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    Body Surfing: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Body Surfing: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Body Surfing: A Novel
    Audiobook7 hours

    Body Surfing: A Novel

    Written by Anita Shreve

    Narrated by Lolita Davidovich

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    At the age of 29, Sydney has already been once divorced and once widowed. Trying to regain her footing, she has answered an ad to tutor the teenage daughter of a well-to-do couple as they spend a sultry summer in their oceanfront New Hampshire cottage. But when the Edwards's two grown sons, Ben and Jeff, arrive at the beach house, Sydney finds herself caught up in a destructive web of old tensions and bitter divisions. As the brothers vie for her affections, the fragile existence Sydney has rebuilt is threatened. With the subtle wit, lyrical language, and brilliant insight into the human heart that has led her to be called "an author at one with her metier" (Miami Herald), Shreve weaves a story about marriage, family, and the supreme courage it takes to love.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHachette Audio
    Release dateApr 24, 2007
    ISBN9781594838750
    Unavailable
    Body Surfing: A Novel
    Author

    Anita Shreve

    Anita Shreve was a high school teacher and a freelance magazine journalist before writing fiction full time. She was the author of over fifteen novels as well as the international bestseller The Pilot’s Wife, and The Weight of the Water, a finalist for the Orange Prize. Shreve taught writing at Amherst College and lived in Massachusetts.

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    Reviews for Body Surfing

    3.5/5

    589 ratings37 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Good beach read.
    • 5/5
      A wonderful book. An entire family is seen through the eyes of Sydney, the outside-come-inside, as she struggles to find her own place after a series of personal catastrophes. But it's not maudlin or melodramatic. You can imagine this happening, even as you think how unlikely it is; I guess that's the gift of the author. Recommended.
    • 4/5
      In Anita Shreve's novels, the characters are often deceived about the true nature of their closest relationships. Sydney, who has little intentions of getting involved after having been divorced once and then widowed, is lured into a romance with the older of two brothers. She, however, is just caught in his rivalry with his brother.Sydney is the lens through which all the members of the family are seen, at times with shifting clarity. The teen who she is tutoring finds an escape from her mother's hovering concern and control.
    • 3/5
      Listened to the NLS Talking Book version. Very descriptive of surroundings and feelings. Plot is strange and examines human interactions.
    • 4/5
      I put this on my "to-read" shelf per cbn's recommendation, and I'm glad I did.The writing is sparse, almost minimal. Dialogue appears in brief exchanges, and scenes are rarely longer than a single paragraph. Present tense dominates throughout.Shreve illuminates these characters by showing us the push and pull between and among them... like an art exercise, drawing the negative space around the object rather than the object itself.
    • 3/5
      Sydney is 30 years old, twice married, one ending in divorce and the other leaving her a widow. Still grieving and at loose ends, she takes a tutoring job with the Edwards family who are staying at their beach house in New Hampshire for the summer. Mrs. Edwards is hoping Sydney can assist their daughter Julie in increasing her SAT scores. There is a mini soap opera surrounding the young Julie, but the bigger soap opera involves Julie's two older brothers, Ben and Jeff, and Sydney. Shreve is an excellent writer, but this is not her best effort. The characters of Ben and Jeff are underdeveloped for the important part they play in the book, and there are a number of far-fetched plot points.
    • 3/5
      Loved this for a quick summer read.
    • 4/5
      The prose style putme off at first - seemed broken and jumpy. But after a couple of chapters I got used to it. The story was a little predictable, but the characters grew on me and there were a couple of good surprises.
    • 3/5
      Who hires a young divorced live-in tutor for their teenage daughter when they have two sons who might find the arrangement convenient? That is just one of many implausible points in the plot I found curious. It was an interesting read though with an unexpected twist. Goes to show what happens when you jump to conclusions or make assumptions without all the facts.
    • 4/5
      Great novel with a vivid writing style. Thanks to this book, visiting the New Hampshire coast is on my list of to-do's. The novel follows a young, intelligent woman as she blends into another family, falls in love, and faces some of her greatest fears. The author does a good job of asking whether being described as resilient can ever be a good thing.
    • 5/5
      This is the first book I have read by Anita Shreve and I loved it. The story just had a flow to it . I liked how she had sections of years instead of just making it all one story. This helped to show what was going on at the time and how/if any the characters may have changed. I plan on using this book in my book group.
    • 3/5
      I thought the flow of this book was excellent, and I loved the way the chapters were separated. Shreve writes a very vivid picture of the characters and settings, which makes it easy to envision everything. The ending was startling, and it was an overall worthwhile read.
    • 5/5
      Great story incorporating the beach house found in other Shreve titles.
    • 3/5
      Like the other books of Shreve's that I've read, Body Surfing is a melancholy story of a woman who is consumed with grief. Where are the strong female roles? Where is the desire for something more than 'okay'?
    • 2/5
      Again, Shreve has taken the "abandoned/left behind woman" theme and again added a new twist. This is not her best, but as an audio it was a good distraction for traveling. She has skill and some good ideas, but I wish she would reconfigure her recurrent theme. Maybe she has issues in her life that need closure!
    • 4/5
      There are very few books in my life that I picked up and read all in one day. Body Surfing is one of those books. Sydney, age 29, has not had a terribly easy life thus far. She has had two marriages, one of which ended when she divorced her husband and the other ended when she was widowed. We meet her as she tries to start anew working as a tutor to the teen daughter of a well-off couple spending their summer in a beach home in New Hampshire. The story wends its way through three years of relationship changes and emotional stories before its conclusion leaving Sydney in a better place... or at least a hopeful one.
    • 4/5
      I really had a hard time getting into this book at first because of the style it was written. But once into it I really enjoyed it. It was interesting to see how the brothers were towards one another and the family dynamics.
    • 4/5
      I'm not sure why this one got some poor reviews. I love how Anita Shreve combines a literary tone and eye for detail with soapy plots...a fun, plot-driven read that won't rot your brain.The book is written in a spare, poetic style. Though some people complained about the present tense, I didn't even notice. Many novels are written in the present tense these days! The story is set, interestingly, in a New Hampshire house that has appeared in 3 other Shreve novels (Fortune's Rocks, The Pilot's Wife, and Sea Glass). I thought this was a fun detail that added a sense of history/continuity and made the novel feel more "real."I thoroughly enjoyed the twisty (dare I say it--trashy! in a fun way) plot that focuses on a love triangle with one treacherous member.
    • 1/5
      I really did not like this book. I feel like the author was very distant when writing this book.
    • 5/5
      Very well written story of grief, betrayal, and the importance of family.
    • 4/5
      An uplifting book about finding one's self... the imagery in this book is wonderful and will stay with you for a long long time.
    • 4/5
      A lovely novel, centering around a young woman who comes to tutor the youngest child of a family who spends their summers at a beach house in New Hampshire. Before long, all of their lives become enmeshed in a complex way...and the young woman finds herself completely changed forever. I found this to be an excellent book that put me right there at the beach house....feeling the ups and downs of this finely crafted story.
    • 2/5
      Anita Shreve has certainly gone downhill. This was an uninspired plot, undeveloped characters, sparse dull writing that didn't develop either the landscape or the psychology of the characters. It had the feel of being dashed off, as opposed to the deep texture and careful writing in, for example, Fortune's Rocks or The Pilot's Wife.
    • 2/5
      Disappointed is the key word of this review. Six months ago read Ms. Shreve's Wedding in December and enjoyed the read. The characters in Wedding were far more developed than in this novel. You were never able to understand why a woman who had been hurt in romance would fall so hard and so fast for some one.
    • 3/5
      I wasn't expecting much from this book, and was pleasantly surprised during the first third. Anita Shreve writes with skill, although I could have done without quite as much description of what people are wearing - especially since they change their clothes at least twice a day. But she captures the scene of a WASPy New England family summering on the coast of New Hampshire perfectly.But by the last third, I started wondering whether she knew quite where she was trying to go with the development of Sydney and the course of her life, and the end felt a bit loose.I often find it difficult to enjoy books that are so focused on the emotions of their characters, because they seem somewhat false to me, but that is one problem I did not encounter here. Shreve nails the emotions in every situation, for every character, and it all feels just right. I didn't love the plot and felt the end was weak, but all the same this was an enjoyable read, and not as light as I had expected.
    • 5/5
      I thought it started out slow but that is Shreve's storytelling technique on some of her books. The end is a surprise for me but one I liked. I want to say more but that will spoil the experience for other readers.
    • 5/5
      An interesting story, a little too much unnecessary details embedded though. 4 stars
    • 1/5
      Honestly this is one of the worst books I’ve listened to. I kept listening because I didn’t think it could get any more pointless. It did.
    • 4/5
      storyline was a little slow to follow but overall good story
    • 5/5
      I absolutely loved this book and became an instant Anita Shreve fan. Maybe I do like romances after-all...?