Fortune's Rocks: A Novel
by Anita Shreve
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Book Summary Information
Author: Anita ShreveEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2001-01-02
ISBN: 0316678104
Number of pages: 480
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Book Reviews of Fortune's Rocks: A Novel
Book Review: Shreve Knows How People Work-Emotions, Memories,&Representat
Summary: 5 Stars
First of all I just want say that I have never been let down by an Anita Shreve book. The first one I read was Eden Close, and though I was only ten, I knew that the words I beheld were special. I intend to reread that book now that I'm an adult and will understand it. In this "review" I want to do two things; tell you to READ THIS BOOK AND ALL THE OTHERS BY SHREVE, and to address the some of the other reviewers comments. One of the reviewers said that Olympia and John are not very sympathetic characters- that they are rather selfish. Real people (at least in my experience) are not always very sympathetic, and Shreve does indeed make Olympia and John (all the other characters too) very real. What she has done is take two "ordinary and respectable" people and put them in circumstances that are anything but. She puts them in a situation they never expected themselves to be in leading to actions on their parts they would never before have considered doing, and thus she shows us that who we think we are and what we think we stand for don't always coincide with the reality of our true person. We can all relate to being caught in something; not knowing how we got there, or how to get out. Another reviewer said that her dialogue is "flat" and clumsy. In Fortune's Rocks Shreve writes in images that have the same feel as our own memories do. It can be easy to recall the color of the ocean, or the scent of a lover, but dialogue is not easy to recall, most of the time our memories don't consist of much dialogue, and when they do it IS flat and fragmented. The flatness of the dialogue has another purpose in my opinion, people often do not say what they really truly feel at heart, which leads to a certain falseness of speech, and sometimes when they do say what they really mean (to express their emotions) they often do it in a very controlled "flat" way to guard themselves from rejection, ridicule, and persecution. Shreve conveys her knowledge of human nature in this book. We should all be able to see ourselves in it.
Summary of Fortune's Rocks: A Novel
Hester Prynne never had it so good! The year is 1899, and Olympia Biddeford, the headstrong daughter of a Boston Brahmin family, has decided to test the limits of her cloistered world. Spending the summer at her father's New Hampshire estate, the teenage heroine of Fortune's Rocks is entranced with the visiting salon of artists, writers, and lawyers. She's especially captivated, however, by John Haskell, a charismatic physician who ministers to the blue-collar community in the nearby mill towns. This middle-aged Good Samaritan hires Olympia to assist him as a nurse, and their collaboration soon evolves into a fiery love affair. Alas, it's only a matter of weeks before this passionate exercise in managed care is exposed--with disastrous consequences for the young, impregnated heroine. Even her adoring father now considers her "an overplump sixteen-year-old girl whose judgment can no longer be trusted," and insists that she break off her relationship:"There is nothing more to be said on this subject," he says. She bites her lip to keep from crying out further. She holds the arms of her chair so tightly she later will have cramps in her fingers. She will refuse to obey him, she thinks. She will accept his implied challenge and set off on her own. But in the next moment, she asks herself: How will she be able to do that? Without her father's support, she cannot hope to survive. And if she herself does not survive, then a child cannot live."In the end, Anita Shreve's seventh novel is a polished, supremely entertaining variation on Wuthering Heights, with Olympia and Haskell sitting in for Catherine and Heathcliff. The author did some meticulous research for her New England background, which gives this study of one particular wayward woman some extra historical heft. Some readers may find the plot twists a bit pat. And despite Olympia's efforts to be an independent woman, she overcomes her trials largely as a result of her family's wealth and station, which takes the edge off Shreve's feminist message. Still, Fortune's Rocks is a romance in the classic sense of the word, and should be enjoyed as such, unless the reader is absolutely allergic to happy endings.--Ted LeventhalHester Prynne never had it so good! The year is 1899, and Olympia Biddeford, the headstrong daughter of a Boston Brahmin family, has decided to test the limits of her cloistered world. Spending the summer at her father's New Hampshire estate, the teenage heroine of Fortune's Rocks is entranced with the visiting salon of artists, writers, and lawyers. She's especially captivated, however, by John Haskell, a charismatic physician who ministers to the blue-collar community in the nearby mill towns. This middle-aged Good Samaritan hires Olympia to assist him as a nurse, and their collaboration soon evolves into a fiery love affair. Alas, it's only a matter of weeks before this passionate exercise in managed care is exposed--with disastrous consequences for the young, impregnated heroine. Even her adoring father now considers her "an overplump sixteen-year-old girl whose judgment can no longer be trusted," and insists that she break off her relationship:
"There is nothing more to be said on this subject," he says. She bites her lip to keep from crying out further. She holds the arms of her chair so tightly she later will have cramps in her fingers. She will refuse to obey him, she thinks. She will accept his implied challenge and set off on her own. But in the next moment, she asks herself: How will she be able to do that? Without her father's support, she cannot hope to survive. And if she herself does not survive, then a child cannot live."In the end, Anita Shreve's seventh novel is a polished, supremely entertaining variation on Wuthering Heights, with Olympia and Haskell sitting in for Catherine and Heathcliff. The author did some meticulous research for her New England background, which gives this study of one particular wayward woman some extra historical heft. Some readers may find the plot twists a bit pat. And despite Olympia's efforts to be an independent woman, she overcomes her trials largely as a result of her family's wealth and station, which takes the edge off Shreve's feminist message. Still, Fortune's Rocks is a romance in the classic sense of the word, and should be enjoyed as such, unless the reader is absolutely allergic to happy endings. --Ted Leventhal
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