Jennifer Egan is best known for A Visit from the Goon Squad, her Pulitzer prize winning kaleidoscopic tale of lives intersecting but not connecting.  Her follow-up novel suffers beneath the burden of a high degree of expectation in consequence - having produced that rarest of creatures, a novel that can be labelled as unique, what was she going to come up with next?  The arrival of Manhattan Beach was therefore something of a surprise; by contrast with the discordant and eclectic Goon Squad, this is an apparently traditional piece of historical fiction centred around an Irish family in 1930s Brooklyn.  The central character is Anna Kerrigan, who we first meet in 1934 as an eleven year-old girl accompanying her father Eddie to visit mobster Dexter Styles, but then the story fast-forwards to her aged nineteen as she trains to be a diver to help the war effort.  In the background another drama plays out as Eddie disappears in the intervening period and the older Anna tries to piece together what has become of him.  

On the surface, this story is apparently simplistic and almost linear but closer examination reveals far more is taking place.  The major focus of the novel is the sea; Anna and her father make their first appearance on a beach going to meet Dexter Styles, years later Anna is able to persuade Mr Styles to help her take her invalid sister Lydia to the beach, she trains as a diver in the sea and the sea is where Eddie may just have met his fate.  Indeed, Eddie observes 'how much of his own speech derived from the sea, from “keeled over” to “learning the ropes” to “catching the drift” to “freeloader” to “gripe” to “brace up” to “taken aback” to “leeway” to “low profile” to “the bitter end,” or the very last link on a chain'.  Over the course of the book, we witness a shipwreck, we walk on the beach, the water symbolising new beginnings, hope, death, rebirth.

As with Goon Squad, Egan continues her fascination with pauses and the unspoken.  Eddie is the bagman, visiting Mr Styles on the behalf of a union official who cannot be seen associating with a known mobster.  Anna does not understand what is going on but senses something beneath the surface.  Later we get to know Dexter Styles much better and witness his meetings with people whose words have very different meanings beneath the surface.  Severely mentally and physically handicapped, Lydia is unable to speak or move, with the question hanging heavy over whether Eddie's disappearance is because of his associates or because he was unable to cope with his younger daughter's presence.  Yet Lydia does speak once more, while visiting the beach with Anna and Mr Styles, her voice reawoken by the sea in a scene that sits like a non-sequitur but nonetheless has a feel of something magical.

Despite all of this, the novel lacks the resonance of Egan's previous book.  Although Manhattan Beach had compelling moments, the overall arc felt somewhat lacking.  The period of the Great Depression looms large in the American national imagination and it did not feel that Egan brought a particularly fresh outlook to the era.  Some of Egan's exposition sits rather heavily, particularly the passages describing the boatyard where Anna starts work as a diver - Egan has done her research and she seems keen that we notice this, unsurprising given that she's been working on the story since 2004 but it does hamper the flow of the story.  I wondered too if the story's long gestation was due to a lack of certainty in terms of direction - is it the story of a daughter looking for her father?  Or of a young woman making her way in a male-dominated field?  Or is it a mobster story?  All appeared to be possibilities but yet Egan never quite appears to make up her mind.

In some ways though, this feels nit-picky - Manhattan Beach did hold my attention until the end and I did find Anna an interesting character.  While it has become commonplace bordering on cliche to disrupt the timeline of a narrative to induce suspense, Egan manages this with an unusual amount of artistry, recreating a sense of the unknowns we face in our real lives.  She plays with the idea of how our own limited perspectives of the over-arching stories of our lives affects our perceptions of events.  With several very ambitious set-pieces, Manhattan Beach has a real cinematic quality and Egan has a clear love for the period.  This may not be destined to be the most memorable in Egan's body of work, but it is still well worth the reading.

Manhattan Beach is a joy of a novel. Set in the early 1930's and 1940's America it is a detailed, complex story about a young woman still mourning the disappearance of her father whilst working at a naval shipyard and training to be a diver in the aftermath of Pearl Harbour. Beautifully researched the reader is immediately transported to the period. I loved this novel.

Although this book has received a lot of hype and praise, I am afraid that I was very disappointed. It had a very interesting storyline and the characters were quite well defined, but I felt that it did not hold together very well and some of the story was far-fetched. We did read it for Book Club and it was given three stars. I think that was fair.

Thanks to Little Brown Book Group UK and NetGalley for letting me read this in exchange for an honest review.

I went into this book having never read anything by Jennifer Egan. I didn't know what to expect but I probably won't be trying anything else by Egan. The plot for this book sounded good and it definitely had the potential to be a great book. But I found chapters just jumped all over the place between people and time. I didn't really care about any of the characters. It took me 2 weeks to read this because I just didn't want to read it.

Partially WWII time period and after. Set in the US, so not the normal British WWII problems of city bombings, more the effects of shortages, men enlisting, and ocean activity. Story set around a family, with the husband trying to get out the downward spiral of poverty set off by the wife having to stop work to look after their second daughter who clearly had some possible birth defects/mental and physical problems; with there being a shortage of blue collar work in the city due to the economy. There are connections to the mob/mafia as a result which cause interesting consequences. The story centres around the older daughter who eventually gets work diving for the navy, clearly one of the first girls to do this, which made for some entertaining scenes. Good read and happy to recommend this book.

I heard quite a lot about this book but I just can't get into it at all.

Could have been great, but far too many sub plots that didn't add to the story and went nowhere, which made for a slow read. The character of Lydia served no purpose, and in the end, neither did Dexter. They were written in beautifully, we got interested in what would happen, but in the end, it made no difference to the plot whether they were there or not. It was interesting reading about the Naval dockyards in WW2, and the Merchant Marine who were definitely unsung heroes.

A fascinating and totally absorbing novel set in the USA during the Second World War. It follows the life of Anna Kerrigan who becomes a diver at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and the detail of how she trains and works is so interesting. Anna’s father disappeared when she was about 13/14 and part of the story is the discovery of what happened to him.

The novel is both historical and a mystery. It covers organised crime in New York, the role of women in the workplace and the racism present at the time. It is very well written and the characters are well drawn. Anna is a feisty character who I found myself rooting for on every occasion.

Highly recommended.

I received a complimentary copy of the book from NetGalley and publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you

This New York story begins in the Depression and takes us through the second world war, centring on an Irish family in Brooklyn. More traditional than Egan's other novels, the meticulous research on diving, (Anna, the daughter becomes a diver at the shipyard) and the merchant navy (her father, involved in organised crime, disappears to sea), sometimes weighs the story down. However, the narrative is sufficiently compelling and it tells of lesser known aspects of the war, focusing, refreshingly, on the role of women.

Manhattan Beach was a lovely historical fiction set in the small world full of gangsters, ships, and the like. It's going to suffer if you wanted something like Visit from the Goon Squad but I wasn't so into it (Visit) and preferred Manhattan Beach. Egan's prose remains pitched right and her characters stay engaging.

When Anna is introduced to Dexter Styles, a mob leader, she has no idea how her life will change. Her father invites her along so she can spend time with Styles' daughter but Anna is more fascinated by the mob leader.

Set in NY during the 1930s-1940s this novel is an interesting reflection on pre war NY and the war effort. The naval yards are the key focus with Anna first working in parts manufacture and later qualifying to dive. During this time her father goes missing and she happens upon Dexter Styles again and is again fascinated. Styles is only too aware and is happy to be pursued. The relationship develops emotionally but Anna is also keen to establish what happened to her father.

This is part historical, part mystery. Whilst I enjoyed these aspects I was less keen on the detailed account of diving and shipwrecks. The societal aspects were much more interesting for me.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

Excellent story, very well written. I enjoyed the setting and the descriptions of life in New York during the war. Recommended.

The lives of Dexter Styles and Anna Kerrigan are very different yet there are threads that interconnect them. As we learn about each of them, we are taken through shady deals, the womens war effort, love and loss. I think the bit about Anna taking on the men as a diver was my favourite part of the book; it almost stood alone as a story in its own right but the whole book was enjoyable

This elegantly written book, set in New York, follows the lives of three very different characters over the period of time from the Great Depression to World War Two and the story of their intertwined lives is told in their three different voices.

I knew just a few pages in that I was going to enjoy this novel, as the quality of the writing immediately shone from the pages.

As the story begins, Kerrigan is taking his young daughter Anna to visit Styles, who lives in a large, opulent home on the beach. Under the cover of a family visit, Kerrigan is really secretly investigating entering the world of the mob. He wants more money to buy equipment to make life easier for Anna’s disabled sister. Styles is a powerful gang leader who has married into a very respectable, extremely wealthy New York family and he has the potential to help Kerrigan make money.

The story takes off immediately and we are drawn into life around Manhattan Beach. Jennifer Egan has meticulously researched life in New York over the period of the book. She sets the scene very well and introduces us to a plethora of interesting themes, including the role of divers in working on the ships used at war and the changing role of women at work in WWII, as well as the prevalence of the mob and their modus operandi.

I found dialogue natural and a delight to read, while the characters develop beautifully as time passes and the story switches between Anna, her father and Styles.

Definitely in my top five reads of 2017.

Many thanks to the publishers Corsair and to NetGalley for a copy of the book in return for a fair review.

I really struggled with this one - had to start over a couple of times. To me it was a series of vignettes with no connecting loop. The characters were flat and generally did not endear themselves to me although I did like Anna. It felt like the characters were just walking through the scenes rather than interacting with the story line. I found the whole thing just hard going and the ending was an equally damp squib

I was a little disappointed by this book. Being a fan of a visit from the goon squad, this outing didnt match up to my expectations and I barely managed to finish

Set during the period of the second World war in Brooklyn, this is the story of Anna. As a girl, Anna loves to accompany her father Eddie to mysterious business meetings, and she feels rejected and angry when, without explanation, he stops taking her. Eventually her father deserts the family and disappears from their lives. Years later, as a young lady, Anna comes across one of her father's acquaintances and realises that he may provide the key to discovering what became of her father. The narrative is compelling and beautifully written Truly great literature, I loved it.

Unfortunately I couldn't get into this book at all which surprised me. i think i shall revisit when i have more time to spend in one session. not a book to keep picking up on the go.

I enjoyed this book, the characters were interesting and well described, however I found it a long read like one of those films that have a good start but are slow, when not a lot really happens but you have to keep going to the end.

I admired A Visit from the Goon Squad more than I liked it, finding it a bit tricksy, but Manhattan Beach is a tour de force. It’s about an Irish family in Brooklyn during the Depression, and then the Second World War, in particular Anna and her father. I loved the depiction of Lydia, the disabled sister – “wrists bent like birds’ wings”. The evocation of Dexter Styles, part gangster, part member (via marriage) of New York’s demi monde, is superb. Dexter’s links to Anna’s father, a good man who becomes embroiled in the underworld and goes missing, and later on to Anna herself, who is fascinated by him, are seamless.
As you might expect from the title, beaches, the sea, water, are emblems running through the book. The scene where Anna and Dexter take Lydia to the beach, where, briefly, she comes to life, is heartbreaking. If there is a weakness to the book – and I realise this puts me at odds with many other reviewers – it’s that there is enough in the novel without the subplot of Anna’s struggles to become a diver in the War, working out of a naval dockyard. In particular, the scene where an entirely untutored Dexter Styles insists on and then succeeds at going on an illicit dive with Anna, feels contrived. I can see why the author was fascinated by the subject and wanted to included it; it’s just that the book has sufficient weight without it.
But this is a minor cavil; it’s so well-written that it’s the sort of book you can feel enriching your life as you read it.