From its opening pages, Anita Shreve's Sea Glass surrounds
the reader in the surprisingly rich feeling of the New
Hampshire coast in winter. Vividly evoking the life of the
coastal community at the beginning of the Great Depression,
Sea Glass shifts through the multiple points of view of six
principal characters; it's a skillfully created story of
braided lives that bounces easily (even inevitably) from
character to character. We learn how these lives come
together following the stock market crash of 1929 and about
the struggles of mill workers on the starkly beautiful New
Hampshire coast during the following year. At the novel's
center is the story of Honora Beecher, a young newlywed who
compulsively collects sea glass along the beach as she
collects unexpected friendship in her new beachside
community, and Francis, a boy who discovers a father figure
in the towering character of McDermott, an Irish mill
worker, at a time when he most needs direction. Each
character finds unexpected new purpose beyond the struggle
to survive during that turbulent year among the dunes. First
their lives barely touch, then they intersect, and finally
they become inextricably bound. By the powerful and
unexpected final scenes of the story, every point of view,
every brilliant shard of life depends deeply on all the
others. It is a very satisfying read--confidently told and
deeply felt--with as many subtle colors and reflections as
the sea glass that permeates the narrative. --Paul Ford
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