false 443540 28 Anita Shreve's <I>All He Ever Wanted</I> reads like Virginia Woolf's <I>A Room of One's Own</I> told from the perspective of the husband. The wife gains a measure of freedom, but how does the repressive, abandoned husband feel about that freedom? Set in the early 1900s in the fictional New England college town of Thrupp, and narrated by the pompous Nicholas Van Tassel, <I>All He Ever Wanted</I> is at once an academic satire, a period novel, and a tale of suspense. Shreve's ability to nimbly hop through genres brings a liveliness to this story of love gone depressingly wrong. Van Tassel is an undistinguished professor of rhetoric at Thrupp College and a confirmed bachelor when he meets--in no less flamy a scenario than a hotel fire--the arresting Miss Etna Bliss. Immediately smitten, he woos and wins her. At least, he persuades her to become his wife. But Van Tassel hasn't really won her. Etna keeps her secrets and her feelings to herself. The extent of her withholding only becomes clear after a couple of kids and a decade or so of marriage. Then we find out that she's been creating a secret haven for herself all along. Van Tassel is in turn revealed--through his own priggish, puffed-up sentences--as something of a monster. The book is cleverly done; watching Etna through Van Tassel's eyes is like looking at beautiful bird from a hungry cat's point of view. But Van Tassel's voice might be too well written; he's pedantic and dull and snarky all at once, and by the end we find that we, like Etna, can't bear his company a minute longer. <I>--Claire Dederer</I> 3037523 2003 All He Ever Wanted: A Novel total:3210|5:235|4:703|3:1273|2:724|1:275| 3210 9529 4042 287 4 4 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Nov 01 12:42:42 -0700 2007 Thu Nov 08 20:26:34 -0800 2007 more...]]> 3 1 false false Sun Nov 02 19:16:31 -0800 2008 Mon Nov 03 12:55:42 -0800 2008 Never judge a book by its...title

Never having the pleasure of reading any of Shreve’s works prior to delving into “All He Ever Wanted”, I admittedly formed an unfair and premature opinion of the novel based on its somewhat flimsy melodramatic title. However, I was soon to discover that it is d...more...]]> 4 1 false false Thu Sep 25 09:54:27 -0700 2008 Thu Sep 25 10:05:26 -0700 2008
This book is a fascinating examination of the general mores and attitudes of the late Victorian era - - - i say this because i feel t...more...]]> 3 1 false false Thu Jul 17 10:58:40 -0700 2008 Thu Jul 17 10:59:20 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 1 false true Mon Feb 04 11:35:09 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 04 11:55:43 -0800 2008
This book was aptly titled. It quite literally is about the things that he wanted and what he did to get them. The book reads like a memoir as Van Tessal narrates to the reader his love affair with Etna Bliss. Interwo...more...]]> 4 2 false false Sun Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Jun 01 12:43:02 -0700 2008 Wed Jun 25 11:06:40 -0700 2008
Also a nice satire on academia, mixed in. I found parts of it so sad...and totally agree with the person who said this book was like watchi...more...]]> 4 1 true false Wed Dec 03 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 04 06:06:00 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 04 06:07:46 -0800 2008 1 more...]]> 4 1 false false Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 16 11:01:26 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 16 11:01:47 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 1 false false Tue Dec 16 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 14 07:45:25 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 16 18:25:39 -0800 2008
My favorite quote:
"The sight of your face on that morning so many years ago has remained for me a standard by which I judge my own affection for any woman with whom I am close, ...more...]]> 4 1 false false Mon Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2005 Fri Jan 11 06:58:30 -0800 2008 Fri Jan 11 07:02:27 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Fri Dec 05 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Nov 30 14:11:05 -0800 2008 Fri Dec 05 15:42:13 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 2 true false Fri Jun 06 10:27:06 -0700 2008 Thu Jun 12 20:41:49 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 0 false false Mon Jan 12 11:34:30 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 11 15:17:10 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 12 11:34:30 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false true Mon Jul 27 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 27 19:57:43 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 27 20:08:44 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Nov 26 22:16:43 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 03 17:16:21 -0800 2008 1
If you're a woman, you may have been p...more...]]> 0 1 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Jun 22 07:17:05 -0700 2007 Tue May 06 09:22:17 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 0 false false Tue Aug 04 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 30 14:57:34 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 04 14:05:51 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false true Wed Jan 14 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 15 09:29:26 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 15 09:37:37 -0800 2009 The book was written by Anita Shreve, but is in the voice of a man, Nicholas Van Tassel, who is t...more...]]> 1 1 false false Thu Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Thu Sep 13 13:28:29 -0700 2007 Thu Sep 13 13:31:33 -0700 2007 3 0 false true Mon Jun 22 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 08 17:34:40 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 03 16:51:36 -0700 2009 more...]]>