That's when she hears the word 'diver' for the first time and realizes that she, too, wants to be one and walk under the sea. Meanwhile, Anna is supporting her mother and sister by doing monotonous 'women's work' at the Navy Yard - precisely measuring parts destined for the battleship Missouri.īut then two events disrupt her dull routine: One lunch hour, Anna watches a man in a heavy canvas suit and bulbous metal helmet descend a ladder off the edge of a barge into the water. Years later, when she's a young adult and working at the Brooklyn Navy Yard during World War II, Anna will be haunted by memories of that winter afternoon on the beach.īy then, her father has been long gone common neighborhood wisdom has it that he abandoned the family because he couldn't take the crushing weight of caring for Anna's disabled younger sister. An 11-year-old girl named Anna Kerrigan accompanies her father, Eddie, on a business call to the seaside mansion of man named Dexter Styles.Įddie is 'a bagman': He delivers and collects payoffs for a racketeer with ties to the longshoremen's union. Manhattan Beach opens on the Brooklyn shoreline during the Great Depression.

The sweeping story Egan tells here is intertwined with New York's elemental identity as a seaport, which became more crucial than ever during the Second World War. This is a big, traditional historical novel - in the manner of a Ken Follett or Herman Wouk. But no such self-conscious soldering is called for in Manhattan Beach. Indeed, in Egan's powerful 2001 novel, Look at Me, the very face of her main character - a model who's been in a terrible car accident - is broken and tenuously held together by titanium screws. Egan is known for the edgy tone of her work and for her fragmented storylines that require some self-assembly by readers. Jennifer Egan clearly shares Liebling's view in her latest novel, Manhattan Beach. Liebling: 'Before it was anything else,' Liebling says, 'New York was a seaport, and before anything else, it still is.' So many great writers have given us so many great quotes in an attempt to capture New York, but I think my favorite is by the legendary New Yorker writer A.J. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title Manhattan Beach Author Jennifer Egan

Manhattan beach book review