Rating: 
Summary: Very Good
Review: Anita Shreve's latest book, "Sea Glass," is a quiet novel that deals with the universal themes of life, love, loss, hope, beauty, tragedy and death."Sea Glass" begins in 1929, when Sexton Beecher, a typewriter salesman, marries bank clerk, Honora. They decide to make their home in a rather dalipidated, but still romantic, New England beach house. Honora is a fulltime wife and homemaker and besides the usual things all wives and homemakers do, Honora loves to take long walks on the beach and collect bits of colored glass worn smooth as silk by the waves of the sea. Eventually, Honora meets and becomes friends with Vivian, a wealthy woman who happens to live nearby. The world seems, at least to Honora, to be an almost perfect place. When things are too good, they usually don't last and Honora learns this lesson the hard way. The Great Depression causes problems for Sexton and Honora, but it brings Honora unexpected pleasures as well, in the form of handsome Quillen McDermott and his twelve year old friend, Francis. This is a book that is told from the point of view of many of the characters involved. In almost every case this works, and it works well. The exceptions are Vivian and Francis. In the early sections of the book, Vivian plays such a prominent part that we come to believe she will be an integral part of the coming storyline as well. Instead, she seems to fade a little more with each passing scene. Francis is also problematic. His chapters are written in long sentences that let us know he is smart, but lacks the education he should have at his age. This wouldn't be bad in and of itself. The problem arises because the rest of the novel is so quiet and so poetic; Francis' chapters seem a little abrupt, as if they're jarring us out of a lovely reverie that we just don't want to leave. Shreve is good, at least in this book, at creating convincing, believable characters and then making them come to life. The tension and excitement that exists between Honora and McDermott is especially memorable. Although the description is good, the symbolism of the sea glass, however, is a bit heavy-handed, especially near the end. This is a quiet book, with no great surprises and no great suspense. It doesn't delve too deeply into the minds and hearts of the characters involved, but then, we don't always want something that's earthshaking. I think most women will find more than enough to relate to in this book and Anita Shreve fans will probably love it.
Rating: 
Summary: Refracting light across the weathered beach
Review: As many reviewers have noted, Sea Glass is a quiet and slow read, but that is the beauty of the novel. It creates a nostalgic feeling--I can almost see the expression on my grandmother's face when she remembered the Great Depression. Each character may or may not be developed enough for some readers, but they characters are there to support the main plot, much like the supporting actors in many movies or the marginal actors in films. Honora Beecher, a naive young woman, marries Sexton, a husband with less than adequate ethics and behaviors. Her struggle to find peace and joy within her home mirrors the struggles of the mill workers as they battle management in an attempt to garner higher wages and better working conditions. Honora wishes for the same things in her own life. This book signifies the struggle of the period and its individual characters, because despite the depression, people's lives were not entirely consumed by just the larger economic state of the country.
Rating:
Summary: Fragile lives during the Depression
Review: Fortune's Rock, the setting of two of Anita Shreve's earlier books once again plays a significant role in her newest title, Sea Glass. It is to a house in the area of Fortune's Rock located in England, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean and a secluded beach, that newly married Honora and Sexton move to in June of 1929. Honora looks forward to keeping house while Sexton will continue his job as traveling typewriter salesman. The house they occupy is rather run down but in lieu of rent, Sexton has agreed to fix it up for the owners. But when the house becomes available for them to buy and while they don't have all of the money, Sexton jumps at the opportunity to purchase it for their futures. Unfortunately, for this couple and other characters in the book, the stock market crash is only weeks away and will ultimately test them economically but also emotionally. In an eerily foreboding manner reminiscent of Shreve's earliest works, the author depicts the lives of characters caught up in events that will shatter their world as the book takes hold and readers race towards the climactic ending. Told in alternating voices are a cast of wonderful character whom Shreve portrays so well that we feel as though we know them. In addition to Sexton and Honora who spends time collecting sea glass on the beach, there is also the very wealthy Vivian who meets Honora on the beach and her one time lover and once wealthy Dickie. Rounding out the characters are McDermott, a factory worker and labor organizer and his protégé 11 year old Alphonse who dreams of becoming a pilot. These are vivid characters we come to care about whose stories once set in motion, keep the reader wondering how their lives will play our and what will become of them at the end of the book. And all the while, we are witnesses to these character's lives as they struggle with loyalty, trust, betrayal and solid marriages during a time when our country was gripped with both economic and moral dilemmas. And as we come to know more about them we fear for their lives as the climate of the country grows darker and darker. While Honora continues to collect her beautiful sea glass, the reader marvels at how Shreve parallels her characters lives with the sea glass. How glass remains intact despite the pounding of the ocean waves and its journey to shore. But people are more fragile as Shreve reminds us in this book and we mourn for these people as the pages turn almost by themselves. While some might say that this title is a historical novel and few do research as well as Anita Shreve, it is also the portrayal of vastly different people who come together under difficult circumstances as they try to survive their own waves and pounding. Few authors can evoke a period of time and place the way Shreve can and does. Once again Ms. Shreve has written a worthwhile read and engaging title.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Sophisticated Writing, But a Worthwhile Story
Review: Honora and Sexton purchase a ramshackle beach house on the coast of New Hampshire in 1929, setting the stage for their financial ruin. Their lives become entwined with others involved in a strike at a textile mill in a nearby town. This is simple, not sophisticated writing, but the story will hold your attention. It's a story suitable as a beach or plane read. I give it 3 stars because if you are unfamiliar with what life was like during the Great Depression, this novel will provide you with some inkling of it's hardships.
Rating:
Summary: Exquisite
Review: Honora lives a very sheltered life. While working at the bank one day, she meets Sexton Beecher, a salesman. After their wedding, they move into a rented house on the beach in Fortune's Rock, near a mill town, and later find a way to purchase it. She collects sea glass during her walks on the beach. The more time she spends with her new husband, however, and the less she realises she knows about him. When the economy takes a dive in 1929, Sexton loses his job and, depressed, is forced to start working at the mill. He also loses his self-esteem.
Here, Anita Shreve takes her readers into a world of lost fortunes, unions, survival, friendship, violence but also betrayal and, most of all, issues of trust. This novel serves up a full cast of characters you will not so easily forget, in a well-written package.
This is a memorable book by an extremely talented writer.
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous
Review: I couldn't put this book down. I loved the characters,
the time period and the setting. I felt like I was at the
ocean with them. MY FAVORITE BOOK OF THE YEAR
Rating:
Summary: i love this book
Review: i have no idea what this is all about until i read the Pilot's Wife. Great enough, i picked up Sea Glass and found an even more enticing novel. It is gripping in a sense that it leads you to a story slowly but dileberately,. I can almost feel the heat.
Rating:
Summary: i love this book
Review: i have no idea what this is all about until i read the Pilot's Wife. Great enough, i picked up Sea Glass and found an even more enticing novel. It is gripping in a sense that it leads you to a story slowly but dileberately,. I can almost feel the heat.
Rating:
Summary: Compelling....
Review: I loved this book. The language and descriptions are beautiful, the characters are mostly compassionate (except for Sexton, who engages us with a bit of ambivalence), and I loved the landscape-- a New England mill town at the start of the Great Depression in 1929. The characters weave around one another, finally meeting, to have their lives and their emotions intertwine. Ultimately, it is a sad book, but an engaging journey.
Rating:
Summary: Compelling....
Review: I loved this book. The language and descriptions are beautiful, the characters are mostly compassionate (except for Sexton, who engages us with a bit of ambivalence), and I loved the landscape-- a New England mill town at the start of the Great Depression in 1929. The characters weave around one another, finally meeting, to have their lives and their emotions intertwine. Ultimately, it is a sad book, but an engaging journey.
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