Rating: 
Summary: Excellent!
Review: This is vintage Anita Shreve. Richly drawn characters, descriptive settings, engaging plot that keeps you turning the pages. If you like Anita Shreve's style, you will love Shade of the Maple by Kirk Martin. Both authors have a way of drawing you into a story and making you feel part of it, like you actually know the characters. Well worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: it got better as I read
Review: The start was slow, for me, with a number of characters presented in separate, unrelated situations. I considered bailing out but chose to stick with it and am glad that I did. The characters came together, the story developed and I became engrossed it the book.
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Summary: Emotional Ending
Review: I thought this a very well written book.I had a hard time with the ending...very emotional. Good job.
Rating: 
Summary: A GEM OF A BOOK!!
Review: This book takes place in a fictional mill town in Maine where the textile union is organized by a group of men. This happened in the late 1920's, early 1930's everywhere in New England. These were hard times for all involved.++++The five main characters in this book are seemingly unrelated, but Shreve brings them together chapter by chapter.+++++Honore, a young newly wed.++++Sexton,her not so honest salesman husband.++++McDermott, union organizer.++++Alphonse, a young Franco boy destined for a life in the mills.++++Vivian, a young rich flapper.++++These people are as different from each other as are the pieces of sea glass that Honora collects, but when blended together make a beautiful, colorful tapestry.++++Shreve is a master at exploring the human condition and showing us that even in their losses some of these people experience a great hope.+++++++++++I ended this book with feelings of sadness and hope for the future of the human race.This is a book very well worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Sea Glass has Smooth Edges
Review: I finished Sea Glass this afternoon and think it is an excellent novel. The carefully illustrated scenario and clarity of descriptive exposition draw the reader in, but serenity is short lived. Shreve begins to intertwine the lives of her well drawn characters about half way through, and their meeting up and joining ranks in plot integration is seamless and logical. The growth of Honora is specifically noteworthy and quite beautiful to me, as is the revelation of Sexton's true character emerging, which the reader knows is not merely the direct result of the onset of The Great Depression. The Alphonse and McDermott links are my personal favorites. What a stalwart and shy young eleven year old is Alphonse, who has far too much weight on his gentle shoulders. McDermott proves his mettle and engages the trust of the reader early on by befriending him. Vivian is a jaded socialite who redefines her character by becoming involved in meaningful relationships, discarding frivolous decadence, while retaining her humor and zest. The author gives each character's voice his/her own significant appropriation in the structure of Sea Glass. One would know who is who without the chapter headings. Shreve's timing and research are exemplary, and all the crumbs laid as clues pan out, even crimson sea glass. The house in which Honora and Sexton start their married life is the beach home of Olympia in Fortune's Rocks, a character in itself, and a minor surprise awaits lovers of Fortune's Rocks in the history of Vivian's home. In addition, within the novel, reference is made to Sexton's and Honora's albatross shore house once being used as a convent for unwed mothers. Another novel to come? The shards of sea glass Honora collects along the beach have smooth edges. So does this novel. Roe Wiles
Rating:
Summary: A poignant and compassionate novel from Anita Shreve
Review: Anita Shreve's latest novel, "Sea Glass," is set in New Hampshire in 1929. Lovely Honora Willard is a naive twenty-year-old girl of limited means who works as a bank teller. She is swept off her feet by smooth-talking typewriter salesman Sexton Beecher. Soon Honora and Sexton are newlyweds who start their lives as a married couple in a ramshackle house near the beach. Honora doesn't know it yet, but soon the stock market will crash, and her life with Sexton will never be the same. Other people who are affected by the changes in the town are Vivian, a socialite whose personal unhappiness is matched by her great wealth, McDermott a handsome young mill worker who becomes a labor activist, and Alphonse, a fatherless boy whom McDermott has taken under his wing. Shreve devotes a large portion of "Sea Glass" to the plight of the textile mill workers in Ely Falls, a fictional town meant to represent real New England towns beset by labor unrest in the 1920's and the 1930's. She shows how the workers tried to form a union in order to fight for decent wages and to bring about better working conditions. One of Shreve's strengths has always been her elegant prose. Once again, in "Sea Glass," Shreve captures the beauty of a walk on the beach in New England. She waxes lyrical as Honora wanders back and forth near the ocean, collecting precious bits of colorful sea glass for her growing collection. No matter what problems beset Honora, the beauty of the sea glass lifts her spirits and helps her imagination to take flight, as she wonders where the glass originated. Another hallmark of Shreve's writing is her compassion for her characters. She depicts Honora as a young woman who faces life's disappointments courageously and honestly. In addition, through her fictional characters, Shreve describes the plight of the textile mill workers in great detail. Shreve gives the reader a real understanding of what it was like to be victimized by heartless mill owners in the early part of the century. Unfortunately, there are some elements that weaken "Sea Glass" and keep it from being a first-rate novel. Shreve's book is occasionally preachy; it comes dangerously close to being a polemic on the importance of workers' rights. Some of the characters, including Honora's self-centered husband, Sexton, border on caricature. Honora Beecher is a little too saintly. She rarely complains, in spite of having to bear a host of burdens, and this keeps her from becoming a fully realized character. What makes "Sea Glass" worth reading is Shreve's beautiful use of descriptive language and and her deep feeling for her characters. In spite of its flaws, "Sea Glass" has heart, and Shreve makes us care about her characters, conflicts, dreams and tragedies.
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Summary: A Reminder to Reviewers...
Review: Please remember that people who read these reviews are usually doing so because they want to find out if the book is a worthwhile read.... we do NOT want a synopsis of the book that gives away the ending! If you give away the ending, it really takes away from the enjoyment in reading a new book...if you want to discuss the ending, please join a book club!
Rating:
Summary: Great book; full of suprises; I highly recommend
Review: I was addicted to this book from the beginning. This author has a unique way of intertwining characters and not being obvious about how they will all affect each others lives. I usually "catch on" when this kind of writing is done in a book. Anita Shreve had me guessing until the ending which not only suprised me but filled me with emotion. I was intrigued with the marriage of Honora and Sexton. When the husband was faced with adversity his reaction caught me off guard. I also liked the character of Vivian. She was a hoot! She can only be described as a smart, sexy. eccentric you just have to love. This book got me "hooked" and I am going to read more that she has written.
Rating:
Summary: Sea Glass
Review: Anita Shreve's newest novel was cleverly written to show the inner thoughts of each character in the way that each "chapter" was named for a character and you could get what each was thinking, feeling at that particular moment. Too bad there was not a happy ending for Honora and McDermott. I hope the baby is a boy, Seth McDermott Beecher. But it was still an intriguing read. I just love Anita's novels.
Rating:
Summary: One of Shreve's best
Review: I've read and enjoyed all of Shreve's books, and this is one of her best. Told from the perspectives of five separate characters, Sea Glass is the story of a disparate group of people whose lives become intertwined and changed forever following the stock market crash of 1929. Like Fortune's Rocks, it will transport you to another time and place. Highly recommended.
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