Expert writing once again from Egan, and an interesting plot line, but I had a hard time connecting with the story overall.

Wonderful book by the brilliant Jennifer Egan. The writing is beautiful, the story is sweeping, and Egan does a fantastic job of putting you in very specific places and times.

I wasn't sure I would enjoy this novel since the time period is not one of much interest to me. Boy, was I wrong! Manhattan Beach is so much more than a story set during the 1940s. Author Jennifer Egan has created a story that draws readers and holds their attention long after the last page is read. Thanks to the author's detail character building, this novel is not only historical fiction, but it's a tale of love, redemption, bravery and personal strengths and weaknesses. The heroine is fascinating, standing out not only for her quest to become a diver in a man's world, but for her strength to build her own life. The two men most important to her are different in their own ways, but similar in their fight to escape their past.

I put off reading this because I'd read too many not so flattering reviews but because I'd requested to view it, I felt I should at least attempt to read it. Although quite different from "A Visit From The Goon Squad" , this is a beautifully written story. I absolutely loved it, was a joy to read .

This is a phenomenal story. It is set in the fifties in New York and the author's description of the city and especially the waterfront made me actually feel the atmosphere of that time and place. The story is about a young girl and how she meets a man who employs her father and later as an adult encounters him again. She certainly remembers him but he doesn't but he doesn't recognize her. I don't want to give anything away but what happens next is really astounding. I highly recommend this book. It's five stars from me!

Anna Kerrigan has a memory of visiting Dexter Styles' lovely home overlooking Manhattan Beach in NYC with her father when she was a young girl. Eddie Kerrigan is a bagman for a gangster, so what business does he have with Mr Styles, who runs several nightclubs? When, in 1937, Eddie disappears, his wife, Anna and her crippled little sister, Lydia must fend for themselves, not knowing why he deserted them, or if he is dead or alive.

Five years later, with WWII underway, Anna is working at the Naval Yard and wants to be a diver--very unusual for a woman--and she must face some roadblocks to achieve that dream. The descriptions of diving are so fascinating; it's obvious how much resource the author has done on the subject!

But just when you think that the story is all about Anna and her trials and tribulations, the story switches to Dexter Styles...and also to Eddie, who, it seems, has been a sailor in the Merchant Marines, a very interesting twist to the story. My step-dad was in the Merchant Marines and would have enjoyed Eddie's harrowing tale. When dad passed away, we were unfortunately not granted permission to have his remains interred at Great Lakes National Cemetery--very infuriating.

"And they're not soldiers, too? They take every risk without a hope of glory: no medals, no five-gun salutes. In the end they're just merchant seamen, hardly more than bums, from the world's point of view. They're the real heroes, I say."

You have to be patient with this story; it takes its time to unfold. It is very rich and detailed. And in these details, Ms Egan adds another interesting layer to what we already know about WWII--that alone makes it well worth reading. I admire the amount of research, interviewing and digging that obviously was required to bring her story to life.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for the opportunity to read an arc of this work for an honest review.

A wonderfully told historical fiction story that explores the complexity of poverty and how we find ways to survive in the face of disaster. The way Egan addressed how the consequences of our chosen survival methods can affect not only ourselves but those we love is so well and truthfully told that I respected her need to stay true to realism and avoid the starry-eyed plotline. A triumph!

Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan - I thank Net Galley for the opportunity to read this novel.  This book was a challenge for me to finish.  A few of the sections were interesting and smooth to read. But then there were sections where words made no sense.  I know it was a different time but felt a special dictionary for 1940's language should be attached.

Thanks to Scribner and Netgalley for the advanced reader copy of Manhattan Beach. What I enjoyed most about this book was the shipyard/diving parts, I’ve always been interested in the work women took on during WWII ala Rosie the Riveter. As for the rest of the story, I didn’t find it to be that great. I could not relate well to the main character, Anna and I found some of her actions unbelievable. Along the same lines, some of the things that occurred in the novel seemed very far-fetched and I spent more time thinking about that than enjoying the story.

I couldn't get into it. Sorry! I put it down fiftyish pages in. It's not the book; it's me.

{My Thoughts}

What Worked For Me
Old Movie Quality – Many times when I was reading Manhattan Beach I felt a sort of old noir movie vibe going on. I pictured the whole story in black and white, especially the nightclubs and bars, filled with the beautiful people and run by gangsters. The era, spanning the depression to the end of WWII, lent itself to the old-fashioned feel, with Egan’s beautiful writing adding another rich layer.

A Girl with Gumption – For the most part I liked Anna Kerrigan, the young woman at the heart of Egan’s story. Her family had been dealt some hard blows including a vanished father, and Anna did everything she could to make life better for her mother and crippled younger sister. Anna’s desire to become a diver felt real and her course to achieve that goal was one of the parts of this book that I liked best. Everything about Anna’s quest to become a diver was interesting.

Themes of Change and Redemption – Both Dexter Styles and Eddie Kerrigan came to be on quests for redemption. Both had made decisions in their lives that they’d begun to regret, but neither found change an easy path to walk.

“…Dexter felt the protesting part of himself – angry, eager to be done – slide abruptly away. He settled into the project of providing this accursed creature an experience of the sea. He absorbed the importance of it, the singleness of the task. It was a relief.”

Like Dexter and her father, Anna also sought to make-over her life.

What Didn’t
A Slow, Slow Pace – I’m so sorry to say it, but for me Manhattan Beach was just plain slow. I almost quit at about 67%, instead I rallied and kept going. Throughout the book there were times when it felt like the pace was about to pick up, but then? It didn’t.

Under-developed Characters – I never felt like I really knew or understood any of the three primary characters, making some of their actions almost incomprehensible. Egan spent a lot of time on side characters who seemed to pop in and out of the story when the plot needed to move. A tighter focus on the primary characters might have saved Manhattan Beach for me.

Vanishing Character – Eddie was missing for much of the book and then suddenly took over. Why? His story dominated the second half and was filled with characters who meant nothing to everything else that had been happening.

Implausible Actions – Had I known the characters better some of the choices they made might have been a little more believable for me. As it was, the book required me to suspend disbelief too many times to really enjoy the story.

{The Final Assessment}

Rarely do I write such a negative review, but I did finish Manhattan Beach and my commitment is to reviewing books I finish. I admit, I probably should have quit on this book, but just never could quite believe it wasn’t going to turn the corner into brilliance. For me it didn’t, but Booklist, Kirkus, Library Journal, and Publisher’s Weekly can’t all be wrong. I look forward to hearing what others think of Jennifer Egan’s latest. Grade: C-

Note: I received a copy of this book from the publisher (via NetGalley) in exchange for my honest opinions.

A wonderfully cinematic story (please let there be a film!) whose themes of growing up in the USA at a time of war and great socio-cultural change are underpinned by the currents of time and tide in a literal and metaphorical way.

Manhattan Beach is jam-packed with elements that are familiar to us from Hollywood: WWII setting, plucky heroine in a “man’s” job, danger (in the form of scuba diving), mobsters, New York nightlife, a love interest, a missing father, a disabled sibling. So the reader comes to the book full of expectations – mostly from the movies – about how things should play out in each of these scenarios. Egan doesn’t so much subvert those expectations as ignore them.

As a period piece, Manhattan Beach beautifully renders a specific time and place. Whether it’s a shabby apartment, the shipyards, a city nightclub or a waterfront mansion, the locations and the characters inhabiting them are vivid and believable. The historical research underlying everything doesn’t obtrude, even though Egan must have done a truckload of it.

The writing style is evocative, without being flowery or fussy. It keeps you immersed in the book without drawing too much attention to itself. Here’s an early passage that hints at Anna and her father’s stories:

"Anna watched the sea. There was a feeling she had, standing at its edge: an electric mix of attraction and dread. What would be exposed if all that water should suddenly vanish? A landscape of lost objects: sunken ships, hidden treasure, gold and gems and the charm bracelet that had fallen from her wrist into a storm drain. Dead bodies, her father always added, with a laugh. To him, the ocean was a wasteland."

The plot promises a lot but delivers less. There are developments that other writers would foreshadow, milk for all the suspense they’re worth, or present with a flourish as a dramatic Plot Twist! but Egan is content allow things to unfold in an almost languorous fashion. Something dramatic or exciting seems imminent… and Egan looks away. Plot threads are left hanging, or resolved in the most cursory way.

I was reminded of the TV show Mad Men. A period drama with impeccable sets and costumes, top notch acting, well drawn characters, an immersive experience. But by the end of the episode, not much has happened – at least not in the way that conventional TV shows have taught us to expect – or maybe things have happened but the resolution is a bit flat.

Manhattan Beach too focuses on style, character and mood over story. It is enchanting, and somewhat unsatisfying.

You had me at Jennifer Egan. “A Visit from the Goon Squad” is far from my genre comfort zone, but is still a best beloved book. Historical fiction is securely in my zone, and I was pretty excited to read “Manhattan Beach”.

Egan takes us deep into the waters of the Brooklyn Navy Yard during World War II. The well-researched details of the Yard, the Merchant Marine, and New York are fascinating. Although her characters are people of their time and place, Egan goes beyond their historicity, to reveal both their best selves and their worst faults with an even-handed clarity.

Manhattan Beach is a book I was eager to read because I have loved other books by Jennifer Egan. While reading, though, I was not eager to finish. I wanted to stay in the world Egan created, with these characters I came to love.

Manhattan Beach is a historical novel that tells the story of Anna, a young woman who works at a naval yard during World War II with a fierce determination to be a professional diver. It is also the story of her father, Eddie, a man who seeks out opportunities on the edges of organized crime to do work that is more or less legal and Dexter Styles the quasi-legit gangster he works for. But this is not a story about organized crime.

I was about halfway through the book when I realized I had no idea where the story was going to go. What could be more exhilarating? That is the kind of book this is. It just tells a story. It’s not a mystery, not a romance, not a war story, not a family saga, not a coming-of-age story, but it also all of that.



I loved Manhattan Beach. Egan has this languid approach to writing – even though the story is full of action and excitement – that is so immersive. Reading her books is kind of like donning one of those diving dresses and submerging in this other world where everything else disappears. I almost think if she wrote a book about polar exploration or living on the frigid Mongolian steppes, people without air conditioners could read it during the dog days of summer and find relief from the heat. That is the kind of way she makes the world fall away while you read.

I love Egan’s use of language, the “arachnid appetite of the IRS” instilling fears in gangsters, the male genitalia reminding Anna of two shoes hung over a pole, memories brushing against you like a cat. Her language is alive and fresh in ways that made me stop and savor, saying the sentences out loud. And this is why I knew even before I read the first sentence, why I was eager to read this book, Egan spins a magical story that grabs on and makes you hope will never let go.

I received an e-galley from the publisher of Manhattan Beach through NetGalley.

Historical fiction with a strong female protagonist and gorgeous writing. Egan has reinvented herself following A Visit from the Goon Squad and the result is impressive.

I will start by saying that I have never read a Jennifer Egan book.
Here is a story that takes place in the 1930's and 40's during the Great Depression in New York. The story does have some interesting historical information that shows the author did her research. To me a few things fall short in this story ~ Anna never truly found love, you saw a very tender side of her with her disabled sister Lydia and then again with her mother. Also there seemed to be 3 different stories going on at the same time. The book was definitely well written just maybe not my cup of tea. The ship does set sail and was docked nicely at the end and for that I give it a 3 star rating.

Egan's novel the Goon Squad garnered both the Pulitzer and the National Book Circle awards and expectations for Manhattan Beach are understandably high.

Manhattan Beach is no Goon Squad and in a complete departure Egan turns to the genre of historical fiction.

Set in the depression years of New York, it tells the story of Anna Kerrigan. Anna is 12 years old when we first meet her, accompanying her father, Eddie to the house of Dexter Styles, a nightclub owner with links to the New York criminal underworld.  Her father has business that will have ramifications for Anna and her family. It is not until some years later that Anna will understand the true nature of their business.

As Anna reaches adulthood America enters World War and Eddie simply disappears leaving Anna to support her disabled sister Lydia and her mother by working in the naval shipyards. By sheer will and determination Anna becomes a diver, mending warships, in what was a male dominated profession.

When Anna once again meets Dexter Styles in his nightclub, the course of her life changes forever and the mystery of her fathers disappearance is finally solved.

The scope of this novel is vast, covering the role of women as part of the war effort, the bravery of the Merchant Navy and the illegal spoils of war.

Anna herself, is tenacious, and determined and more than holds her own in a man's world bucking the narrow minded view of women held by many of her generation. She has few friends but at the heart is the relationship with her father, a man she clearly adored, yet held responsible for the fate of her family. It is perhaps the love she has for him that pushes Anna to take great risks to solve the mystery of his disappearance.

The villain of the  novel is undoubtedly Dexter Styles, a man seemingly in control, with a beautiful wife and adorable children. At times he comes across as a man of morals, disdainful of those men who have affairs, yet underneath he will think nothing of removing those who threaten his business interests, a man of contradictions.

Then you have Anna's father, Eddie, a man with an instinct for survival, a man who clearly loved his family yet still left them. Eddie's story was particularly good and the imagery conjured up by Egan's writing of his time at sea was wonderfully evocative.

The attention to historical detail is fantastic and skilfully done without drowning out the story. I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of the naval shipyards and was amazed at the roles and jobs women undertook. Women still faced prejudice and belittlement, and had to fight hard to be recognised as equals to men. Anna is testament to that fight for equality and it is to Egan's credit as a writer that she has written a novel that so wonderfully portrays their efforts.

The novel will not be to everyone's liking as it does not have the originality of the Goon Squad but it is a novel that is certainly impressive in both its scope and narrative.

Thank you to Corsair Books for a proof copy to read and review.

Thank you for an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. There were parts of this book I really enjoyed, but others where the story kind of fell flat for me. It seemed there were too many facets trying to be woven together..

I have enjoyed everything that Jennifer Egan has written and thought that A Visit from the Goon Squad was one of the best books I read that year. So, when Netgalley offered Manhattan Beach, I was pleased. Egan’s other work has been, in one way or another, experimental, but Manhattan Beach is a straightforward historical novel, to my surprise.

Anna Kerrigan is a young girl at the start of the novel in 1930’s New York. Her father, Eddie, works as a bagman for the longshoreman’s union and takes her with him on his rounds. But shortly after the start of the novel, he begins leaving her home. He does this after he takes a new job working for a gangster, Mr. Styles. Although Anna interprets this as rejection, it is to keep her safe.

Eddie does not enjoy his home life. Although he loves his wife, they have a second daughter, Lydia, who is severely handicapped. Her presence makes him feel uncomfortable, and Agnes is always trying to force him to show affection to Lydia.

Then Eddie disappears without a trace. Anna begins working to help support the family. Eventually, the story splits into two. In one, Anna becomes involved with Mr. Styles, whom she remembers visiting as a child with Eddie, and works her way into the man’s world of marine diving as part of the war effort. In the other story, we find out what happened to Eddie.

For most of this novel, I wondered where it was going. Much of it centers around Anna, Eddie, and Mr. Styles. But first it seems to wander in focus from the New York underworld to the war effort and diving to Eddie’s experiences during World War II. Although the bulk of the novel is set during the war, there is very little feeling for the period.

Overall, I was a little disappointed in Manhattan Beach. It was well written, but Egan’s previous novels sparkled with originality. Egan makes it clear in the acknowledgements that she wanted to write about New York during the period, but the period feel is just not there. She is interested in the Naval Yard, where Anna works, but I didn’t really get an idea of what it was like.