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Body Surfing
by
Anita Shreve
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 destru...more
Mass Market Paperback, 320 pages
Published
July 1st 2009
by Little, Brown and Company
(first published 2007)
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I wasn't expecting much from this book, and was pleasantly surprised during the first third. Anita Shreve writes with skill, although I could have done without quite as much description of what people are wearing - especially since they change their clothes at least twice a day. But she captures the scene of a WASPy New England family summering on the coast of New Hampshire perfectly.[return]But by the last third, I started wondering whether she knew quite where she was trying to go with the dev...more
Why do I keep reading Anita Shreve? I can't explain this strange relationship I have with her characters. They are my guilty pleasure. More than the love plots (which usually involve infidelity, hmmm) and more than the character development, or lack of....it's her writing style. I love her cadence, her rythmn, and her emotional connections. One of my favorites is Fortune's Rock, which is a twisted sort of love story. But I couldn't put it down. Maybe because the book was set on the water, w...more
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If I could give 2.75 stars...... I'm going to give it 3 because I enjoy her style of writing. The book, well, it wasn't all it was hyped up to be. It kept me turning the pages even though I pretty much knew what was going to happen. My mom told me there were some pretty big twists, all which I predicted (which is disappointing-I love to be surprised!).
She didn't develop the characters as well as I would have liked. Why did Mrs. Edwards hate her so much? You can read into the fact th...more
She didn't develop the characters as well as I would have liked. Why did Mrs. Edwards hate her so much? You can read into the fact th...more
If we could give half stars, I would probably have given this one a two-and-a-half. I rounded up because I like this author so much. Body Surfing is about a woman who has been married twice: once divorced, once widowed. Coming out of her mourning, she finds herself in a relationship again. This book is about her relationship with the man and the family, and what ultimately happens. Action-wise, this book is not fast. It explores emotions, in that dispassionate, Anita Shreve way, rather than rela...more
After having been greatly disappointed by the last couple of Anita Shreve books I've read, I was relieved that this one didn't irritate me. On the other hand, though, it didn't give me the same pleasure as her earliest books did. But it wasn't bad.
The thing that interested me the most, almost, was figuring out that the beach house in this book is the same one in The Pilot's Wife, Fortune's Rock and Sea Glass. In fact, I think the folks in this story were the owners directly after ...more
The thing that interested me the most, almost, was figuring out that the beach house in this book is the same one in The Pilot's Wife, Fortune's Rock and Sea Glass. In fact, I think the folks in this story were the owners directly after ...more
The setting is a beach house in New Hampshire, the summer home of the Edwards family. Sydney is hired to be the tutor for their "slow" daughter, Julie, while Mr. Edwards is an architect who enjoys his rose garden and collects historical documents on the house they're living in. It is the same house that was featured in several other Shreve novels, like "The Pilot's Wife". Mrs. Edwards strikes me as a snob and a bit of a racist with her remarks about Sydney being half-Jewish. ...more
One of the things I like best about this author is how simple her stories are. Small cast, not much happens, but in a good way. Girl takes a lame job of tutoring a teenager and goes with the (rich) family to their house on the shore for summer. The two sons come up for a weekend and of course, promptly fall in love with Girl. The younger, more aggressive son comes with his girlfriend, whom he soon dumps and they get together. The story jumps ahead a year and they are about to get married when he...more
I have been an Anita Shreve fan for several years – well, okay, decades. I read her first novel, Eden Close back in the 70s when it first came out and remember really liking it. Her novel The Pilot’s Wife was an Oprah pick and, thus, huge. But I’m partial to the quieter novels: Where or When, The Last Time They Met.
Body Surfing is the story of Sydney, a once-divorced, once-widowed woman who comes to live on the New Hampshire coast to tutor the beautiful but intellectually challenged J...more
Body Surfing is the story of Sydney, a once-divorced, once-widowed woman who comes to live on the New Hampshire coast to tutor the beautiful but intellectually challenged J...more
more like one and a half...if it hadn't been a challenge book I probably would have DNF'd it...thankfully, it only cost me $4 on the hardback sale shelf at borders vice full prince...
I had many issues with it - the first being that there was wayyy to much about the authors political views showing through...I really hate it when I start to read a book and there is a section complaining about a certain section or person in the government...it seemed obvious that she also hadn't done a lo...more
I had many issues with it - the first being that there was wayyy to much about the authors political views showing through...I really hate it when I start to read a book and there is a section complaining about a certain section or person in the government...it seemed obvious that she also hadn't done a lo...more
Imagine being a twenty-nine year old woman, one divorced and then once widowed. It's not a very common occurrence, but it is the main character of this book - Sydney's reality. This is the stage of her life in which she finds herself when she goes to work for the Edwards family. Ostensibly to tutor their teenage daughter, Julie, so that she can pass and do well on her upcoming SAT's, Sydney goes to stay with the Edwards at their beach house in New Hampshire. There, she body surfs, meets the Edwa...more
Body Surfing is the fourth book in what is known as the "Fortune's Rocks" quartet by Anita Shreve; however it serves perfectly fine as a stand-alone novel.
Although Sydney is only twenty-nine years old, she has been both divorced and widowed. When she vacations with a prominent family at their beach-house in New Hampshire to tutor their daughter with slow learning problems named Julie, Sydney finds herself as the love interest torn between two brothers. Body Surfingis the tal...more
Although Sydney is only twenty-nine years old, she has been both divorced and widowed. When she vacations with a prominent family at their beach-house in New Hampshire to tutor their daughter with slow learning problems named Julie, Sydney finds herself as the love interest torn between two brothers. Body Surfingis the tal...more
A fab book, deeper than some of Shreve's recent work. She's back in the same house on the New England coast that has featured in several of her other novels. This is good if you've read them. If you haven't the exposition about the house's history is probably a bit incestuous and certainly extraneous to the story here.
Sydney Sklar, only about 28 years old or so I think, has already weathered two marriages: divorcing an aviator who was likely to kill himself and being widowed by a doctor who,
...more
I haven't read any Anita Shreve in a while. The first book of hers that I read was Sea Glass which I really enjoyed. I also enjoyed The Weight of Water and Fortune's Rocks but the rest have been somewhat of a disappointment. So I quit reading her books. I saw this book several times in the store, but never picked it up b/c books like Resistance and All He Ever Wanted were so disappointing. Then I saw this in our used bookstore and decided to give it a try. I'm so glad I did.
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My library had a display that said "Beach Reads" and I thought, that's what I need after all those bible books I've been reading! So I picked this one, mostly because I'd read "Light on Snow" by the author awhile back. I have to say I was disappointed in the book, but I'm not sure if it's the book's fault or false advertising by the library. I don't know that I'd classify it as a "Beach Read". It DID take place on a beach! But I found it pretty depressing. And...more
I would give this 3&1/2 stars if able. Shreve creates great, very real, often flawed, and sometimes unlikable characters. Once again the beach house in New Hampshire provides the perfect setting - this house has been central to 3 or 4 of her books, all set in different times so that we learn a little more of its history each time - the story of the beach house has become almost as compelling as the main stories. The character of Sydney comes to the house & the Edwards family as a paid summer tu...more
I didn't warm to the main character, partly because I couldn't understand why she didn't work things out earlier - because I did. Stupidity never endears me to a character. Perhaps Sydney's attention was distracted by her manic vigilance - she notices clothes, how someone breathes, the details of a room and she even deduces what other characters are probably thinking. Whether she is right - another matter entirely. I'm inclined to think a character as naive as this one makes for a fairly unrelia...more
This is Shreve's fourth story about the same New England beach house. This is the story of Sydney, a once-widowed, once-divorced, young woman who lives with a family during a summer to tutor their daughter.
Sydney becomes part of the family - older sister to the girl she's tutoring, friend to the father, and an object of interest and competition for the two brothers. The tale that unfolds is sad - difficult to watch people undo themselves, yet still surprising because the exact way t...more
Sydney becomes part of the family - older sister to the girl she's tutoring, friend to the father, and an object of interest and competition for the two brothers. The tale that unfolds is sad - difficult to watch people undo themselves, yet still surprising because the exact way t...more
Spoiler alert: I didn't like this book. I didn't care about the characters, which weren't well developed, and the main character keeps making the same mistakes again and again and doesn't seem all that smart. I had to force myself to finish it. The final section seemed to have promise because I expected to see the main character in a good light, but she just went back to where she started.
The passive voice is not avoided by Anita Shreve. I kept getting irritated at that, as well as ...more
The passive voice is not avoided by Anita Shreve. I kept getting irritated at that, as well as ...more
I guess this could go on the "romance" shelf as well, but that isn't so much the point of the story, as family is.
One thing I noticed about this novel was that...there was not one typo. At least as far as I know (like, there could have been a typo in some American town name I don't know the proper spelling of or something. hehe). I've been reading epic fantasy novels lately by the same author/s, and they're RIDDLED with typos! So it was a nice change to read a book that was p...more
One thing I noticed about this novel was that...there was not one typo. At least as far as I know (like, there could have been a typo in some American town name I don't know the proper spelling of or something. hehe). I've been reading epic fantasy novels lately by the same author/s, and they're RIDDLED with typos! So it was a nice change to read a book that was p...more
***SPOILERS*** Anita Shreve is one of those authors who I just always have to read her books. Some of them are so powerfully written, like The Pilot's Wife and The Weight of Water, and some of them are just okay, quick reads to pass the time. This happened to be one of those books. The writing was broken up into small, sporadic paragraphs which made for a very quick read, and I found the first part of the book to be very well developed. I loved the relationship between Sydney and Julie, an
...more
É uma história super agradável e, por isso, dá sempre vontade de ler um pouquinho mais. Conta a história de uma mulher, primeiro divorciada e depois viúva, que está "encarregue" de preparar uma rapariga atrasada (é mesmo este nome que lhe dão) para entrar na faculdade no final daquele Verão. Sidney, não sabe que depois de tamanhas desilusões amorosas o amor ainda lhe tem reservado mais surpresas. E aí é que nós somos testemunhas de todos os acontecimentos.
Não é uma história com re...more
Não é uma história com re...more
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Anita Shreve was one of the fortunate living writers (pre James Frey) to have her book picked by Oprah to be in the Oprah book club. Although not an avid book club member, I have from time to time, picked up an Oprah book club book. A few years ago I read The Pilot's Wife. Shreve has a way of writing that is different and fresh. Her voice is detached and strangely unemotional considering her choice of plots. The Pilot's wife is about a woman who experiences crushing grief after her husband unexp...more
The story grabs you from the very beginning. It's a story of letting go and starting over again, however difficult it may be. The main character, Sydney, has been married twice: once divorced and once widowed. During one summer, she hired at the Edwards' summer house in New Hampshire to tutor Julia, the youngest of the family. She meets the sons, Ben and Jeff, one weekend, and trouble between the brothers boils as they vie for Sydney's attention.
It's not really a romance novel. It's ...more
It's not really a romance novel. It's ...more
I have read five other novels written by Anita Shreve since 2003 when I first discovered I liked this authors descriptive style of writing. Although in this instance I could have done without quite as much detail of exactly what people were wearing.
This novel is divided into three sections covering the periods of 2002, 2003 and then finishing up with 2005. The protagonist is Sydney Sklar divorced then widowed, although still only twenty nine years old. Whilst trying to come to terms ...more
This novel is divided into three sections covering the periods of 2002, 2003 and then finishing up with 2005. The protagonist is Sydney Sklar divorced then widowed, although still only twenty nine years old. Whilst trying to come to terms ...more
While I didn't read Anita Shreve's novel "Body Surfing" sunglasses on, toes in the sand, I wished I that was. It's the quintessential beach read, but then, most of Shreve's works are.
Shreve's page-turning, light novel (Back Bay Books, 2007, 291 pp.) takes place for the most part at a beachside cottage in New Hampshire. It centers on Sydney Sklar, a once-divorced and once-widowed 27-year-old who, crushed by lack of direction, ends up as a summer tutor to a teenager for a we...more
Shreve's page-turning, light novel (Back Bay Books, 2007, 291 pp.) takes place for the most part at a beachside cottage in New Hampshire. It centers on Sydney Sklar, a once-divorced and once-widowed 27-year-old who, crushed by lack of direction, ends up as a summer tutor to a teenager for a we...more
I'm surprised that I hadn't read this sooner as I really enjoy peppering my reading material with Anita Shreve books. This story was no different from what I expect from an Anita Shreve novel. This story was engrossing and enjoyable. Anita's books always draw me in and leave me in a somber, mystical state of mind. Her books aren't flashy or fast-paced, yet I couldn't put it down. They are well written.
I really enjoyed Sydney, the main character of this book. She has an ever-hop...more
I really enjoyed Sydney, the main character of this book. She has an ever-hop...more
[close:] At the age of 29, Sydney has already been once divorced and once widowed. Trying to regain her footing once again, 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' 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
But when the Edwards' 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
At the age of 29, Sydney has already been once divorced and once widowed. Trying to regain her footing once again, 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'' 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 fragile existence Sydn...more
Gostei!
Uma história sem grandes relevos, mas a forma de a autora a escrever fez com que valesse a pena.
Ela faz descrições das mais pequenas coisas de um forma melancólica que nos envolve de uma forma reconfortante, fazendo com que não tenhamos qualquer vontade de abandonar o livro, pois é como se a sua escrita nos transmitisse paz... é estranho, mas foi assim que senti.
Achei engraçada a forma como ela encaixou as familas das suas outras histórias tentando mostrar que "A Ca...more
Uma história sem grandes relevos, mas a forma de a autora a escrever fez com que valesse a pena.
Ela faz descrições das mais pequenas coisas de um forma melancólica que nos envolve de uma forma reconfortante, fazendo com que não tenhamos qualquer vontade de abandonar o livro, pois é como se a sua escrita nos transmitisse paz... é estranho, mas foi assim que senti.
Achei engraçada a forma como ela encaixou as familas das suas outras histórias tentando mostrar que "A Ca...more
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Anita Shreve grew up in Dedham, Massachusetts (just outside Boston), the eldest of three daughters. Early literary influences include having read Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton when she was a junior in high school (a short novel she still claims as one of her favorites) and everything Eugene O'Neill ever wrote while she was a senior (to which she attributes a somewhat dark streak in her own work). A...more
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“Sydney discovers that she minds the loss of her mourning. When she grieved, she felt herself to be intimately connected to Daniel. But with each passing day, he floats away from her. When she thinks about him now, it is more as a lost possibility than as a man. She has forgotten his breath, his musculature.”
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