Sea Glass: Anita Shreve

I have unwittingly become a fan of Anita Shreve. For one thing, her writing is so easy and quick to read, yet there is an elegance about her stories that offer just what a novel ought to be--an escape. Sea Glass is no different, and if anything, epitomizes Shreve's skill.

In 1920, Honora and Sexton are a Very young newlywed couple who have just moved into a beach house somewhere not too far from Boston and not too near Nantucket. Honora is a naive twenty year old from a small family. Sexton is twenty-four and is a traveling typewriter salesman with no discernible family. In the beginning, as with all marriages, everything seems absolutely blissful. A few other characters are sewn into the mix, including a well-to-do single lady called Vivian, an extremely poor mill hand named McDermott, and the young Franco boy he has taken under his wing, Alphonse. Anita Shreve beautifully intertwines the lives of these characters and builds a very realistic picture of the pre-depression era. As we all know, the roaring twenties were followed by a very bleak depression filled with unionized strikes and tent cities. What begins a story about excitement and love quickly becomes a woeful tale of deceit, struggle, and famine.

The "sea glass" part of the story is really just a very nice poetic touch. Living on the beach, Honora frequently walks the shoreline and soon discovers that the sand is littered with small, smooth pieces of glass that have been softened by the elements. She finds them in a multitude of colors and sizes, and it soon becomes her hobby. In the midst of chaos, she finds peace and calm in the small bits of glass, wondering how they came to be. I am sure there is a beautiful metaphor that Shreve was aiming for, but I can't quite connect the dots. In any case, I love love love the idea of walking in the sand, looking for sea glass.

As I've already mentioned, Shreve's writing is beautiful and elegant. She illustrates an entire era with a few well-developed characters. I won't give away the ending, but it is a surprise, and that impresses me. I find that it's hard to surprise me anymore, so when an author is able to blindside me with a turn of plot line, I admire it.

Rating: $$$

Testimony: Anita Shreve

At a private high school in Vermont, the lives of four teenagers are ruined when a sex scandal is made public. Testimony is just that: testimonies. Shreve has intricately woven the testimonies of various people involved in the scandal, impressively alternating the writing style to give dimension to each character.

Shreve impressed me with her novel Bodysurfing for reasons completely different from why this new novel impresses me. While Bodysurfing was intense with charged family emotions, Testimony is intense with scandal. The students involved give moving testimonies that are set against the parents' grieving accounts of the aftermath. There are a lot of characters in this novel, which is sometimes distracting, but I understand why Shreve includes them. She fills out a complicated story with rounded testimonies from all sides of the scandal.

This is not a story with a happy Hollywood ending. Ultimately, one student is dead and three others are robbed of their future prospects, all for the sake of one drunken night. It seems that Shreve directs the characters to explain motive. While blame is passed around, I'm not sure a motive is really present. Sometimes teenagers get drunk and do stupid things--who knows why?

I respect Shreve as a writer ; her skill is honed. She writes with creativity and insight, and her characters are always dimensional. She manages to take seemingly thin plot lines and infuse them with an entire world of emotions.

Body Surfing: Anita Shreve

Anita Shreve writes like a poet. This was a rich, decadent novel to read simply because of the writing. Shreve has the ability to invoke so much of the story through tone and language. From the very first words I was swept into a very specific time and place. The writing is such that I instantly felt as though I was finally reading a book written for adults.

Sydney is the hired tutor for the "slow" 18-year-old daughter of a well off family. The family is summering at their New Hampshire beach house where Sydney is expected to tutor Julie and otherwise stay out of the way. Shreve sets up a fascinating family dynamic that grows convoluted with Sydney's presence.

Body Surfing has something for everyone--romance, fraternal warring, mystery, and even a coming out story when Julie exposes herself as a lesbian. It's not the best story line I've ever read, but without a doubt, Shreve is one of the best writers I've read in a very long time. It was reminiscent of A.L. Kennedy, who is one of my favorite poets-turned-author.