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Body Surfing: A Novel
- ISBN13: 9780316036283
- Condition: New
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Product Description
At the age of 29, Sydney has already been once divorced and once widowed. Trying to regain her footing, she has answered an ad to tutor the teenage daughter of a well-to-do couple as they spend a sultry summer in their oceanfront New Hampshire cottage. But when the Edwards’s two grown sons, Ben and Jeff, arrive at the beach house, Sydney finds herself caught up in a destructive web of old tensions and bitter divisions. As the brothers vie for her affections, the fra… More >>
Aug 7th, 2010 at 3:56 am
BODY SURFING by Anita Shreve
July 17, 2007
Amazon Rating: 4/5 stars
Anita Shreve has to be one of my favorite authors, and BODY SURFING is yet another book I enjoyed immensely. It takes place in the same location as several of her previous books, notably FORTUNE’S ROCKS, and SEA GLASS. Compared to most of her other novels, BODY SURFING takes place in more contemporary times, so it has a different feel than the others. I wasn’t sure I would enjoy this one because of it. However, I found that once I got into the story, I was enjoying it as much as I had FORTUNE’S ROCKS and SEA GLASS. Shreve has a wonderful way with words, and this book was no exception. It’s what makes her books that much more of an experience.
29-year old Sydney is tutoring a young woman for the summer, a woman with a noticeable learning disability. She is slow, but her parents have high hopes that she will be able to further her education with some help from Sydney. Sydney is to live with the Edwards family, who are summering on the New Hampshire coast in a beach house, a very lovely location that plays as an important a part to the story as the characters do. Sydney’s background is that she has been married twice now, and is at the age of 29 a widow. She is still trying to recover from the shock of losing her beloved husband, when she arrives at the summer home.
Not too long after she’s moved in, the two grown sons also show up for the weekend. Ben and Jeff are two very different men. Jeff is a professor and Ben is in real estate. Sydney connects with Jeff, and finds herself pulled into his affections faster than she can blink an eye. It is during a secretive romp in the waters one night when Ben, Jeff and Sydney steal away, during which a rather awkward moment in the water occurs that somehow leads Sydney to bond closer to Jeff, thinking Ben had come on to her in a very lascivious way. She is appalled at Ben’s actions toward her, and she tries her best to avoid him.
The summer progresses and Jeff and Sydney’s relationship moves forward rather quickly. But it’s not the relationship that is important, but what is really going on in Jeff’s mind, as well as Ben’s, while the relationship advances. What appears on the surface is not what is going on underneath.
At the same time, there is a subplot centering on the younger sister. Julie, who bonds with Sydney and blossoms under her tutelage, proves that she has hidden talents that her parents would never nurture, but Sydney, who realizes that Julie may never excel in the traditional courses in school, tries to find other talents that may help Julie survive as an adult. In the mean time, Julie is starting to develop into a very beautiful woman, and the local boys are starting to notice her. Sydney cannot understand why Julie’s parents are totally blind to this fact, to the point where they are not even aware that their daughter has been going out on her own without the family knowing.
Sydney’s relationships with the family members, outside of that with Jeff, are crucial to the story. She is the outsider, welcomed by most of the family except for Mrs. Edwards, who sees Sydney as someone who is disrupting their lives and is only to be spoken to as the hired help.
Anita Shreve’s novels often have these surprise endings, and this was the case with BODY SURFING. I knew there was something “big” that was going to be revealed at the end, and it made the book worthwhile. I recommend this book for fans of Anita Shreve as well as those who are looking for a well-written character-driven novel. Intense and beautifully written, BODY SURFING is a book you will not be able to put down.
Rating: 4 / 5
Aug 7th, 2010 at 5:38 am
I may be a man, and not just a man, but a businessman, and the only times that I am not going over a spreadsheet or quarterly report are when I am on a plane, but that is when I like to prop a cheap airline pillow behind my neck, wrap myself in a thin airline blanket, and dive into the latest Anita Shreve novel.
I usually wrap another dust jacket over the book, something with “Success” or “Winning” in the title, but underneath the fake jacket I am unwrapping the lives, histories, and fates of complicated and compelling characters, and I often finish a Shreve novel in tears at the sheer power of her vivid and powerful descriptions of the turmoil within the human heart, at which point a flight attendant or a fellow passenger will ask if anything’s wrong, and I usually reply, “These success/winning/business strategies are just so powerful (sniff)… I can bench 200 pounds.”
“Body Surfing: A Novel” continues Shreve’s chronicling of the relationships between people seemingly thrown together by chance but whose lives eventually become so intertwined that one feels Fate, or an omniscient author, has brought them together.
Sydney, a young woman escaping her own past, steps into the seemingly idyllic, New Hampshire seaside home of wealthy architect Mr. Edwards. The elegant, two-story, white clapboard house with the wraparound porch and mansard roof has become a recurring character in many of Shreve’s novels, and here it serves as the repository of growing resentments, passions, and betrayals as Sydney becomes entangled in the Edwards family slow dissolution.
I fairly dissolved myself as I read of Sydney’s growing attraction to one of the Edwards brothers and the bitter actions of the other, all leading to a climax that left me, dare I say it, body surfing–on a wave of overwhelming emotions and uncontrollable feelings.
Rating: 5 / 5
Aug 7th, 2010 at 7:26 am
It’s always a thrill to start reading a book by Anita Shreve. Her writing has a refreshing astringency, like tart lemon sherbet after one scoop too many of rocky road. Every sentence is weighted, and the reader joins the writer in observing and interpreting the action.
BODY SURFING is the story of Sydney Sklar, recently widowed, who is tutoring eighteen-year-old Julie Edwards at a beach house in New Hampshire. Julie’s older brothers visit and sparks ignite between Sydney and Jeff.
Now comes the trouble with spare writing: the reader SEES the various love affairs unfolding, but they’re hard to fathom. The chemistry has to be taken on faith. The drawing of a finger along a thigh inspires sensual longing? An underwater touch in the dark is received with intractable revulsion? A distant swimmer in a wetsuit arouses a young girl’s first sexual passion? We know it because the author tells us so, but it’s all a bit abstract. Lives are changed by these minimal encounters but the reader doesn’t feel the heat; the plot seems somehow under-explained.
The characters, too, are described by their actions, with interpretation laid on. Somehow you know they’re as complex as anyone else but the narrative doesn’t quite do that complexity justice. We might wonder why Mrs. Edwards ever thought a summer of tutoring would get her “slow” daughter into a Seven Sisters college; how an architect never came to discover that his daughter is gifted with artistic talent; why neither of them ever noticed that she was a lesbian. And as for Sydney, she seems strong, smart and kind, is already twice-married, yet she can’t spot a cad when she sees one and instantly agrees to marry him, apparently because of the thigh-stroking mentioned above.
There’s nothing awful about this book; the writing itself is a treat, though maybe better suited to stories with a period setting like SEA GLASS or FORTUNE’S ROCKS. However it’s not Anita Shreve’s best. If you haven’t read her, don’t start here. But if you love her style, you’ll probably find this book a passable read.
Rating: 3 / 5
Aug 7th, 2010 at 8:48 am
While I have been fond of other novels by Anita Shreve and she obviously has talent, I do not believe it was fully executed in this book. Indeed, I finished this book because it was a quick read and I did want to find out what was going on between the brothers. To find out that there really wasn’t much of anything, that Jeff was simply a jerk and Sydney (supposedly a bright women and a survivor) couldn’t figure this out was truly sophomoric. In fact, Jeff’s entire courtship of Sydney was so transparent only a very shallow person would have fallen for his routine.
In places, it appeared that Sydney was supposed to represent a strong heroine having weathered some past heartaches, but, she was very thinly drawn and I couldn’t bring myself to care too much about her. In fact, I found myself a little put off by her internal musing about other members of the cast, as though she had the inside line on why they were acting certain ways when she didn’t have the faintest clue what was going on around her or in her own life (reread some of the dialogue during the initial beach parties and you’ll see what I mean). She appeared unable to engage with others in any meaningful conversation, I found her dull and unappealing and rather critical of others for no apparent reason. A lot of her action/reactions went beyond of the stretch of believability for a 29-year old woman.
There was too much in this novel that didn’t make sense. For example, we never really understand why Sydney was hired to tutor Julie, (her background doesn’t foreshadow this as likely); why none of the family figured out that a tutor wouldn’t help Julie get into college; why Mrs. Edwards disliked her so intensely; why Julie turns out to be a lesbian and how it happens that Julie has not shown proclivities towards this penchant and why her family wouldn’t notice something of this nature in a creature that appears incapable of deceit; why Sydney would be interested in Jeff; and why, if Sydney thought she was mistreated by Ben during a body surfing incident, doesn’t she just confront him?????? In short, there aren’t strong plot devices and the book seems ill formed and superfluous. None of the characters are strong or well developed. Even though I liked Julie and Mr. Edwards, I didn’t feel as though I understood or knew any of the central characters.
I had hoped Shreve would pull this one out at the end, but alas, the latter half was just as unsatisfying. There was no purpose to Sydney spending time in the unnamed swank hotel, or her traffic accident in order to meet a man who adds nothing to the story. Sydney’s final encounter with Mrs. Edwards only serves to confuse and doesn’t bring closure to a strained relationship. And Ben’s explanation of why Jeff pursued Sydney is so lame; one has to wonder why Shreve bothered to write this novel. As much as I’d like to, I can’t glean anything of value from this experience. I had the feeling that Shreve had all these characters and situations left over from other novels that she didn’t use and she flung them all into this novel without purpose, direction, or point. Let’s hope the next one is better. Shreve is turning out to be a very uneven writer. This book would have benefited greatly from better editing. Next time I’ll read the reviews before I purchase the book.
Rating: 2 / 5
Aug 7th, 2010 at 10:31 am
The New Hampshire Coast, and a particular home on it, are alluring to once-divorced, once-widowed Sydney Sklar. Recovering from the double-blow in her personal life, she settles in with the Edwards family at their vacation home (a home Shreve has used in previous novels) to tutor their stunningly beautiful but intellectually slow daughter Julie. At first sight, the two older brothers, Jeff and Ben, are in an emotionally devastating competition to win Sydney.
Anita Shreve paints a beautiful picture of the setting, the family home, the sea, the sense of family with dinner and conversations and affection that is so inviting to Sydney. She is captivated by the adoring Julie and by Mr. Edwards, the wealthy family patriarch rich as well in common sense and compassion. Not so appealing to Sydney is Mrs. Edwards who treats her more like an unwanted servant and can never accept her as a valued member of the family. Even when Sydney’s status is elevated through an unfortunate incident with Julie and later with a relationship with one of the sons, Mrs. Edwards remains hard-hearted toward her.
Sydney’s desire for family leads her into a relationship with one brother, but this reader gets the feeling that she could have just as easily become involved with the other brother. They seem interchangeable to Sydney; it is her desire to be a part of a family, this family in particular, which propels her into a relationship.
The sad part of this novel to me is that Sydney never grows as a character, never learns from her past history. At novel’s end she is making the same mistakes she has made all her life. When the intensity of the brothers’ competitiveness erupts and leaves Sydney an emotional wreck, one would hope she would grow from the experience. Perish that hope.
Rating: 3 / 5