Rating: 
Summary: A disturbing look at domestic violence
Review: Anita Shreve is a fine author, and she again shows her talent in this early novel. Strange Fits of Passion is a well written page turner that delves into the terrifying realm of spousal abuse. The era is the late sixties and early seventies, and while domestic abuse is certainly prevalent it is rarely discussed and often quietly accepted.Maureen English would appear to be leading the perfect life; an outwardly happy marraige to a successful journalist and a lovely new baby daughter. Behind closed doors however life for Maureen is anything but blissful. Her hard drinking husband is subjecting her to regular doses of physical and sexual violence. Terrified for the safety of herself and child, Maureen flees in the night to the relative anonimity of a small New England town. Maureen changes her name and begins to attempt to pick up the pieces of her shattered life. The facade quickly crumbles when Maureen's husband locates her and attempts to force her to come home. While very disturbing to read at times, this novel also shows us how far we have come in understanding domestic violence and it's effect on it's victims. Women who were subject to this brutality had few resources and even fewer options for help. Remember, in the era the story occurs, a man could not even techinically be charged with raping his wife in the State of Maine. While domestic violence is still prevalent, one would hope in today's era a woman would fare far better than Maureen ultimately did.
Rating: 
Summary: Suspenseful and gripping
Review: Fans of Shreve's other novels, including The Pilot's Wife and The Weight of Water, will appreciate this earlier effort, which, like the others, combines mystery and marriage to create a suspenseful, intriguing story about trouble. Like Anna Quindlen's novel, Black and Blue, Strange Fits of Passion revolves around a young mother who has taken her child and fled an abusive husband to settle in a new community and begin life again under an assumed name. The similarities end there, however, as Shreve builds a more complex, thickly layered story that involves numerous points of view and dips in and out of the past without ever becoming confusing or dense. The novel begins with a magazine writer, Helen Scofield, traveling to a college dormitory to visit Caroline English, the daughter of writer Maureen English, a woman who, we soon learn, was imprisoned for murdering her allegedley abusive husband, Harrold, also a writer, many years earlier. Helen's visit is, ostensibly, to deliver to Caroline the letters and transcripts that she collected as she investigated the murder for an article she was writing. We read of the relationship between Maureen English and her husband from her own point of view--reports of the abuse she suffered, the life she led in the small Maine fishing village to which she fled, and, later, the details of the event that took her husband's life. Interspersed with her memories are the reports from various members of the fishing community she lived in--people who variously report on Maureen and her life there, and who hold her responsible for the crime to varying degrees. Finally, we read the article Helen wrote about Maureen English, her marriage, and her decision to kill her husband, and learn an entirely other lesson about what the truth is and what it means to tell the truth. This is a fascinating, engrossing story.
Rating:
Summary: A good read
Review: I have liked all of Anita Shreve's novels. If you are looking for a book that will be a nice easy and entertaining read during a vacation - like lets saying laying on a beach somewhere then this book or one of Anita's novels is for you. They all about love and violence. You want to know who did the crime but also will the love affair last or not.
Rating:
Summary: A good read
Review: I have liked all of Anita Shreve's novels. If you are looking for a book that will be a nice easy and entertaining read during a vacation - like lets saying laying on a beach somewhere then this book or one of Anita's novels is for you. They all about love and violence. You want to know who did the crime but also will the love affair last or not.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: I was totally engrossed in this book. I love to read, I read every night - but usually I am able to view a non-fiction book as a story and not get too emotionally involved. I woke up during the night in a cold sweat from this book. (That is how close you feel to the characters, they become part of your life). Somehow Anita Shreve manages to get into my head and stay there. I read "The Weight of Water" and "Resistance". Both were excellant also (especially "The Weight of Water"). I am now reading "Fortune's Rocks" and I can only say that Anita Shreve is my favorite author. I can't wait for more.
Rating:
Summary: Captivating story that lets the readers think for themselves
Review: I've read a few of Shreve's books and find her to be an up and down writer. Strange Fits of Passion is definitely an "up". So many other people have summarized the plot, so I don't think that's nessecary. What I loved about this book was that nothing was black and white--there are many sides to the story and even today, it's possible that a jury/judge would convict Maureen. Maureen is one of the most realistic abuse victims that I've seen in literature. She's not perfect, which is what I love most about the book. It makes the story so much more compelling than if she'd been quiet, demure, and virginal. Helen's character is fascinating, too, and I don't think she's nearly as bad as the book makes her out to be. She tried to show that there was more than one way of looking at the story. Shreve shows readers respect by letting them decide for themselves. Definitely recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Reads true to life,
Review: Lately, I have read quite a few books with this theme, and as a rule they usually read a like, but not, "Strange Fits Of Passion," by Anita Shreve. I found the characters in this book interesting, the dialogue different (had its on voice on the issue at hand), and the plot quickly pulled me into the storyline. I found the mix to be a very appealing combination. John Savoy
Savoy International
Motion Pictures
B.H. California
Rating:
Summary: A "movie of the week" subject, told in a different style.
Review: The way the story is presented in "Strange Fits of Passion" is unusual and interesting. Shreve writes of Maureen English, alias Mary Amesbury, who is a victim of domestic violence, in an almost detached manner. Maureen/Mary has finally had enough, takes her 6-month-old daughter and a few hundred dollars in cash, and flees to a small town in northern Maine, where she lives for 6-7 weeks, until her abusive husband finds her. Each chapter is told from a different point-of-view, usually Mary's, but also that of the reporter who is writing an article on Mary, as well as that of the townspeople who live in Maine. The tale starts when Mary first meets her husband and ends after he finds her and their daughter hiding in the Maine cottage. "Strange Fits of Passion" takes place in 1970/1971, when spousal abuse was little known and rarely discussed. Shreve's detached manner in writing the story is, I think, deliberate and is what makes the story interesting. This is not one of those cheesy "woman in jeopardy" stories, but is more a study of the effects of abuse on the victim and how she is viewed by others (and herself). There is some suspense, as we are told from the beginning that "something awful" happened the night that Mary was found by her husband, although it's not hard to figure most of what happened as the tale unfolds. Overall, "Strange Fit of Passion" is a tragedy presented in a nonjudgmental way, and one that lets the reader make up his/her own mind when it comes to the guilt or innocence and circumstances involved in the abusive relationship.
Rating:
Summary: Five Stars Not Enough For This One!
Review: This is a real winner. Often times if I have trouble in the opening pages of a book, I give up. In this case I'm sure glad I didn't. The author of this one really shows what she is literally made of. She changes time settings and voices at a rapid pace and she does it perfectly. After the story got rolling I read hungrily, devouring this book. Yet at the same time wanting to savor it. I even went back and reread the beginning which at that point was perfectly clear. I have read a couple of her others but I have not read anything quite as feverishly lately as this. Don't let this slip buy. Although reading late at night could get a little scarey! Anita Shreve has really impressed me that she is very capable of grabbing and forcing you to hang on for dear life, with her writing.
Rating:
Summary: When "passion" crosses over the line
Review: This is a thriller of a story that has all the ingredients to qualify as an electric "page turner". The setting of a small coastal town in Maine is eloquently depicted by the author as a refuge for Maureen, the physically and emotional abused wife of Harrold. It is 1971, and we are compelling introduced to a marriage going disturbingly awry. Fueled by alcohol and unresolved childhood abandonment issues, Harrold quickly moves through the stages to be a full-fledged spousal abuser. He is an up and coming New York journalist and moves to seduce the new employee at his office. Maureen, being the newly employed journalist is beautiful, idealistic and malleable. Harrold begins his abuse predictably. Remorseful at first, he promises that the abuse will never happen again. Of course, they do and the empty promises continue while Maureen prays that indeed, this will be the last time. Through courtship, early marriage, pregnancy and post partum, the cycle continues and the tension mounts. Maureen, unsupported and isolated, frightened and repeatedly threatened by her husband suffers for herself and her infant daughter. Fearing for her daughter after one horrific beating, she is finally motivated to escape. Waiting for her husband to lapse into alcoholic unconsciousness, bleeding and literally beaten to a pulp, she takes a few possessions, the baby, and the money in her husband's pocket. She escapes into the night to drive north to any destination far enough away from the hell she has been in. The story shares how the people in town were effected by this young woman with a baby. Maureen changes her name and tries to blend in to the anonymity which she needs to have to elude her husband. The consequences of her actions leave the town changed forever. Unfortunately, at this time in social history, spousal abuse awareness was in it's infancy and support for the victims virtually absent. The majority of people chose to ignore the obvious signs and symptoms, justifying their inability to intervene with morally contrived comments that it was somehow inappropriate to interfere in any "man's" personal family life. For the victim, it was truly a nightmare of immense proportion and social isolation. The book is a remarkable insight into the mindframe of a 1970's victim, abuser, family and bystanders. Group readers will have plenty to grieve, celebrate and expound on. This is a thought provoking novel that continues after the book has been finished. I felt the title even revealed the misunderstanding of spousal abuse at the time. Justified as passion, a man was legislatively allowed to "rape" his wife. I can hear the old statements "she threw a fit" and needed to be "knocked into place." This is when passion and emotions cross the proverbial line and Anita Shreve makes it crystal clear that it is nothing but what it is - abuse.
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