Manhattan Beach a novel

Egan is a great writer, the book is sprawling, well researched and rendered (of course), cool to read about Brooklyn a century ago, just not one of my favorites of hers.

** spoiler alert ** OMG, she's such a good writer. Sucks you right in. Fantastic story. You were really rooting for the characters and I think this is because the author has such sympathy and understanding of human foibles. This is a very empowering book for women. The main female character being such a strong person in the time of World War 2 when a lot of women had to take the place of men in the work force. I think my favorite thing about how Jennifer Egan writes though is how she deals with disability and severe learning disabilities. ( Apologies if I have the wrong terminology) She had such humanity as a writer that you feel uplifted as a reader. As if you have just been at a successful therapy session or something. She writes about the beauty in these people and the way they can be more Godly or beautiful than an able bodied/ minded person is. Sorry if my review is a bit saccharine, but it gets 5 stars because I'm still thinking about the book several weeks later and because it made me happy.

Average read, I liked the writing. Story itself was a bit of a stretch for me.

A deeply researched and detailed novel but, at over 400 pages, it is slow at parts and spends too much time on characters you’re not invested in and not enough time is spent flushing out the backgrounds of the heroes of the story. An informative read as someone who lives in Brooklyn as it provides great imagery of the geography of the borough as well as a glimpse into the history of New York’s contribution to the war efforts. Our protagonist, Anna, is a strong-willed young woman whose ambitious nature fizzles out about two-thirds into her story. This novel was clearly written with a contemporary audience in mind as a lot of the views of women’s rights are sometimes brought up in a tongue-in-cheek way.

Unparalleled prose. A wee bit of staleness in the middle. Layered, complex human stories. I want more.

3.5

Absolutely stunning. I fell in love the characters from the start. Beautiful and appropriate ending.

I received a free advance copy of this novel in return for an honest, unbiased review. I haven’t read any of Jennifer Egan’s other novels but they get so much praise that I was thrilled to get this eARC but ultimately I was underwhelmed. The story revolves around Anna who, for the majority of the novel, is working in the Manhattan Navy Yards during the Second World War, contributing to the war industry as so many women did when men were called to fight. Despite the desperate need for labour and the necessity of shifting perspectives with regards to women's work she faces the casual (and not so casual) sexism of male workers, particularly when the sight of a navy diver takes possession of her imagination and she determines to become one of the only female Navy divers. Alongside Anna-as-adult we are introduced to an earlier world of Depression-era hardship and corruption as she accompanies her father Eddie on mysterious visits to powerful, and often much richer, men. Eddie is clearly mixed up in something shady which culminates in his sudden, an unexplained disappearance. He becomes an absence haunting his daughter's life. It is this dual narrative which destabilised the novel, while Anna's has some truly original and gripping aspects (the diving scenes in particular are beautifully written, tense and claustrophobic, Anna's anxiety, excitement and wonder contagious. The pace stalled whenever the narrative switched to Eddie and the murky but rather dull world of union corruption and organised crime. This world is more familiar than Anna's and more prone to cliche and predictability. The players are obvious, they don't do or say anything unexpected and feel like stock characters. In particular the early stage at which Eddie's fate is revealed removes a primary source of anticipation, it would have been better if the reader could have remained in the dark with Anna. While Anna's character, and those around her, are superior to those in Eddie's narrative there are weaknesses there too. In the early chapters we are introduced to Anna's severely disabled sister Lydia. The ways that the family, and other characters, responded to Lydia were some of the most interesting and insightful passages, ranging from adoration to frustration to disgust and there was often love in all of them. Lydia's need for a special chair costing hundreds is one of the driving forces behind Eddie's backroom negotiations and his relationship with with the wealthy enigmatic Dexter Styles which ultimately leads to his uncertain fate. Despite this Lydia, and all the potential for further exploration of her circumstances, disappears not far into the story. In many ways Anna herself would be at home amongst the heroines written by Sarah Waters and Sarah Moss; brave, determined, independent, rebelling against social and gender norms, and yet alongside them she would be a little gauzy and insubstantial, a cipher to their convincing reality and full personhood. In the same way, despite impressive and meticulous research, Egan’s historical world lacks the immersive power of Moss or Waters, it is detailed and three-dimensional but truly lives only in fits and starts. A narrative that focused more exclusively on Anna would have allowed for a more consistent pace a well as better development of her and her colleagues and the specific world in which they worked and lived. The shadow of Eddie's disappearance and the revelation of the events surrounding it could have added the shady dimension Egan was aiming form without having to delve quite so deeply into it or deviate so often from Anna's perspective.

I got to the last 6 chapters and realized I didn't care what happened to the characters. There wasn't much at stake for them. When a book has so many cool elements, fair treatment isn't given to any of them. Oh well.

This was pretty much a 4.5 for me. It evoked emotion in me - I was pacing at one point, fearful for a seemingly inevitable outcome. It was well written. It was very well researched. The changes of perspective weren't jarring. Something about Anna kept me at arm's length though. I'm not sure if that's a product of her character, or more about me. The closest I felt to her was wanting her to succeed at diving - but around that moment she was a difficult character to really cheer for. Regardless, I absolutely recommend the book. I've never read Jennifer Egan's work before - and I see a few reviews that seem to be disappointed based on her previous work. Perhaps that's a key to my enjoyment! But regardless, it was an interesting foray into a context I didn't know much about (a few actually), and I'll be thinking about the characters for a while.

Here are my thoughts on this book: https://modernwitchsbookshelf.wordpre...

I enjoyed this a lot more than i thought I would! If I'm going to read WWII literature, make it tightly focused on characters living during that time and on the homefront. This was a bit noir-ish with the mystery of Anna's father and the "mobbish" work he and another character do to make ends meet, but the shining star of the story was Anna's drive to learn to dive.

I had only ever read Egan's Goon Squad previously, and I've pretty much forgotten it by now, though my recollection is that it was sort of off beat. This one struck me as much more of a straight narrative, and I liked it a lot. I don't often see books in my head as I read them anymore, but I did see much of this one. I also heard it, imagining the various accents the characters used. I thought she did a nice job with the characters (whom I both liked and didn't), and the plot felt real without being dull, and indeed with some neat historical interest. Also it's just shot through with Melville (starting with the epigraph), which is generally a good hook for me. This is a fine, fine book.

Advice: This book needs you to invest about 150 pages or so up front before it really starts delving into the story properly. While it's purely my opinion, before that it's easy to give up; after that threshold you'll have a much harder time doing so. Egan's prose is fantastic and probably one of the highlights of this journey, along with the richness of the characters she writes. It is a little unfocused and while I think the divvying by parts is supposed to combat that issue, it feels a bit stilted. I'm a fan of the main character right up until her "mistake" and treating it like it was an inevitable one feels depressing. I'd have loved to see her stay around Charlie Voss. Her father is the second fascinating character in this and has lived 10 lives in one, and it's safe to say that Anna takes after her father on that and it's mirrored throughout. This is a wonderful novel and it needs some marinating, but if you're in the mood for that, it's a good choice.

I have been wanting to read a Jennifer Egan book for some time now- A Visit From the Goon Squad has been on my list since I read Please Kill Me, actually- but it was Manhattan Beach that finally lured me in, because, even though it was WWII historical fiction, I had faith that it would be one of the more original additions to that particular bloated subgenre. Also, I miss historical fiction- too bad it's been horribly uninspired lately (2018, on the other hand, has been really looking up- January's going to be a busy month for me!). However, I can see why Manhattan Beach has been getting such bad ratings. This is without a doubt a two star book for me. Not because I hated it- it wouldn't even make my least favorites of 2017 list- but because it just wasn't that good. Too much was going on, and I was often confused by what was happening. Characters were added with little warning or clarification as to who they were and I think Egan just wanted to do way too much with the book that she never took a step back and said, okay, this is what's important to the plot. Like, we have the gang thing, and then the diving, and then the war, and the thing with Lydia, and Anna's father's disappearance and we have Anna's individual drama and there's just way more going on then there has to be. If I were Egan, I would make it exclusively about the dock working and gang stuff during the Depression, because those were the best (if somewhat confusing) parts of the novel. They were by far the most original ones, by the way. Anna's story-line during WWII was pretty generic women's fiction WWII (think Kristin Hannah) type stuff. Not my favorite, but then again I generally avoid women's fiction so of course I wouldn't like those elements. The Lydia parts felt completely superfluous and were pretty obviously added in for the sake of drama. I wished those parts had been cut out, though I admit they do serve one very specific purpose, and that is to give the father a reason to want to work for Styles. Continue reading this review on my blog here: https://bookwormbasics.blogspot.com/2...

I’m puzzled with bad reviews. A clear case of a underrated book to me. Interesting plot, unusual angle, a bit of a mystery. Not a fast-paced murder mystery after all, more of a slice of life story. Nevertheless, very enjoyable and atmospheric, with an unusual setting. Recommended!