Body Surfing by Anita Shreve, reviewed by Shawn Stufflebeam

Body Surfing by Anita Shreve

A book review by Shawn Stufflebeam

Anita Shreve's Body Surfing is an amazing novel, a real page-turner, and a triumph of character driven drama. After the first few pages I just about could not put this book down.

The story follows young Sydney through her encounters with the wealthy Edwardses, at their New Hampshire beach home. She is there ostensibly to tutor their daughter Julie, but quickly becomes enmeshed in the family's affairs.

Plot is so often the fuel that fires a particularly gripping novel, that when I was finished I kept thinking, 'You know, not that much really happened here. How can I have been so caught up in this thing?"

    The truth of the matter is that quite a lot does happen over the course of this wonderful story, but much of it happens between the pages. Ms. Shreve has a gift for telling us just the tidbits we need about each character so that our imaginations instantly flesh out the rest. It's what she doesn't say that is often so compelling. A long silence or a glance from Mrs. Edwards speaks volumes about what's really going on in her head. Sydney looks around the dinner table, and just from the things that catch her eye you know precisely what she is thinking, and what scares her.

This is not an epic, but by the end of it I felt like I knew all seven of the main characters as well as people I've known my whole life. I kept thinking, 'Yeah so-and-so is just like that' and 'I know exactly how that feels - the nerve of that person!'

And it is the kind of a tale that sticks with you; in the days after I finished Body Surfing, my mind kept wandering back to New England to visit. This is a hallmark of great stories - that they haunt you long after they're gone.

As a final note: my wife read the book right after I did, and had precisely the same reaction. In fact, the day she finished Body Surfing, we went to the bookstore and bought two more Anita Shreve novels. I highly recommend Body Surfing, and I am so grateful that it caught my eye - it is a great read by an exceptionally perceptive author.

http://contemporarylit.about.com/od/fiction/fr/bodySurfing.htm