Rating: 2/5
Review:
Disappointing
I'm afraid I couldn't get on with Manhattan
Beach. It's
decently written and Jennifer Egan has plainly researched the period meticulously,
but I found it rather turgid, with unconvincing characters and, frankly, dull.
I wholeheartedly approve of one of the central themes of
this novel, in which Anna grows up in the middle years of the 20th
Century and wants to become a naval diver, battling the attitudes of the time
toward women. The trouble is that Egan
never managed to bring either Anna or the story truly alive for me. I found her style rather plodding and
off-putting, with the occasional sentence like "Beyond the windows of an
adjacent front room, the sea tingled under a thin winter sun," which just
felt mannered to me. I also think that
Egan is rather too keen on showing us exactly how much detailed research she
has done, rather than simply using it unobtrusively to paint a convincing
background, so wading through it all became a bit of a chore after a while.
As a result of all this, I found Manhattan
Beach a real struggle. I had expected to
like it very much, but ended up skimming some parts and feeling rather relieved
to have finished it. Others have found
it very good, but personally I can't recommend it.
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