loneliness of long separations have driven them apart—and driven her to make a mistake that threatens to shatter their once-unbreakable bond forever.

    When Bud Morrison is overdue at the docks, the closeknit community rallies together to search for one of its own. But Carolina knows that it is their love that must somehow call him home, across miles of rough water and unspeakable memories. And she swears that if she is given one more chance—for love and for forgiveness—nothing will ever take her from this man’s side again.

    In Last Light over Carolina, Mary Alice Monroe once again explores a vanishing feature of the southern coastline, the mysterious yet time-honored shrimping culture, in a convincing and compelling tale of an enduring marriage.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateJul 14, 2009
    ISBN9781423331278
    Author

    Mary Alice Monroe

    Mary Alice Monroe is a New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of thirteen novels. Her books have received numerous awards, including the RT Lifetime Achievement Award, Florida Distinguished Author Award, SC Book Festival Award, and the International Fiction Award for Green Fiction. An active conservationist, she lives in the low country of South Carolina where she is at work on her next novel.

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    Reviews for Last Light over Carolina

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      When you read a Mary Alice Monroe book, be prepared to learn something. She'll spin a tale, filled with complex, but realistic characters, in a beautiful setting, but she'll also have some element of the tale that will probably help educate you a bit more about some aspect of life connected with her story. Since most of her books are set in my beloved lowcountry, I'm happy to expand my knowledge of the area and learn more about our lowcountry culture.Last Light over Carolina is set just up the road a tad in McClellanville. Used to be, most folks from off didn't know about this little fishing village, but it's gotten better known in these days when the southeastern coast is a tempting spot of others to vacation. Back in 1989 (September 21, to be exact) a hurricane called Hugo rolled in there, covering our entire state with its winds, rain, and floods. This book takes place nineteen years later, pretty much over the course of one day. It centers on a shrimper and his wife, playing out the events of the day against a backdrop of memories.I have to admit, that when I first saw the date of events in the novel, September 21, 2008, I knew exactly where I was that day (caring for my mother, after surgery), just as I knew exactly where I was on that fatefully day Hugo came a'callin'. Both dates changed my life, just as the events of the day in the novel changed the lives of Carolina and Bud. But, when bad things happen, people can often dig down into the well of their souls and come up with a courage they might not know they possessed.This is a gentle tale of two people, their marriage and their family. It is not a story of perfection, and in that, it is perfect. Mary Alice Monroe moves the reader along a single day, from first light of morning, to the last light as the sun sets on the Carolina shore. And in the course of that day, I learned a little more about shrimpers, fishing, a town called McClellanville, and my beloved lowcountry.
    • 1/5
      This book was boring as hell... there wasn't one character I gave a crap about and it was painful to read.
    • 4/5
      Love this author, read the book in one day… yes, we had a snowy day and night in New England and this is what I love to do. I sit and read authors that write a really good book about somewhere in the Low Country and old homes and the beach and sea. Good book!
    • 5/5
      Husband a shrimper goes out alone-wife ponders their marriage. Money trouble- daughter's marriage. Flashbacks of past. Very Good
    • 5/5
      Bud and Carolina Morrison have been married for well over 30 years. They reside in the small coastal town of McClellanville, South Carolina where Bud captains the Miss Carolina - his shrimping boat. Although being a shrimper is not the easiest of lives (long, hard-working days) - it is something that he would not give up for the world. Like any marriage - Bud and Carolina’s has not been an easy one they have definitely had their share of bumpy roads, but they have found a way to overcome these obstacles and have held strong to their lives together.The story takes place in the course and scope of one day. Bud wakes up that morning well before dawn and heads out for the day’s catch. Once his ship is ready to sail out and after waiting for his deckhand, who is late, he decides to head out on his own - not an easy thing for one man to do (and definitely not for one well into his sixties now). Due to bad weather and an accident at sea Bud is missing causing Carolina’s nightmares to become a reality. Most of the day Carolina has had a dreadful feeling in her stomach... she feels as if something is wrong but just can’t pinpoint what it is.While Bud is at sea and Carolina runs around doing her daily errands, we slip back and forth between flashbacks of their lives together. The realities of being a shrimper and a shrimper’s wife, how they first met, making a home, having a baby, the destruction of Hurricane Hugo, long separations (if the shrimp don’t come to you, you must go to where the shrimp is), and how the local shrimping market is being affected by foreign shrimp being used at much lower rates. Prepare to be taken on a roller coaster journey through the lives of two people as they come to realize how precious life really is and how important they really are to one another.I really enjoy character driven novels like this. The flashbacks are told in a way where you get both sides of the story which give these characters a depth that you feel as if you know them and you can't help but fall in love with them (flaws and all). I love that you learn so much about shrimping... and I could even relate somewhat to Carolina’s feelings - since my grandfather was a fisherman (back in the day). I remember the nights that my grandmother stayed up waiting for him or the days that went by while she waited by the phone for that call from a dock somewhere just to let her know that he was okay. The writing is superb - you can almost feel the Southern twang while reading it. This was a beautiful and poignant story about life, love and hope that I honestly loved and highly recommend.
    • 3/5
      After 33 years of marriage, Bud and Carolina Morrison have drifted apart. Bud's existence centers on shrimping and his boat, the `Miss Carolina.` One stormy day Bud's deckhand doesn't show up and Bud takes the boat out alone. Bud is severely injured with no help in sight. Carolina spends the day reminiscing about their marriage, feeling something terrible has happened. An interesting technique. The book describes one day in the life of Bud and Carolina. Recommend
    • 5/5
      Last Light over Carolina - by Mary Alice MonroeBud and Carolina Morrison have been married for over 30 years when we first meet them in 2008.They live in the South Carolina lowcountry; a hot, humid ,sultry area of South Carolina. They have one grown child, one grandchild and a whole lot of regrets, debts and personal pain. As the captain of the shrimp boat, Miss Carolina, Bud has seen tough times. Heck, anyone who withstands over 30 years of marriage, knows just how tough things can get, and for shrimpers in the lowcountry things are even tougher than the norm. Shrimping is one of the more dangerous careers and on the 21st day of September 2008, after nearly 40 years of shrimping, Bud is going to find out just how dangerous and lonely it can be. Sadly, this is also the one day that he does not give his wife that kiss good bye. And that is how our tale begins. Deftly jumping back and forth in time, with points of view passing between husband/Captain/father and wife/mother/woman of all trades, this sometimes heart breaking but always hopeful novel, is as much about the issues facing those who venture into the fishing/shrimping industry, as it is about the marriages of those who dare to try this way of life. Last Light over Carolina lets us feel firsthand what it is like to have faced down Hurricane Hugo and to come out a winner. It lets us feel what it is like to be in a marriage that takes your husband away for weeks at a time and lets us feel the hopelessness when things get ugly. It takes a near death to get us to understand that” love has the power to forgive”. But most of all, this novel teaches us to ask ourselves the hard questions, like “Was I loved, and did I love in return?” Gratefully Mary Alice Monroe never allows her characters to wallow in self-pity as other authors might have done. Thankfully, there is no great angst, no over sentimentality just a feeling of what it truly feels like to be in this family’s shoes.This is a wonderful novel filled with history, nature and joy and a not so perfect happy ending.
    • 4/5
      After reading the description I thought this book would be a lot like The Perfect Storm. I was wrong. It was a great story and a truly touching and emotional book. While the story's main plot revolves around Bud and the perilous situation he is in there is so much more to this one. As Bud and Carolina go through their day they recall memories from their past. Not all of them are good, but they all show how life can take it's toll on a marriage. How just loving someone may not always be enough and how the heart works in mysterious ways. The writing was great. Mary Alice Monroe did a great job capturing the dialect and portraying it in her writing. The two main characters are very well developed and the secondary characters aren't just two dimensional. The flashbacks were done perfectly and they didn't make the story feel choppy. Even at almost 400 pages it didn't really take me that long to read. The story keeps you connected and wanting to know more. This one was really good, I'm adding her last one to my To Read list!
    • 5/5
      Last Light Over Carolina by Mary Alice Monroe. This book examines the life of a low country shrimper family. The stresses of a dangerous, low paying occupation are contrasted with the love of independence and traditions of a multi-generational family occupation. It is a story of love, tests and growth of a couple struggling to redefine their relationship. I honestly thought I would find the book boring. Boy, was I wrong! I grew up in a dying steel town and there were some surprising parallels between my past and the life of a commercial fisherman in a dying seacoast town. The characters were clearly defined, warts and all. The competition to earn a dollar and the incredible cooperation when danger threatened was eye opening and captivating. The desire to see your family safe and taken care of was another area of similarity. My own father worked in a job he hated to insure his family’s thriving. Bud Morrison loved his occupation even when it failed to provide him with the wherewithal to support his family. The frustrated interplay between characters and their need to be responsible and often lonely and the want to be closer physically, mentally and emotionally was sometimes draining. You end up really feeling for these people and their life altering dilemmas. Monroe paints her environment with digital clarity; you can see the Miss Carolina in the Morrison colors, the smell of the sea and the discordant aromas of dying sea life and fresh ocean breezes. I think this story will resonate with practically anyone who has ever held a job that was both demanding and exhilarating. I saw people I knew in an industry I knew nothing about. The book moved me and surprised me for how much I enjoyed it. I highly recommend it.
    • 3/5
      Shrimping is a hard way of life. It is tough work for less and less payoff these days given the global economy. It is dangerous and messy. Gruelingly physical. But it it the only way of life for so many people in small coastal South Carolina towns. And it is here, in one of these towns that Mary Alice Monroe has set her new book.Bud Morrison comes from a shrimping family. It is in his blood and is the only thing he's ever had the desire to do. He is a good captain, safe and competent, but like so many others scrambling to make a living, he is deeply in debt. Married to Carolina for 30 plus years, he worries that they'll lose the big, beautiful house she inherited from family if he doesn't have some good runs. And this worry is one of the reasons that drives him out alone on his boat the fateful day chronicled in this novel.Told in chapters from Bud's point of view, as well as wife Carolina's, we go through the day with the characters, hearing their worries and glimpsing the stresses and fissures in their marriage and in their lives. Each character reminisces about their past together, the mistakes they've made and what has brought them to the pass in which they find themselves now. Despite taking place all in the framework of one day up until the very last chapter, the reader is taken through Bud and Carolina's meeting and instant zinging connection, the early years when so in tune that they shrimped together, the years of escalating stresses about money, the betrayal that they pushed past but never quite managed to leave behind, and the current detente of a chilled marriage.All of the memories that flood through Bud and Carolina during the day bring them to a greater understanding of what they want out of life and this comprehension becomes the touchstone that pushes them through the crisis they each face when Bud's boat the Miss Carolina is overdue. Carolina knows in her heart something is wrong but she is ignorant of what the reader knows to be going on onboard. And it becomes a race against time to find the boat and Bud before it is too late.The major side plot here involves Bud and Carolina's grown daughter and her ex-husband. Like her father, Lizzy's ex is a shrimper and although she still cares for him more deeply than she'd like to admit, she doesn't want to live the life she's grown up seeing. But Josh is persistent and as Lizzy goes through the day her father is missing, she comes to some home truths about love and marriage and community. And Josh, as part of that community rallies to find Bud and his boat.Even though the reader is aware at all times what has happened to make Bud late getting in, the tension in the novel ratchets up every time a new chapter starts an hour or further into the day. Alternating these chapters with Bud and Carolina's flashbacks serves to easily give the reader the back story between the two of them so that both their connection and their reserve with each other is understandable. But the precipitous alternating also made it harder for me to remain fully in the story. I don't know if a strictly linear account would have had the tension Monroe was going for, but it probably would have worked a bit better for me.Second changes and forgiveness run through the novel thematically, and not just through Bud and Carolina's marriage and Josh's and Lizzy's relationship. It is evident in Bud's willingness to employ his cousin as his striker despite the fact that Pee Dee has been blamed by so many for Bud's younger brother's death. It is evident in Bud's former best friend being willing to allow the fleet to gas up free of charge to search for Bud despite Bud's and his long standing animosity. But Monroe never suggests that second chances or forgiveness is easy. Her characters suffer and struggle. They are imperfect but through the aegis of this accident, they will come to understand that the powerful love that so consumed them in the early years is still there, waiting under the surface of the communication problems, the financial struggle and stresses, and the day to day mundanities that threaten to weaken a marriage. And that chance for happiness all over again is really the ultimate message of the book. And if the book occasionally felt a little emotionally manipulative, the uniqueness of the setting and the appeal of the characters themselves helped to ameliorate that, making this a page turner right at home on a lazy summer day at the beach.
    • 5/5
      Life is hard in McClellanville, South Carolina. It was built on shrimping, a difficult and demanding industry that had once been good. With the easy access to foreign shrimp and the decreasing catches over time, more and more people are leaving McClellanville behind. Carolina and Bud Morrison have lived the shrimper's life. They married with much passion and high hopes for the future, but they're marriage is about as vital as Bud's credit. Bud leaves for work on his boat, the Miss Carolina in the morning without making Carolina get up to fix him breakfast. She was up with a toothache most of the night and he wanted to allow her some more sleep. Still, they had faught the night before and he left without a kiss. They both remember the glory of their early days together and wonder if the lethargy and lack of forgiveness that has engulfed their marriage is just part of being married for so long. They had no idea what would happen to Bud that day on the Atlantic and how it would change their perspective on everything.My favorite scene of the novel was the scene where Bud, his father Oz, his brother Buddy, and his cousin Pee Dee found their own secret sweet spot of shrimp and brought in the haul of their lives. Despite the harsh lifestyle required to be a shrimper, it was easy to see why the exhilaration of that day would keep a man working in that craft for life. It's equally easy to understand why a man looking to regain his place in his community and his stature in his family would choose to return to that spot even when the conditions were not favorable. His marriage is rocky and the fact that he can't provide basic dental care for his wife makes him feel even worse. He found magic in that spot of the ocean where the Morrison family stacked their claim thirty years ago. Going back was the only logical thing he could do to save them.This is the first novel I've read by Mary Alice Monroe. I've only heard good things about her writing and now I see why. From the beginning there was something comfortable and familiar about her prose. There was just something about this story and the way that it was written that felt like home. The simple introduction of Carolina barely awake with a toothache while Bud prepared for the day felt so lived. That passage brought to mind flashes of Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson from In the Bedroom, a movie with just the right tone and lighting for their home and their marriage. Just as in the movie, the characters are real. They don't sleep in full make-up and they are almost simply resigned to their fate.Last Light over Carolina is a beautiful novel that tells the story of a marriage, a family, and a struggling coastal South Carolina town. What happens to McClellanville and the Morrison's marriage mirror each other. They both have lost the passion that made them what they were. From the moment I picked it up, I never wanted to put it down. Reading this book made it so easy to understand why the life surrounding shrimp is so often romanticized. Despite the hard work and awful hours, the world opens up in a special way only for them. It's no wonder when you Google shrimp boat, you'll find so many oil paintings and watercolors. Just like Monroe's writing, it captures and keeps your imagination. I cannot recommend this novel highly enough.
    • 5/5
      Last Light Over Carolina by Mary Alice Monroe is a salty sea tale of Bud Morrison, a longtime captain of a shrimp boat, and his wife of over 30 years, Carolina Brailsford on the day he suffers a debilitating injury at sea. Over the course of the day, memories of Bud and Carolina reveal the heady first years of their marriage interspersed with the prime of the shrimping industry. As the day unwinds, so does their marriage as the shrimping business takes a hit for the worse with the influx of foreign shrimp.Carolina is portrayed as intelligent, hardworking, and committed to her marriage. Bud seems to be drawn ever farther away with the Miss Carolina just to make ends meet. Bud and Carolina seem to be a team that thinks it is working together only to be drifting ever farther apart. But through it all the beauty of the ocean and their love for each other will eventually lead them to safe shores. By the time divorce is considered, I alternately wanted to cheer for Carolina and conk some sense into Bud. The ending is all encompassing and painted on the broad South Carolina shores. I had a big lump in my throat and tears in my eyes with the most satisfying conclusion. There had to be a majestic ending for a story that just gets bigger as it goes along. Last Light Over Carolina can proudly sit on your shelf with Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Mutiny On The Bounty, and Moby Dick. The story is involving, gritty, dramatic and altogether well written. It is highly readable and memorable and gets my big thumbs up.