Rating: 
Summary: A 3.4 on a scale of 1 to 5-enjoyable for its genre
Review: I have read several of Anita Shreve's works. She can tell a good story and develop a few interesting characters. She is a high end version of Barbara Delinsky and other such female writers. My problem with her-or her marketing team-is that she appears to strive for higher literary goals. And I don't feel she achieves them. However, this book recounts an interesting story. In the early years of the depression, a young bride learns about life and love in a big old home in New Hampshire. A secondary character, a young Boston socialite, matures through her interactions with this New Hampshire community. In the background, fierce and bloody union wars rage: an intriguing glimpse into the social fabric of the region at that time. I would recommend this book to individuals who enjoy melodrama, women's stories, and historical fiction (early 1930's). I would not recommend this book to individuals who expect or demand the highest literary standards from their authors.
Rating: 
Summary: disappointing
Review: My book club read this and we were unanimous in feeling that it had been an unworthy selection, and mystified by the extremely favorable reviews it has received. The descriptions of life during the depression, and the details of labor strife related to textile mills, were of some interest. But every element of the story seemed unerdeveloped, and the characters, in particular, lacked subtlety and complexity. The symbolism of the sea glass was simultaneously heavy handed and vague. The author has chosen a weighty topic, but because she failed to do it justice, even parts of the book that should have been devastating left me unmoved.
Rating:
Summary: just okay
Review: Having previously read The Last Time They Met, The Pilot's Wife and Fortune's Rocks (a book that stayed with me for weeks after I had finished it), I expected more from Sea Glass. At the end I was left feeling empty, and frankly, after writing this review will probably forget about it completely. It needed more density. It was just too short for such a compelling topic. By the way, it takes place on the New Hampshire coast (not Maine), and they were trying to unionize a mill (not a mine). Sorry but I feel if you're going to write a review you should at least keep the facts straight.
Rating: 
Summary: A nice simple story
Review: This is not just a story of a marriage gone bad, but of a womans tenacity to survive and continue in the course of living. I liked the joy she had had the begining of her marriage. I kept wanting to tell her that her husband was a man unto himself and didn't think ahead to the consequences of his actions. The ending was quick and abrupt to me but not surprising for this author.
I like that she has a series of stories written in the same town and house. It is fascinating to see the history of the beach and the town ebb and flow through the characters of her books.
Rating: 
Summary: Beautifully Rendered
Review: When a book is brilliantly written--when the actual mechanics of the writing are just perfect--I'm already drawn in for sheer enjoyment of the written word. So it is for me will ALL of Shreve's books. She is a fine and talented writer with enormous skill with the written word. But this book has so much more than skill with words. Like all Shreve's books, it draws the reader in so deeply and completely that all of the characters, all of the moods, the essences, and the time and place, become part of one's shared experience until the book is finished. In this case, the time is the 20s, just before the Stock Market Crash. It's a time of highs and lows in every aspect of life: from the New England mining families living under unspeakable poverty (and powerless to fight the mine owners who are in effect starving them) to the extremely rich who are riding on the tremendous highs of the Stock Market. In one case, it's wearing one's sister's ruffled sweater when one is a boy--and trying to hide it under a too-small jacket with a broken zipper. On the other hand, it is speakeasies, "Sidecars" (the popular drink of the day), gin out of silver flasks, and endless parties. The Crash levels the playing field. And profound changes occur, both in the world at large, and in the personalities and livelihoods of our main characters, from a newlywed living with her typewriter-salesman husband in a fixed-up old house on the beach, to the wealthy party girl who watches her friends and her lover go belly-up overnight. Behind this already fascinating story is another one--the story of an attempt to create a union of miners, and to effect a great strike--one that will net the poor mining workers a decent wage and let them live like humans instead of dogs (a phrase used more than once in the book). The portent of frightening things to come hovers like the beach fog over the entire story. The reader knows, with growing anxiety, that something bad is going to happen. But what? When? And above all, why? The denoument comes as a complete shock, as most of Shreve's novels do...and this is not a book to be lightly tossed aside while we start a fun mystery. It is haunting and will not leave the reader long after it is finished. Another Shreve masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: love story from the depression
Review: Surprising and yet wonderful. Keep me enthralled until the last word. Women surviving with their own talents!
Rating:
Summary: As seen through a prism
Review: Almost allegorical in style, Seaglass reminded me of the surreal cadence of Carson McCuller's and Truman Capote's novels. There is a dreaminess about Honora that oftentimes makes her an otherworldly character that seems to allow life to wash over her like the pieces of glass she is so fond of finding. The slivers of colored glass are kaliedoscopic, as are the people who develop, rather than appear, around her. Her husband never quiet seems to form. It might have been a fault, were there not a charm about it. Francis, the young boy, invites an empathy that is tender of the heart, and always directed to the young and lost. All the supporting characters, also, have a cubbyhole-like life within the frame of the novel. I would have given this five stars, were it not for the conclusion, which should have been wonderful -- but just missed the mark. Honora never truly wakes from her sleeping beauty pose of life. And the ending, which should have been powerful, and life altering to a point that every character should have changed within the framework of the writing, doesn't. Somehow, the book ends on a whimper instead of a bang. Perhaps to rushed. Perhaps it should have been left more open to a question mark ending, leaving the reader to wonder if a sequel, were coming. It owuld be worth it. Honora is definitely a character worthy of being developed further -- as is Francis. It might also be interesting to see how the characters grow under Anita Shreve's adept hand. Well crafted and entertaining. Definitely a quick read.
Rating:
Summary: The illusive meaning of red
Review: This is by far the best. I stayed up into the early morning hours to finish this book in just three days. The book brings together people from all walks of life in the post Stock Market Crash Era. You learn how the haves and have nots make it thorugh and help each other to better the lives of many. Or hope to anyway. I don't want to give away any of the story, because it is just that good. But you will love it and the last 15 pages will cause you to practically lose your breath. ENJOY!
Rating:
Summary: Three times the charm
Review: This is the third book of Ms. Shreve's that I have read and is by far the best. I stayed up into the early morning hours to finish this book in just three days. The book brings together people from all walks of life in the post Stock Market Crash Era. You learn how the haves and have nots make it thorugh and help each other to better the lives of many. Or hope to anyway. I don't want to give away any of the story, because it is just that good. But you will love it and the last 15 pages will cause you to practically lose your breath. ENJOY!
Rating:
Summary: One of Shreve's Best
Review: My husband bought me this book because it was on the bestseller's list. Not a good reason for me to buy a book. In any case, I like this book. I like the characters. I like the story. As Americans we talk little and know less of the struggles of working-class America then and now. Whoever said, "Those who do not know their history are bound to repeat it," could very well have applied that lesson to today's struggles in the workplace. Thanks to writers like Anita Shreve the struggles of the working class are documented. Anita Shreve's writes a wonderful honest little story about a very big issue--the right of every human being to expect an honest day's pay for an honest day's work.
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