Cover Image: Manhattan Beach

Manhattan Beach

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Member Reviews

The author brought me to the Naval Shipyard of WWII and specifically to the main character's struggles as a woman in this world. I especially enjoyed how Anna fought for her right to dive and her devotion to her disabled sister. However, the many descriptions of diving slowed down my reading experience, and her sexual relationship with the man who aided in the disappearance of her father many years before was unbelievable, as was her father's reappearance. In general I enjoyed the book and would recommend it.

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I have read one book by this author before (The Keep) and didn't really care for it, so I wasn't sure how I would like this one. During WWII, Anna works in the naval yard. She gets a job as the only female diver. Her father has disappeared years before, and she provides for her mother and disabled sister. She happens to meet up with Dexter Styles, a man she knew her father had secretive dealings with years earlier. I thought it was well written. I liked the early part of the book with Anna and her father, but the later parts were somewhat disappointing. I gave it 3 stars.

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This is a brilliant,well written and well researched book. It tells of organised crime and the emancipation of woman during the Second World War. Anna's life is really well described and her fight to become a diver and find out what had happened her father had me clued to this book. This book was an easy read which kept me reading right to the end in one sitting. Jennifer Egan is definitely a good historical writer. I hope she writes more historical novels.

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I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion about the book. I really liked reading about Anna and her family. I love that she got to become the first female diver. I skimmed over some of the gangster stuff about Dexter. I liked this one better than Goon Squad. I enjoyed reading about New York in the 30's.

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My sincere thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for the privilege of reading an ARC of this novel five months prior to publication, in exchange for this honest review. (WARNING: some very mild minor spoilers ensue!)

Let's face it - when your last book won every book award under the sun, including the Pulitzer, unless the follow-up -eagerly anticipated by fans for seven long years - is a flat-out masterpiece, there is bound to be a bit of disappointment. Although Egan's novel is eminently readable, it just doesn't quite reach the heights of 'Goon Squad'. Partially, this is because Squad WAS so different and unusual, with quirky, but relatable characters and a unique structure ... and this is a much more mundane story, with somewhat moribund characters that seem more like standard archetypes. Despite (or perhaps because of?) the years Egan spent researching it, there are longueurs within the book that feel like nothing more than Wikipedia excerpts. And at other times, this reminded me of Sarah Waters' book, 'The Night Watch' (NOT a bad thing!), minus the lesbianism.

Whereas Squad dealt with the inherently exciting world of the recording industry, with all its eccentricities, this details the dreary work in a Naval Yard during WW2 (although there are some interesting details about early diving salvage expeditions), along with a side trip to the world of Prohibition gangsters (that reads like too many viewings of old Cagney movies), and a tour upon a merchant marine ship, with the concomitant expected U-boat attack and shipwreck. In fact, most of the incidents that occur within the book are either foreseeable (and a bit clichéd, e.g., an unexpected pregnancy), from several chapters in advance, or confusingly rendered, with not enough detail.

The most egregious of these is that one of the major characters goes missing and is presumed dead for much of the first part, although we learn early on that he is actually alive and working as a merchant marine 7 years later... so that any tension or mystery is effectively obliterated, and one just waits tediously until the rather expected explanation of how that all went down.

The other problem I have is that the main character, Anna Kerrigan, is something of a cipher - other than her desire to become a diver, and her love for her disabled sister, Lydia (who unfortunately disappears before the halfway mark), we don't really find out much about her - she's just the standard issue 'plucky heroine', albeit one with more of a sexual appetite than usually afforded women of those times. I was initially confused by a NYT Review that said "Egan possesses ... the heart of a romance novelist", but after reading this, I would have to agree - this seems like a throwback to generic women's fiction, sad to say.

But perhaps I am being a bit too curmudgeonly - if expectations were not so high for Egan to surpass herself, I might have appreciated it more. As it was, I WAS able to fly through this in less than three days, so it DID capture my undivided attention. But I doubt that, unlike Squad, it will garner any major awards, or warrant a re-reading.

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Not only is this book intellectually stimulating, it boasts a deep, courageous woman, Anna, whose determination knows no end. Set in NYC when women were doing the "men's work" while they were fighting in WWII. Working at the Navy Yard, going to swanky nightclubs, and earning her job as a diver are just some of her adventures throughout the book. She finds herself on Manhattan Beach where the infamous Harry Styles resides with his family.... Excellent novel.

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- I struggled to give this a book a 3, because in reality it was more of a 3.5. I had high hopes for this book after reading some other fellow readers review but i have to say it didn't hold up that well for me. I was intrigued about Anna and her father right away, wanting to know more about her fathers secret life and what they did together. That fell short through, and it was disappointing when it jumped right into him missing. I liked the part about Lydia and Anna's relationship i think it brought a soft side to Anna, that we might not have seen other wise. I also liked the connection of the beach to the story, and how she takes Lydia back to the beach which made me have more high hopes for the relationship between Eddy and Anna. But i found this book jumped a lot, and the diving part was awesome and i loved how Anna worked hard to do something girls had never done before but it made me get lost a little bit in the story. I also loved the relationship between Dexter and Anna which i thought there could of been a lot more of in the story! I liked the gangster element but once again i got a little lost in all the story lines happening. The ending also felt like it as kinda tied together quickly just to finis the book, other parts could be taken out to make the ending way better!

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MY TAKE:

Egan’s first novel since her 2010 Pulitzer Prize-winning A Visit from the Goon Squad, Manhattan Beach whisks readers into the mysterious and thrilling life of Anna Kerrigan. We follow Anna as she evolves from child to woman during the Great Depression into WWII.

Always an independent spirit, Anna becomes the first female diver to help repair ships in the harbor for the war. Anna struggles throughout the novel to define herself as an individual and in her relationships with the people she loves. Anna serves as the anchor of the novel around which other primary characters circulate - her enigmatic father, her devoted mother, and her sister who suffers from a disability from birth.

The central imagery theme of water is masterfully tackled by Egan in her writing, as is Anna’s own wrestling with her Madonna/whore complex.

Overall, the pace of the novel is quick while giving depth to the storylines of multiple characters. Egan’s prowess as a writer is evident. Manhattan Beach is set to be released in October 2017. This is definitely one to be added to your “to be read” list.

REVIEWS
“Pitch perfect… Darkly, ripplingly funny… Egan possesses a satirist’s eye and a romance novelist’s heart.” (The New York Times Book Review)

“The smartest book you can get your hands on.” (Los Angeles Times)

“At once intellectually stimulating and moving.” (San Francisco Chronicle)

“A new classic of American fiction.” (Time)

“Audacious, extraordinary.” (Philadelphia Inquirer)

“Groundbreaking… Features characters about whom you come to care deeply as you watch them doing things they shouldn’t, acting gloriously, infuriatingly human.” (Chicago Tribune)

AUTHOR
Jennifer Egan is the author of five books of fiction, including A Visit from the Goon Squad, which won the Pulitzer Prize and National Books Critics Circle Award; The Keep, a national bestseller; the story collection Emerald City; Look at Me, a National Book Award Finalist; and The Invisible Circus, which was adapted into a major motion picture starring Cameron Diaz. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harpers, Granta, McSweeney’s, The New York Times Magazine and many others. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two sons.

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There are many good books, books that tell a good story or that offer a detailed understanding of a character. Manhattan Beach is much more than just a good book. Egan tells a good story in beautiful prose and she offers us in-depth understanding of complex characters. This beautiful book also offers well researched portraits of the New York world of gangsters, of the world of the non-military merchant marine, and, much more compellingly, of the civilian divers who during WWII helped build and repair the ships that helped the US win the war. Egan takes her time telling her tale and painting multilayered portraits of her major characters, all to excellent effect. This is a wonderful book whose story, characters, and themes of family, self actualization, and courage will stay with me for a long time.

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I gave up on this after reading about 10%. It just didn't hold my attention.

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This historical fiction novel begins in Brooklyn in 1934 during the Great Depression. Anna Kerrigan, almost 12 years old, regularly accompanies her father Eddie on the job he has held since all their money was lost in the stock market. Now he serves as a “Bagman,” or as Anna understood it: “Her father’s job was to pass greetings, or good wishes, between union men and other men who were their friends. These salutations included an envelope, sometimes a package, that he would deliver or receive casually - you wouldn’t notice unless you were paying attention.”

Eddie hated his job, and home life offered no sanctuary for him. He had another daughter, Lydia, who was beautiful, but brain-damaged. Lydia and her special needs, as well as the juxtaposition in her of both physical beauty and total disability, educed in Eddie both rage and self-loathing, leaving him numb and spent. “She was not as she should be, not remotely, and the ghost of what she should have been clung to her always, a reproachful twin.”

Only in Anna’s company could he relax and feel good about his life: “She was his secret treasure, his one pure, unspoiled source of joy.” He felt about her that she "pumped life into him as surely as Lydia drained it.” He loved her voice, the pattering quality of it, and the feel of her small hand inside his.

When Lydia needs an expensive special chair to help her sit upright, Eddie decides to go work for Dexter Styles, a powerful member of local organized crime who manages a number of clubs offering the opportunity for illegal pastimes. While there were many in Dexter’s pocket, he was controlled by a Mr. Q., who basically owned him. But as long as Dexter played by the rules, he was rewarded.

Eddie worked for Styles as his ombudsman, checking up on his employees and later on his rivals. In a clever description of Eddie's appeal to Dexter, she writes, “Kerrigan’s cipherlike nature had been essential to the job. He could go anywhere, find out anything. Through him, Dexter had tasted an otherworldly freedom from the constraints of time and space.”

Unfortunately though, Eddie could not take Anna along on his forays to nightclubs and gambling dens, and they grew apart, to Eddie’s infinite regret.

The story shifts, and picks up again when Anna is 19. Her father had disappeared five years before. They never knew what happened to him. She felt sorrow at first, replaced by anger.

The country is now at war, and Anna works at the Brooklyn Naval Yard, where, because of the shortage of men, women are allowed to hold jobs that had always excluded them. Through perseverance and grit, she becomes the first female diver, “the most dangerous and exclusive of occupations,” helping to repair huge ships in the Manhattan harbor.

One night out with a girlfriend, she ran into Dexter Styles at one of his clubs. At first she used a false name with him, "Anna Feeney" (taking a neighbor’s last name). She realizes he may know what happened to her father, and she continues to seek him out to get the mystery solved once and for all.

Discussion: There is some beautifully-phrased and deftly-constructed prose in this book. For example, when diving, Anna thinks:

“The ship felt alert, alive. It exuded a hum that traveled through her fingers up her arm: the vibration of thousands of souls teeming within. Like a skyscraper turned on its side.”

Or Anna, walking alone on the streets of New York:

“After years of distance, Anna’s father returned to her. She couldn’t see him, but she felt the knotty pain of his hands in her armpits as he slung her off the ground to carry her. She heard the muffled jingle of coins in his trouser pockets. His hand was a socket she affixed hers to always, wherever they went, even when she didn’t care to. Anna stopped walking, stunned by the power of these impressions. Without thinking, she lifted her fingers to her face, half expecting the warm, bitter smell of his tobacco.”

And there is this insight by and about Dexter, who is musing about the difficulty of working with women “… this was the problem of men and women, what made the professional harmony he envisaged so difficult to achieve. Men ran the world, and they wanted to fuck the women. Men said “Girls are weak” when in fact girls made <em>them</em> weak.”

And perhaps my favorite image, when the author describes Dexter Style’s house near the ocean:

“…a rowdy flapping of green-and-yellow striped awnings.”

Evaluation: Egan, who is the author of five books of fiction, including "A Visit from the Good Squad," which won the Pulitzer Prize and National Books Critics Circle Award, takes on four big motifs with this book, any one of which could have made up a separate book: the dynamics of a family stressed by economic hardship and the birth of a disabled child; the nature of organized crime,; the clash of gender and ethnicity in the 1940s; and life in the merchant marine.

For the most part, I think she gives adequate treatment to all of them except perhaps for the organized crime aspect of the book; some of what happened to the characters because of their associations with this element remained opaque (to me) at the end of the story.

Nevertheless, this is a stirring and poignant story filled with memorable characters drawn with perceptive contours. The author’s research was extensive, and I think she adroitly captures a slice of life in wartime America. In addition, the issues raised and complexity of the story make this book an excellent choice for book clubs.

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