All He Ever Wanted

March 17, 2003
In bestsellers such as Fortune's Rocks, Shreve has revealed an impeccably sharp eye and a generous emotional sensitivity in describing the moment when a man and a woman become infatuated with each. She is less successful this time out, perhaps because the epiphany is one-sided. Escaping from a New Hampshire hotel fire at the turn of the 20th century, Prof. Nicholas Van Tassel catches sight of Etna Bliss and is instantly smitten. She does not reciprocate his feeling, for she has her own unrequited lust, for freedom and independence. That they marry guarantees tragedy. Nicholas tells the story in retrospect, writing feverishly on a train trip in 1933 to his sister's funeral in Florida. His pedantic style is full of parenthetical asides, portentous foreshadowing and rhetorical throat. His erotic swoon commands sympathy, until it carries him past any definition of decency. He will do anything to bring down Philip Asher, his academic rival and the brother of Etna's true love, Samuel. He plays on prevailing anti-Semitism (the Ashers are Jewish), and he persuades his daughter, Clara, to claim that Philip touched her improperly, which besmirches not only Philip's reputation but Clara's as well. We see Etna herself only secondhand, except for some correspondence with Philip reproduced toward the end of the tale. Credit the author for making the point that Etna and her sisters had too little autonomy even to tell their own stories, but filtering Etna's experience through Nicholas's sensibility deprives the novel of intimacy and immediacy. (Apr. 15)Forecast:A coordinated laydown will energize sales, and Shreve's latest will likely hit the charts.

December 1, 2002
Set at the turn of the last century, like Fortune's Rocks, this work begins when a man fleeing a hotel fire encounters a mysterious woman who will ultimately become his wife.

Copyright 2002 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2003
Boldly plotted and inventively told, Shreve's latest novel is further proof that she is a natural-born storyteller with a shrewd sense of how to shape her material to best appeal to the commercial market. This is a story of obsessive love spanning the years 1899-1916 and told in the somewhat stilted and formal language of a pompous English professor. Nicholas Van Tassel first meets Etna Bliss while escaping from a hotel fire, a conflagration that serves to foreshadow their relationship. He pursues her relentlessly, ascertaining that she is financially dependent on her sister's family. Sensing her restlessness, he proposes marriage, deceiving himself about her feelings for him. The bargain they have struck comes back to haunt them when Nicholas discovers that his wife, unbeknownst to him, has inherited a painting, sold it, and used the proceeds to buy herself a small house, where she can find some small measure of freedom. Considering this act the height of betrayal, Nicholas sets in motion a series of disastrous events. Shreve artfully explores the gamut of emotions provoked by passion, from selfless generosity to base pettiness, subtly tracing the bargains people make and the price exacted, all in the name of love.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)