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July 28, 2002
REVIEW: Collecting little treasures
Anita Shreve has changed tack in her latest novel. Instead of the expected unputdownable, reading at full tilt approach which has endeared her to me over her previous eight novels, in this one the tension only begins two thirds through; there’s little texture, as she strives for a different structure — a series of snapshots reflected in extremely short - sometimes no more than a page long — chapters. Most of these are headed by the names of her six main characters.
It is a not well managed story. I felt she had gone shopping with one of those string bags which expand with its contents but also when the mesh widens with increasing use so things fall out if you are not careful.
The sea glass of the title are tiny bits of glass broken from bottles etc tossed into the sea but bearing little relationship to their original parentage. They are a myriad of colours and shapes and as the main character Honora says these treasures which she collects are other people’s discarded stuff. These shards of glass lovingly collected on walks along the beach interweave the story but somehow don’t resonate in the way one expects. Watch out for example for the dead brother who becomes tiny pieces himself in a diabolical explosion.
The six characters reflect the three classes of a capitalist society. There is the cool Vivian, the perfect example of the idle rich who uses her time while not enjoying herself watching what’s going on in a purposeful manner. Unfortunately her hapless boyfriend loses everything in the stock exchange crash of 1929. At the other end of the social scale are McDermott and Alfonso who work in dreadful drudgery in a textile mill. Shreve delights in describing the desperate conditions under which people work and live in these mill towns.
Sandwiched in between are the worthy but easily duped middle classes: Honora and her unappealing husband Sexton. Poor Honore was quickly swept off her feet from behind a bank counter to become his wife. She helps him sell typewriters. Her agile fingers tip tap winningly across the typewriter keys. Sexton also suffers in capitalism’s demise. He looses his job and has to work in the mill where he meets McDermott and Alfonso.
Then it’s back to his house on the beach (which has appeared in two other Shreve novels) which Sexton bought on a scam. There the characters are brought together by a strike of the underpaid workers in the mill. They are led by a communist trade union leader who of course had been university educated and is put down by the admirable Vivian in a number of memorable exchanges.
This all happens in the latter part of the book when we are at last back in familiar Shreve territory: The intensity of human relationships quicken; people’s flaws and faults are expertly revealed to the reader and to a few of the more perceptive characters. Those that remain unaware are disposed of with typical Shrevian thoroughness and often with a touch of callousness. The string shopping bag becomes a tough leather hold-all for only the real survivors.
Sea glass
By Anita Shreve
Little Brown
ISBN 0-316-85910-9
328pp. £12.99
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