Sea Glass

August 5, 2002
This serviceable production opens with Shreve explaining how her book took shape: she envisioned stories behind colorful glass fragments washed smooth over time by the sea. As in the author's previous novels (The Last Time They Met
and The Pilot's Wife), the setting is the New Hampshire coast. It's the 1920s, and Honora marries Sexton, but not long after their marriage, things go awry. Honora grows disillusioned with her new husband and falls for McDermott, a good-guy union organizer at the mill who's sweetly taken Francis, a fatherless 11-year-old mill worker, under his wing. When a strike at the mill turns ugly, some of the book's main characters are shot dead. Grieving Honora goes to live by the beach with Francis, who adores her. Shreve divides the book into small segments introduced by a character's name, which can be a powerful device. Alas, it does not work especially well with audio, as listeners may have trouble differentiating between the various voices. Nonetheless, actor Sedgwick reads well. She handles the tone of each scene nicely, and long, somber musical passages indicate the abridgement points. Simultaneous release with the Little, Brown hardcover (Forecasts, Feb. 11).

Starred review from February 11, 2002
In addition to spinning one of her most absorbing narratives, Shreve here rewards readers with the third volume in a trilogy set in the large house on the New Hampshire coast that figured in The Pilot's Wife
and Fortune's Rocks. This time the inhabitants are a newly married couple, Sexton and Honora Beecher, both of humble origins, who rent the now derelict house. In a burst of overconfidence, slick typewriter salesman Sexton lies about his finances and arranges a loan to buy the property. When the 1929 stock market crash occurs soon afterward, Sexton loses his job and finds menial work in the nearby mills. There, he joins a group of desperate mill hands who have endured draconian working conditions for years, and now, facing extortionate production quotas and reduced pay, want to form a union. The lives of the Beechers become entwined with the strikers, particularly a principled 20-year-old loom fixer named McDermott and Francis, the 11-year-old fatherless boy he takes under his wing. A fifth major character is spoiled, dissolute socialite Vivian Burton, who is transformed by her friendship with Honora. As Honora becomes aware that Sexton is untrustworthy, she is drawn to McDermott, who tries to hide his love for her. The plot moves forward via kaleidoscopic vignettes from each character's point of view, building emotional tension until the violent, rather melodramatic climax when the mill owners' minions confront the strikers. Shreve is skilled at interpolating historical background, and her descriptions of the different social strata—the millworkers, the lower-middle-class Sextons, the idle rich—enhance a touching story about loyalty and betrayal, responsibility and dishonor. This is one of Shreve's best, likely to win her a wider audience. 6-city author tour. (Apr. 9)Forecast:Expectations of brisk sales, indicated by the one-day laydown, will likely be achieved. Readers should find timely resonance in the setting of 1920s economic turbulence.

Starred review from March 15, 2002
Following The Last Time They Met and Fortune's Rocks, Shreve once again scores big with a wonderful new novel about marriage and love played out during the early months of the Depression. At age 20, in the summer of 1929, Honora marries Sexton Beecher, a traveling typewriter salesman. Although the first months of their marriage are idyllic, Honora begins to lose respect for her husband when she realizes that he plays fast and loose with the truth in both his business dealings and with her. After Sexton loses his sales job, he finds work at a local New Hampshire mill, where he becomes involved with a group of union organizers protesting the terrible working conditions. When Honora meets McDermott, a union activist, and Francis, an 11-year-old mill worker whom McDermott has befriended, her life takes an unexpected turn. As Honora's disenchantment with Sexton grows more serious, she is increasingly drawn to McDermott, with tragic consequences. Vibrant characters, coupled with a graceful writing style, make Shreve's novel perfect for readers who appreciate multilayered stories with a social conscience. For all public libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 12/01.] Nancy Pearl, Washington Ctr. for the Book, Seattle

Copyright 2002 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2002
Shreve's latest is set during the 1920s in a New Hampshire house that has been featured in two of the author's previous novels, "The Pilot's Wife" (1998) and "Fortune's Rocks" (1999). After a three-month courtship, 20-year-old bank teller Honora marries 24-year-old typewriter salesman Sexton on a bright June day in 1929. They move into an abandoned house on the beach, which they have agreed to fix up in exchange for rent. Excited by the first heady days of their new marriage and their new life together, Honora and Sexton throw themselves into redecorating the house. When the owner of the house offers to sell it to them, they jump at the chance even though it will be a financial stretch. Their timing couldn't be worse. Within months, the stock market crashes, and their life changes completely when Sexton is forced to take a brutal, low-paying job in the local mill. In contrast to the riveting story lines of Shreve's previous titles, the plot is a bit thinner here. Yet the characters are compelling, especially the hard-living, smart-mouthed socialite Vivian and the reticent union activist McDermott. Even as Shreve stays resolutely on the surface of her story, readers will respond to her well-crafted prose. Fine entertainment. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)