Rating: 
Summary: Not a pleasant book, but powerfully affecting.
Review: What to say about a book I didn't enjoy, but read like a fiend? It's hard to read about love that's without humor, without happiness. It's especially difficult to read about a twisted, obsessive love that spirals out of control. And when emotional chaos seems to span generations, the reading gets particularly bleak. At the same time, Anita Shreve's "The Weight of Water" is a fascinating read. Partly the isolated and soulless location which infects even the reader with same depressing hopelessness felt by the characters, partly the brutal violence at the core of this story of tortuous passion and fierce suspicion--I read this at a frantic pace, caught up in this vividly awful story. Even months afterward, merely catching sight of the cover again put me right back on Smuttynose. Right back in the mare's nest of emotion which shattered a family. Not a pleasant book, but powerfully affecting.
Rating: 
Summary: Weight of Water is Not Light
Review: I admire Shreve's imaginative means of weaving a story that mesmorizes the reader. I do not, however, admire her commitment to a genre of writing that self-consciously requires readers' allegiance to follow her into swampy thinking. In this book, her characters are blandly defined and dull. They include a family of husband, wife, small child, along with brother in law and young female guest, alone on a boat in New England waters. The die is cast with that format alone. The group anchors off the Isles of Shoals 9 miles out from Portsmouth, New Hampshire.....for photographic research exploration. Not for fun, necessarily, no room in this book for that, but hopefully a reasonable facsimile? After all, the dad and mom did bring their young child with them. Because no one is especially on top of their lives in this book to begin with, the dismal mood is the norm. Because each has already learned apparently, there is no benefit to try to communciate with the other, it becomes almost a non-issue as to why. Shreve skillfuly layers fictional events of her fictional characters to non-fictional events of non-fictional characters... two young Norwegian women who - in the 1870s - lived at the Isles of Shoals and were brutally massacred at Smuttynose Island by a mad man with a hatchet. No fiction here. Shreve cleverly superimposes late 20th century today with late 19th century yesterday, A subliminal sense of hopelessness does little to inspire reading on. There are suppressed passions of anger and gloom ......all the time helping readers see Shreve's message of pre-empted love from undeniable forces. Maybe that's the underlying problem with Shreve's masterfully written books. She leads us through mental journeys of total defeat.
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down!
Review: Engrossing! From the minute I picked this book up I couldn't put it down. It was enmeshed in the lives and the times. It certainly wasn't a "light" read - but, I found it to be fulfilling.
Rating:
Summary: Not Shreve's Best
Review: I have enjoyed a number of Anita Shreve's books this year but unfortunately I cannot say that this was one of them.Jean is on a quest to find the story behind a century old double murder that is similar to a modern day story that she is covering. While working on the story her personal life takes a turn for the worse and the story begins to jump from the past to the present. I found some areas difficult to follow because of the way the story bounced around. The premise for the story was good and I felt the book had merit though it was one that I personally didn't enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Heart-wrenching
Review: I have read all of Anita Shreve's books and I feel that she does a great job of describing relationships, and drawing the reader in to really understanding her characters. In "The Weight of Water" there are some very complex character interactions, but she did a wonderful job of relating these relationships. This book deals with two time periods, and she writes about one time period, and can rather quickly, and without explanation, change to the other. But this becomes easier to follow as the book goes on. I really enjoyed this book, and would recommend it to a friend
Rating:
Summary: A gripping and haunting tale
Review: Jean is a photographer who is researching a 100 year old "crime of the century". Overlaying the story of the murder of two women on a remote island off the Maine coast, with the unraveling of Jean's own marriage, Shreve examines jealousy, passion, adultery and guilt and brings the consequences of a person's actions vividly to life. The story of Maren, the lone eyewitness to the murders, is very powerfully written. There were times when I felt I was living on the island with her. The story of Jean's suspicions about her husbands faithfulness, though not as compelling, helped to create a feeling of despair and sorrow that was at times painful to read. At the start of the book, I found the alternating voices of the two different tales a bit off putting, but the story eventually grabbed me, and would not let go. I devoured the last half of the book in one sitting, and haven't stopped thinking about it since. This is my second book by Shreve, and I hope to read more. She is rapidly becomming one of my favorite authors.
Rating: 
Summary: Enthralling story... don't put it down for a moment
Review: Anita Shreeve has once again captured my attention with a compelling story of love and loss. Her ability to draw the reader into the story and the emotions of her characters never ceases to amaze me. The flux of her character's feelings flow from desparation and hopelesness with unfulfilled love... to elated happiness and flirtatious charm. The chapter's time-line shift from the past-to-present and back-and-forth, keeps the reader hooked and begging to get to the next chapter. I recommend this to ALL Anita Shreeve fans, anyone from New England and to any reader who is hungry for a book that will not last more than 1-week without being finished!
Rating:
Summary: Engrossing
Review: I could not put this book down! The story sucked me right in and kept my attention until the very last page. It is a very haunting story, one I won't soon forget. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: The Weight of Psychosis
Review: Well! I read this book on a whim of Anita Shreve, since I loved Pilots Wife and Fortunes Rocks. However, I can not be as enthusiastic with the book. What kept me reading was Maren, whose narrative was intriguing and in depth. Her affection for her brother and disaffection for her husband was one for the ages. The scenes made me feel the darkness of her Isle of Shoals home. The ending of Maren's story was great, but the other woman (which was so memorable that I forgot her name) was dull and boring. It was obvious that woman, where the story opens with, is straight out depressed and miserable. I would have given this 5 stars plus if it wasn't for the miserable wife of an alcoholic. Her husband happens to be the man that her latest The Last Time They Met is in, whic I refuse to read because he is so repulsive.
Rating:
Summary: Bobbing On the Surface
Review: Upon the completion of "The Pilot's Wife," Anita Shreve had me thirsting for more, and so - appropriate to the pun - I picked up "The Weight of Water," and quite frankly, was somewhat disappointed that it sunk below my expectations. This book is a convolution of time, of history and present day. In its historical text is the story of Maren Hontvedt, a Norwegian immigrant who is the lone survivor of "The Isles of Shoals Murders;" an incident that really did occur - off the coast of New Hampshire - in 1873 and, according to Shreve, "the matter of who killed... has continued to be debated for more than a century." The reader is allowed Maren's story through present day character - Jean - a photographer whose taken an assignment to snap shots of the island for a magazine article. Along for the ride is Jean's husband Thomas, little girl Billie, brother-in-law Rich and his girlfriend, Adaline. As a whole, both stories show remarkable parallels. What bothered me about this book was how - in the reading of one page - paragraphs would roll forward with Jean's story and then retreat back to Maren's story. It is my assumption that Shreve purposely did this as to represent the way of the tide and its ever-changing shift of direction. If this is so, it was a well-conceived idea; it just didn't suit my attention span that was easily sea-sick. With a title such as "The Weight of Water," I imagined a moderately heavy conclusion. But - in the case of each story - I didn't feel a pull into the depths of Maren and Jean's situations. I could not relate to the incestuous love affair between Maren and her brother Evan; I could not relate to the paranoia that Jean felt about her husband's possible infidelity. Oftentimes the characters just seemed flat and perhaps that is why I didn't anchor much interest in their denouements; both bobbed on the surface of things. As a result, what was meant to be the crest of all climaxes, was just a swell that lost its momentum. As not to completely dissuade the reader from attempting this book, I will say that Anita Shreve has a mystical undertow which drags one adrift in its power. I did stay up past my bedtime to finish the novel and - consequently - I do look forward to reading "The Last Time They Met," in which she continues Jean's story.
|
