Book Review - Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan

Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan is a historical novel with a noir feel to it. The world is populated by gangsters, sailors, divers, bankers, and union men. Anna Kerrigan is twelve when she accompanies her father to a meeting with Dexter Styles at his beach home. She senses money, power, and is mesmerized by the sea.  Years later, Anna’s father is mysteriously gone. The country is at war and Anna works at the Brooklyn Naval Yard.  Striving hard to become the first woman diver, she encounters resentment in the tough world of the docks. But this is a young woman with a strong character and a commitment to succeed. Meanwhile, she meets Dexter Styles again at his nightclub. He does not recognize her or remember her from his past. She however does and works to uncover the connections with her father, the mysteries of the underworld.

This book had an ebb and flow to it. I liked Anna as the diver and her current situation. When the book went to the past and to the father’s side of the story, I tended to skim. However, Jennifer Egan is a rich writer and Manhattan Beach kept me turning pages.

A rather symbolic passage and good writing –

p. 433   “Look her father said, “Here it comes.”

She was surprised to find him watching the fog. It rolled in fast: a wild, volatile silhouette against the phosphorescent sky. It reared up over the land like a tidal wave about to break, or the aftermath of a silent, distant explosion.

Without thinking, she took her father’s hand.

“Here it comes,” she said.