book data
2512 ratings, 3.75 average rating, 242 reviews
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published
November 1st 2002
(first published 1999)
by Little, Brown and Company
binding
Mass Market Paperback, 528 pages
isbn
0316734837
(isbn13: 9780316734837)
description
Hester Prynne never had it so good! The year is 1899, and Olympia Biddeford, the headstrong daughter of a Boston Brahmin family, has decided to test t...more
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avg 3.75
I have read and re-read this book literally dozens of times. Every time I take away from it something new. It's a coming-of-age story in the loosest sense of the word, because it's so much more than that.
Shreve's writing just sings in this book. The opening scene, in which the 15-year-old main character makes her way across a beach as men gawk at her, is simply stunning. I can hear lines from this book in my head, they're so well written. Perhaps this book resonates particularly strongl...more
Shreve's writing just sings in this book. The opening scene, in which the 15-year-old main character makes her way across a beach as men gawk at her, is simply stunning. I can hear lines from this book in my head, they're so well written. Perhaps this book resonates particularly strongl...more
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Read in July, 2008
Anita Shreve is one of my favorite authors, and this is an older book of hers that I've just now gotten around to reading. I usually like her books because they are very romantic, but also very literate. FORTUNE'S ROCKS may be my absolute favorite. I LOVED it. I read it in less than two days. Of course, the whole idea of a 15 year old girl and a 40+ man is pretty repulsive, but Shreve somehow makes it all work. You end up rooting for Olympia and Haskell even though you know you shouldn't. Ol...more
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3 comments
Read in July, 2008
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Read in June, 2007
recommends it for:
those looking for light reads that still contain impact.
I like to read Anita Shreve when I am tired out on "literary" novels but am not quite at the point where something by, say, Sophie Kinesella sounds appealing. Shreve's novels are usually romances of two kinds; ones that build to a tragic emotional climax, or ones that are centered around lost love or an event in the protagonist's past that gets revealed over the course of the novel. I like to call them "trashy reads," but in truth, I think Shreve usually brings quite a bit of...more
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Read in October, 2007
I loved this book - definitely my favorite Shreve book to date. I loved the setting and the characters. It is a wonderful love story - maybe a bit over the edge romance novelish in the details but the story saved it. In today's world Olympia wouldn't be so believable but for a turn-of-the-century female, only child, raised in a world of wealth and educated by her adoring father, I believed her character and her actions. Olympia & Haskell understood the consequences & they truly loved...more
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Read in January, 2000
Ok friends, I know Shreve's books can be a little questionable which is why I've only read one other, but this one is the winner. She got it together this time.
I love this book...a reluctant admittance. The story of forbidden love is wrong, right, sad, joyful, and just utterly romantic even in its sheer destruction. I think my feelings for this book may also be biased by things in my personal life around the time that really made me feel and understand all of the characters quite deeply. A...more
I love this book...a reluctant admittance. The story of forbidden love is wrong, right, sad, joyful, and just utterly romantic even in its sheer destruction. I think my feelings for this book may also be biased by things in my personal life around the time that really made me feel and understand all of the characters quite deeply. A...more
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It's been a while since I read this book, but I recall carrying it around constantly hoping for the chance to read a page or two. The characters are so well developed that you feel you are living their experiences, and the scandalous drama that occurs throughout the book makes it even harder to put down. This isn't any kind of literary masterpiece, but it's highly entertaining. Isn't that what books are supposed to be anyway :)
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Read in January, 2008
While the elegant prose carried the admittedly grim and formulaic first half, what seemed to be a totally unremarkable story resonated and matured in the second. Olivia finds her wings, defies her father, and grows up - and finds out that nothing is worth being ashamed about.
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Read in May, 2007
An unbelievable tale of love and lose. I couldn't put this book down! I was up until 3am reading. My husband thought I was nuts. It is a tear jerker for any mother.
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Read in May, 2005
I love love love Anita Shreve's style of writing. Her prose is beautiful. This book is absolutely amazing even with the uneasy subject matter.
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Read in October, 2008
A good exercise book --- get it in large print so it's easy to read while you're jogging on those elliptical machines. It takes place around the turn of the century (19th to 20th)and centers around Olympia, a precocious 15 year old who has been educated independently by her father and is the apple of his eye. Olympia falls in love with a friend of her father's, Haskell, a married man with a lovely wife and 4 children. A conniving poet exposes the illicit affair to the wife and Olympia (pregna...more
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Read in September, 2008
I'm not sure how to review this book. First of all, I didn't like it being written from the third person view. The author missed an amazing opportunity to delve into the intense feelings that must have been going on inside or Olympia. Maybe she couldn't write about them because she's never experienced them to the level Olympia did. I have been there,so I know what the writer couldn't express.
Let's see, what else? Haskell and Olympia are two people who experience that "connection" so...more
Let's see, what else? Haskell and Olympia are two people who experience that "connection" so...more
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Read in October, 2008
recommended to Erin by:
Sue
This book was really hard to put down. I loved her style of writing and I loved the way the plot unfolded. I also felt very conflicted while reading this book because I did not relate to nor agreed with the main character and in fact she made me quite upset at times. I couldn't always even feel sympathy for her.
The subplot, or the circumstance within the plot was very real to me. I think no matter what crimes any of us have committed, be them small or large or not even crimes, we've al...more
The subplot, or the circumstance within the plot was very real to me. I think no matter what crimes any of us have committed, be them small or large or not even crimes, we've al...more
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Read in July, 2008
I can't really say that I liked this book, but I was interested enough in what happens to Olympia to finish. The story seemed to spend to much time on one period in Olympias life and felt jumpy when it skipped to the next. The setting and storyline was intriging enough right off the bat but it soon began to feel like a dime store romance. Had I ever read a dime store romance, I would guess that the authors use of language was somewhat better, but the smutiness was the same. I think that Olymp...more
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Read in July, 2008
Don't read Ted Leventhal's review above - he's got it really quite wrong in places and I'm wondering if he actually read Fortune's Rocks properly and didn't just skip through it, reading a page now and again.
For example: Olympia doesn't make up her mind to test the limits of her cloistered world, she is drawn into it as she nears sixteen. John Haskell doesn't hire her in the way the review suggests - she persuades him to allow her to accompany him to the clinic. He gives in because he is so ...more
For example: Olympia doesn't make up her mind to test the limits of her cloistered world, she is drawn into it as she nears sixteen. John Haskell doesn't hire her in the way the review suggests - she persuades him to allow her to accompany him to the clinic. He gives in because he is so ...more
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Read in September, 2008
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Read in January, 2007
recommends it for:
get it from the library if you must
I think I'm one of the ones in the minority here. I had a difficult time getting into the book at first -- perhaps if Olympia had been a couple of years older at least. A 40+ year old man and a 15 year old girl. Ew. That said, I just didn't see any real chemistry between the two, outside of the sexual attraction for this life long supposed great love. I almost gave up when they started writing those long letters to each other, then it picked up around page 200 into her exile and attempt to regai...more
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Acabei ontem de o ler e adorei! É o melhor livro que li desta senhora.
Achei o livro bem escrito e com um desenvolvimento da história muito interessante. O que esteve a mais foram as mega descrições, mas nada de muito preocupante!
Achei o livro bem escrito e com um desenvolvimento da história muito interessante. O que esteve a mais foram as mega descrições, mas nada de muito preocupante!
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Read in August, 2008
recommended to Ashley by:
off the book shelfrecommends it for: if you like love overcoming all.
At first I didn't like the style the book was written in, but once I got used to it, I really enjoyed the book. I have to say that the age of the characters did disturb me. In today's standards, Haskell, would be considered a pedophile. The object of his affection is Olympia, who is fifteen when the affair begins, he is forty-two. He is a married man with four children. Olympia's character is written beautifully. She starts out so naive and becomes a very strong woman. I found that a cert...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in July, 2008
recommended to Katy by:
my knitting grouprecommends it for: people who liked "ahab's wife"
I enjoyed this book, I like stories that are set in the not too distant historical past. It's not great literature, though. The dialogue is stilted and not convincing, at least to me. I think with a good editor this could have been a great book, reminds me of "Ahab's Wife". Little things bothered me, like characters using the word "inappropriate" in reference to their behavior, which is a recent cultural thing, and also the main character puts a mobile over a baby's bed, ...more
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quotes from this book
"Love is not simply the sum of sweet greetings and wrenching partings and kisses and embraces, but is made up more of the memory of what has happened and the imagining of what is to come."
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