| Review: Anita Shreve, SEA GLASS |
| With Sea Glass, Anita
Shreve weaves a spider’s web of a novel. It draws you in and
keeps you there right to the end. Shreve’s prose is seamless, and her story, which starts off innocently enough with an ordinary man, an ordinary woman, and an ordinary attraction, slowly gains momentum and launches itself into something rather extraordinary. And Shreve has a way with her women characters. They’re so three-dimensional, they stay in your mind more emphatically than most people you meet in the flesh. Off-hand, I’d have to say Shreve admires the female gender, relying on them for the more attractive attributes…loyalty, thoughtfulness, dependability, clarity of mind. The women triumph in this book, though they themselves might not see it that way. It’s hard to find something to be critical of in Sea Glass. There’s a measured, patient tempo reminiscent of the action of the water and sand that smooth the edges of the objects the title refers to. And there’s a nice juxtaposition of personalities…Honora and Vivian, seeming opposites, who form a bond despite, or perhaps because of, their different experiences, different circumstances. There’s finding and loss, trust and betrayal, not to mention that admirable human trait of putting one foot in front of the other, even when the surrounding world has crumbled. Perhaps one hollow is left at the end of the book. Sexton. Unexplained. Inexplicable? The hollow wouldn’t exist, or at least wouldn’t be bothersome, if it weren’t for the fact that Shreve brings us into his consciousness. If not for that, we might be satisfied with not knowing the reason for his lack of character. After all, even his own wife didn’t know. But because Shreve puts us in his head several times throughout the novel, not knowing the reasons for his failures feels too much like a cheat, or at least a withholding. Still, Sea Glass is too good a novel to find any real fault with.
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