NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A New York Times Notable Book Winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction The daring and magnificent novel from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author. Named One of the Best Books of the Year by NPR, Esquire, Vogue, The Washington Post, The Guardian, USA TODAY, and Time Anna Kerrigan, nearly twelve years old, accompanies her father to visit Dexter Styles, … TODAY, and Time
Anna Kerrigan, nearly twelve years old, accompanies her father to visit Dexter Styles, a man who, she gleans, is crucial to the survival of her father and her family. She is mesmerized by the sea beyond the house and by some charged mystery between the two men.
Years later, her father has disappeared and the country is at war. Anna works at the Brooklyn Naval Yard, where women are allowed to hold jobs that once belonged to men, now soldiers abroad. She becomes the first female diver, the most dangerous and exclusive of occupations, repairing the ships that will help America win the war. One evening at a nightclub, she meets Dexter Styles again, and begins to understand the complexity of her father’s life, the reasons he might have vanished.
“A magnificent achievement, at once a suspenseful noir intrigue and a transporting work of lyrical beauty and emotional heft” (The Boston Globe), “Egan’s first foray into historical fiction makes you forget you’re reading historical fiction at all” (Elle). Manhattan Beach takes us into a world populated by gangsters, sailors, divers, bankers, and union men in a dazzling, propulsive exploration of a transformative moment in the lives and identities of women and men, of America and the world.
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Like most of Egan’s work, hard to define but impossible to put down. Manhattan Beach spins the fictional tale of a WWII female diver at the Brooklyn Navy Yard — defying the limits of her day professionally but entwined deeply in familial and romantic commitments that won’t let her go. The audiobook is particularly well done. Highly recommended.
Jennifer Egan’s novel Manhattan Beach is one of the best-written books I have read recently. The language is rich, and the nuanced story flows well. Being a work of historical fiction based in Brooklyn during the Second World War, this is a story near to my heart. And like my first novel, Above the Water, the sea (or bodies of water, in general) plays a central role in Manhattan Beach.
Anna Kerrigan is the daughter of Eddie, who through union ties becomes tied to the mob as a lowly bagman. At home Anna’s mother cares for a sister, Lydia, suffering from cerebral palsy/muscular dystrophy (not sure which). One day Eddie disappears. Many neighbors assume it was due to the crushing burden of caring for three dependents (one of them crippled) during the Great Depression. Before Eddie leaves the scene, he takes 11-year old Anna to meet a prospective new boss: a young mob leader named Dexter Styles. Fast forward eight years, and Anna—forced to be the main breadwinner for the fatherless family—is working as an inspector at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Eventually, through dogged determination, luck, and skill she becomes a diver and inspects battleships in the murky waters of the East River before they are sent off to distant shores to wage battle for an America now at war. Meanwhile, Dexter Styles has moved even further up in the world, rubbing shoulders with bankers, and titans of industry that he has come to know through his father-in-law. Dexter also owns a swanky nightclub in Manhattan, and it is there one evening that Anna sees him. She has long suspected Dexter had something to do with her father’s disappearance. She boldly introduces herself to him. Soon, they not only become lovers, but she gets Dexter to show her where her father may have disappeared. Though it’s a bit of a stretch to imagine, Anna ‘borrows’ a bulky dive suit from the Navy Yard so that she can plumb the depths off Manhattan Beach in search of her father’s grave. This is really the only part of the novel that strays far from verisimilitude.
Besides the rich prose and excellent storytelling, Egan expertly weaves the smaller story onto the grand setting of the novel. We see New York as the beating heart of a burgeoning superpower, and Anna is in the middle of the larger global conflagration, even as she struggles to support her mother and invalid sister. The theme of water as a looming presence both hiding and revealing secrets, embodying the giver of life and death, is ever present in the novel. In one scene, for example, Anna’s sister Lydia briefly is shaken from her tortured world with a mere glimpse of the ocean. Egan’s descriptions of Anna working in the dark world under the East River on ships “like skyscrapers turned over on their sides” are really well done. It’s clear Egan did thorough research on the subject and on life in wartime New York. And it’s refreshing to see a strong female protagonist in a wartime setting.
Manhattan Beach really pulled me in, and as I read it, I found myself immersed in Brooklyn apartment tenements, the Navy Yard, Sunday brunches on sloping lawns on Long Island, and Manhattan night clubs. It was an enjoyable read. I hope there will be a movie one day.
Vividly and concisely written, Ms. Egan tugged me back through time to Brooklyn and into a world of intrigue and uncertainty. Anna’s determination, her quest to dive, and her love of the sea had me captivated while her personal life and the lives of those around her were compelling and engrossing.
Manhattan Beach, a novel by Jennifer Egan, captured my attention from beginning to end. The novel covers the early years of World War II through 1944.
When Anna Kerrigan, nearly twelve years old, accompanies her father to visit the lovely home of Dexter Styles, she has no idea that Styles is a gangster and that somehow there is a crucial connection between the two men. Styles’ beautiful seaside home is a marvel, its opulence unimaginable to her. Anna lives with her parents and severely crippled sister on the sixth floor of a tenement building.
Years later Anna’s father has disappeared and the country is at war. Anna works at the Brooklyn Naval Yard as the first female diver, a dangerous and exclusive occupation. At first experiencing hesitancy and even scorn from her superior and fellow divers, Anna proves herself a valuable asset as an underwater welder repairing ships that will eventually help win the war.
One evening Anna again meets Dexter Styles at a nightclub and begins to understand the relationship between him and her father. As Dexter Styles’ life unfolds, the reader is taken to a world few experience, a lifestyle that has its own set of scruples.
I very much enjoyed Manhattan Beach. The novel brings fresh detail and character to an era that changed the world forever. The author drew me in to the lives of the characters. I especially appreciated the precise details of the hard-hat atmospheric diving apparatus. Having worked as the only female at a professional deep sea diving school, I was particularly interested in the novel’s perspective of the diving profession, especially from a woman’s viewpoint.
Anna comes of age as New York City powers up for WW2. She does her part in the giant shipyards that build and repair warships, eventually breaking into the man’s world of under-water diving for repairs and salvage. But there’s far more to the story: her father is involved with underworld figures and vanishes, and Anna takes up with a gangster who has a link to dad. Honestly, Anna’s triumph overcoming family and life-class challenges to succeed in the man’s world is plenty of material in itself, but I’m not complaining. Even with the sweeping nature of the tale, Ms. Egan’s descriptions paint vivid pictures of disparate settings like the ocean, New York country-club world, sparse working-class life, and care-giving for a disabled sister. I didn’t like the actions of some of the characters, or some of Anna’s choices, but that keeps us reading, doesn’t it?
Was this review helpful? I am an avid world war based fiction reader and author. You can read more of my takes at https://brodiecurtis.com/curtis-takes/.
Great historical read, WWII with a new perspective (kind of the only WWII books I’m willing to read these days), fantastic attention to detail that brings you right in the story without over selling it, wonderful, well rounded characters and tie-ins throughout the story. Definitely recommended!
This book succeeds really well on two levels. First, Jennifer Egan’s writing is superbly poetic. You won’t find better usage of language; time after time, she nails these brilliantly perfect word pictures. Even if you don’t find yourself enthralled with the narrative, you will savor the linguistic portraits she spills through the tale.
The second triumph is her painstaking attention to detail, offering her readers a thrilling education in a new field of adventure. The late Arthur Hailey (“Airport,” “Wheel”) was a genius at this. But she has dug into these topics and made herself a walking, breathing authority on the port scene of World War II. Life in the merchant marines. What it takes to be a Navy deep-sea diver. What was the East Coast mob lifestyle like in the late 1930s and 1940s?
In terms of the story itself, I do agree with some of the critics here. None of the characters are particularly compelling; certainly none of them are admirable. The two-track nature of her narrative, and the back-and-forth time jumps are disconcerting at times – although I think that’s more my lack as a diligent and attentive reader than it is any fault of this really talented writer. But I often launch into books and halfway through wish I was done. NOT THE CASE HERE! This story was entertaining all the way through to the last page.
Readers ought to be aware that this is sometimes a tawdry tale; there is some fairly graphic sex and way more F-bombs than needed. (Personally I prefer zero, and don’t think she added anything to this story by some of the gratuitous dirty talk.) Having said that, she’s one of the very fine writers of this generation, and her books (at least for secular readers) are worth picking up.
I love this book. Jennifer Egan took me into a a bygone world and held me there. I was sorry when I came to the end of this book. I could have kept reading forever.
“It had been years since she’d fabricated a story from whole cloth. It brought a sense of returning to an earlier time when she was questioned more often and had fewer evasions at her disposal. Besides, she thought, looking into Rose’s relieved and joyful face, people practically told you the lies they wanted to hear.”
― Jennifer Egan, Manhattan Beach
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I enjoyed reading this book while reading it. World War II era stories are some of my favorites if well done. Now that it’s been a while since I finished it, I find the story and characters stay with me. I wonder what would’ve happened to them and think about how things could have turned out differently in many ways.
Although this is not the first book of Egan’s that I’d recommend to new readers, I did enjoy it. While the pace was awfully slow and plodding in some parts, the characters were wonderful and the descriptions of the era were delightfully vivid. As always, Egan’s prose is stunning and gorgeous.
Get a copy of this book and read it. You’ll thank me. Set in WWII New York, it has great storytelling, likeable characters and multiple interesting plots woven seamlessly into a world that is more real than daily life. I read more and more slowly toward the end, reluctant for it to finish. I will be looking for more books by this talented author.
I expected much more from this book, given the hype it had received. The pacing was erratic with some sections filled with far too much description and other sections that read more like a rough draft that the author forgot to go back and flesh out with more details. I also found most of the characters very stereotypical.
The words above do not seem to capture this book. There is a melancholy that runs through it The richest parts of life so elusive and ephemeral. The sides of the character’s natures that are unexpected given their surfaces. AN evocative sadness so often what is lost is what is most meaningful in life. Very well written in a way that draws one into the world created.
Written beautifully, this historical novel set during WWII touches many themes. The bonds of family, a woman who becomes the first female diver in a naval shipyard defying skeptics, and having a disabled child in the family. I listened to the audio book, which added to the enjoyment of this book. It’s well done, and held my interest. If you like historical fiction this may be for you.
The book was much longer then it needed to be.
Evocative of 1940’s New York and pre war life.
It was just ok. Characters had little depth and story line not all that interesting. Surprised it won awards.
Intriguing read with an inscrutable development of events and characters that I never would have guessed.