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REVIEW
A Subtly Engaging Ride on the Waves Right now Sydney has one thing and one thing only on her mind: her job. Still a young woman, she has already been divorced by one husband and widowed by another, and is ready to leave love behind and throw herself into the job of tutoring Julie Edwards, the charming, “slow” daughter of a wealthy older couple. The Edwardses bring Sydney to their summer home, a beach cottage in New Hampshire. It’s here that Sydney learns how to body surf, and, more importantly, to heal her broken heart. Soon Sydney’s newly-comfortable world is rocked when the Edwardses’ two older sons, Jeff and Ben, join the family – Jeff bringing with him his perfect and perfectly detestable fiancée, and Ben bringing with him loads of obnoxious confidence. Before Sydney knows it, she is caught in a tide of old family tensions and broken relationships, secrets, lies, and heartbreak. Treated by half of the family as one of them and the other half as a servant who doesn’t quite know her place, Sydney finds herself torn in this family…perhaps irreparably. Body Surfing, by Anita Shreve, is not one of those books that grabs you by the throat on page one and doesn’t let go until you close the back cover. Rather, it’s one of those books that takes you by the hand and gently but insistently pulls you along through its pages. Fiercely engaging without being fierce, it’s the sort of book that is meant to be curled up with in bed. I can’t say that I feel like a lot happened in this book. The conversations are scant and subtle, the actions understated, the love and heartbreak felt but not lit up with neon signs. Instead, you find yourself picking up on tensions, finding snide remarks humorous and insulting at the same time, feeling a prickle of fear without being in mad-dash terror…just like you would in everyday life. That’s what makes this read so engaging – Shreve’s ability to hand us everyday life and all the tiny traumas that happen within. With all the muted unfairness that nobody notices or cares about. With all the struggles that remain unspoken and triumphs that feel like life is simply going on as it always does. Like tide washing over a shoreline, grabbing a sandcastle that took such effort to build, and pulling it flat, leaving the builder no choice but to build again or give up and move on. Such is Sydney’s life. Shreve manages to create characters that are vivid and sensitive and that we care about. We want Sydney to open up her heart again. We want to have crab claws and cocktails with the Edwardses, the sea breeze rifling our hair. We want to feel the electricity of a touch under the water, the jolt of a hand on a thigh. Overall, if you’re the type of reader who needs bricks-over-the-head action and big, heavy drama, this book is not for you. If you, however, enjoy a well-crafted story that is subtle, yet engaging, with vivid characters and writing that is so rhythmic as to buoy you along like surf, Body Surfing is a read you won’t want to put down. Jennifer Brown is a freelance writer in Liberty, Missouri. The two-time winner of the Erma Bombeck global humor award (2005 & 2006), Jennifer's humor column appears in The Kansas City Star. Contact Jennifer and check out her work at www.jennifunny.com.
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