Sea Glass by Anita Shreve (Audiobook)

I have read two prior books written by this author and am delighted to say that this third book that I have indulged in was even better then the predecessors. Taking place again in a small town on the beach of New Hampshire this book shares the same house used in Fortune’s Rock and The Pilot’s Wife (coincidentally the exact novels of Shreve’s that I have read). However, this time the year is 1929 and the beach houses residents are newlyweds Sexton and Honora (pronounce with a silent “H”). Shreve is an artist with the English language. She has a talent for weaving together complex characters with secretive motives that entice the audience into reading more to discover the truth behind the actions.

Sea Glass is an intricate tale told by five very diverse narrators. First in Honora, who starts out naïve, yet hopeful in a marriage to a man she has only met 8 times over the course of a courtship that could be called superficial at best, shallow at worst. Then there is Sexton, her ambitious salesman husband, with questionable scruples and an identity tied closely to his ability to sell. Vivian, the socialite from down the beach who is looking for excitement and purpose to fulfill her empty life or at the very least fill the hours of her long days. McDermott, a twenty year old who has become almost completely deaf working in the garment mill in Ely Falls, he helps the striking workers organize and stay motivated. Alphonse, a young boy on the verge of manhood, who has been taken in as a sort of mascot by McDermott and the other workers at the mill to help them with the various menial tasks to keep the strike going.

Shreve's talent is getting inside her character's heads. She reveals their hopes, dreams, motivations, fears, and rationalizations with clarity and precision. The aspect I relish the most in her writing is the complex, very human thoughts and feelings that we, the reader, are privy to using this form of narrative. These diverse perspectives give us the chance to experience the beginning of the depression, the crumbling of a marriage, the unionization of workers, and the budding of love with the people as they each are impacted by these event.

Sea Glass is a vivid book; full of mundane lives lived in not so quiet desperation. The hunger and desperation of laborers prior to Unions and livable wages was truly miserable. Food looms large as the basic needs of everyone in the book are hardly ever met until the strike takes place. The climax of the book is sadly unsurprising and keenly realistic for the era. Consider listening to this one on tape since it captures the speech patterns and dialect of the earth 20th Century in a way that I certainly could not duplicate in my head.