Body Surfing. Finished 1-7-25, 4/5 stars, fiction, 291 pages, 2007
“Sydney discovers that she minds the loss of her mourning. When she grieved, she felt herself to be intimately connected to Daniel. But with each passing day, he floats away from her. When she thinks about him now, it is more as a lost possibility than as a man. She has forgotten his breath, his musculature.”
Sydney is a widow and divorcee by the time she’s 29 years old. She’s taking a tutoring job with a family at a New Hampshire beach house (this is the 4th this same beach house has appeared in her books as part of the Fortune’s Rocks series). As she works with the daughter and enjoys a good relationship with the father, the mother is less than thrilled that a half Jewish woman has ingratiated herself with the family. And that’s before her son’s arrivals and their interest in Sydney becomes evident.
Anita Shreve’s writing speaks to me, it’s the way she puts her words together and it’s just as much of what she doesn’t say as what she does. There is a multitude said in her pauses, her silences. They always feel like they are happening to people I could know. Sydney is not my favorite character, her willingness to go with the flow frustrated me at times. It’s through her relationships with the daughter and father I was able to see her in a more favorable light.
Stacy's Books 
I love Anita Shreve’s novels, but haven’t read this one! I plan to re-read Fortune’s Rocks later this year. It’s been over 24 years since I first read and loved it. I guess the most recent book of hers that I read was The Stars Are Fire, which was fabulous. Testimony is also a favorite. I didn’t care for Sea Glass or The Weight of Water, though. I’m sad she is no longer with us.
The last one I read before this was The Stars Are Fire last year. Loved it! I remember liking The Weight of Water, but it was so many years ago that all I can remember about it was a boat!
I have not read this one either. I looked back at my list and saw that I had also read Fortune’s Rocks – 24 years ago. Think Les and I read it with an online group perhaps.
Too cute that you read it at the same time! I still haven’t read that one.