Body Surfing: A Novel by Anita Shreve
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Book Reviews of Body Surfing: A Novel
Book Review: Least Favorite of them all
Summary: 2 Stars
While I am a huge fan of her work and have read all of her books this was absolutely my least favorite. It took awhile for me to get into and once I did I felt sort of cheated with the end. I completed the book so it wasn't all bad, but it wasn't the greatest. Book Review: Surfing Into Conflict
Summary: 4 Stars
This was a good book but not as good as other novels by Shreve that I have enjoyed. It is still a fairly quick read and good for passing some time.
The basic plot is straightforward - a family hires a tutor (Sydney) for their daughter, and there are two older brothers which sets up the some of the main portions of the book. Then there are are other issues such as the conflict between Sydney and the mother of the family.
Eventually the book does wind up being satisfying reading even if it is not the best work by the author.
Book Review: Surfing between 3 and 4 stars
Summary: 3 Stars
Anita Shreve comes through once again with an emotional and involving look at interpersonal relationships. Body Surfing tells the story of Sydney, a young woman who takes a summer tutoring job to get off the emotional roller coaster of her life for a bit. At the tender age of 29 she's been divorced from her first husband and widowed by her second. Tutoring sweet but slow Julie at her parents sea side vacation home seems like just the calming ticket to Sydney, and it is, until Julie's two brother's show up. Ben, Jeff and Sydney become entangled in ways that change everyone's lives as old scores are settled with fresh attacks in a family where appearances mean more than realities. I just wished for a bit more development of the characters, hence the somewhat low rating.Book Review: Shreve Does It Again
Summary: 4 Stars
Her insight into affairs of the heart shines again in this crisply written story that returns us to her favorite sea shore.
I enjoyed the journey!
Book Review: A Sequel of Sorts
Summary: 4 Stars
Can a house be a main character? It is in this book, which features the same New Hampshire beach house that appeared in The Pilot's Wife, Fortune's Rock and Sea Glass. The house remains steadfast, but the lives of the people who occupy it are as stormy and unpredictable as the Atlantic Ocean it faces.
This time we meet the Edwards family, consisting of genial Mark, impossibly snobbish and nasty Anna, and their "slow" daughter Julia, who, nevertheless, is expected by Anna to pass her SATs and go to college like her two older brothers, now successful adults. To that end, the family hires Sydney, a young widow, as a live-in tutor for the summer.
The personalities in the house mesh in strange and unpredictable ways, and when the two brothers come to stay, a love triangle begins that predictably ends in disaster. Along the way, Julie breaks out of her family-imposed torpor in surprising ways, and to continue the ocean analogy, everything is as predictable as the tides, and as unpredictable as a sudden squall.
I loved this book. I loved the spare use of language, the careful unfolding of the personalities, the strange twists and turns of each life, and the predictable--yet not--ending.
If you like Anita Shreve, you will ike this book, one of her best. But for those who do not like her, it is quintessential Shreve, and judging by the wide range of reviews, not to everyone's taste.