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    Manhattan Beach: A Novel
    Manhattan Beach: A Novel
    Manhattan Beach: A Novel
    Audiobook15 hours

    Manhattan Beach: A Novel

    Written by Jennifer Egan

    Narrated by Norbert Leo Butz, Heather Lind and Vincent Piazza

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    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, 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.

    Editor's Note

    Hits you like a sneaker wave…

    In her followup to “A Visit from the Goon Squad,” Jennifer Egan has created a gripping work of historical fiction meets crime story, set against the backdrop of the omnipresent ocean. Egan’s inventiveness covertly rises up and washes over you, hitting like a sneaker wave.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateOct 3, 2017
    ISBN9781442399990
    Author

    Jennifer Egan

    Jennifer Egan is the author of six previous books of fiction: Manhattan Beach, winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction; A Visit from the Goon Squad, which won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award; The Keep; the story collection Emerald City; Look at Me, a National Book Award Finalist; and The Invisible Circus. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, Granta, McSweeney’s, and The New York Times Magazine. Her website is JenniferEgan.com.

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    Reviews for Manhattan Beach

    3.5/5

    978 ratings84 reviews

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    • 3/5
      This was JUST OK. I’m actually a little annoyed with myself for having listened to the whole thing. Parts were great. Parts were trite. I’ve not read Goon Squad yet, but based on the press for this author, I was expecting something much better. I did appreciate how she disrupted time/narrative flow.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 2/5
      OMG the lisping narrator made listening impossible. I am so disappointed because the book looks fascinating. But why did they chose this reader, she is painful to listen to.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Another engaging spellbinding book by Jenny Egan - such well drawn characters
    • 4/5
      I liked the prose, the turn of phrase... the metaphor of the ocean without which this story could exist.
    • 4/5
      Very well written, extremely broad in its content. I believe that it was historically accurate. In any case, it made certain historical facts come to life.
    • 4/5
      interesting period story about the WWII times in America. the changes in the readers voice from male to female was a bit confusing.
    • 3/5
      The character development was good for most, yet, the main characters had too many moments of such inconsistency that I found myself getting annoyed. The writing itself was excellent, yet there were moments where descriptions and metaphors ran for so long. It’s a compelling story with twists I didn’t expect, but the ending is of picky taste.
    • 3/5
      I was interested in the historical context piece but the characters didn’t evolve like I hoped and I feel mushed disappointed.
    • 2/5
      This book was a very piecewise story and none of the characters were particularly likable. It appears that the author had no clear direction or sensible plan during the writing of this book.
    • 3/5
      I’m conflicted about this book. It was interesting, but then it kind of went no where.
    • 4/5
      When historical fiction feels completely real, it’s a testament to the research the author must have put in. Egan does a wonderful job recreating New York in the Depression era, and as usual, introduces a marvelous set of characters with which to tell her story. My only quibble was with Dexter’s ending, which felt a bit clichéd and out of character. Apart from that, a masterpiece of historical storytelling.
    • 3/5
      Reason Read: ROOT, Read an author interviewed by The Writer's Library, TIOLI #2. I have read a previous book by Jennifer Egan which I liked but this one has been on the shelf for awhile so this was an opportunity to finally read it. I have to admit that I did not enjoy this one like I did The Visit From the Goon Squad. Manhattan Beach is an historical novel but it was slow to get going, it had too many characters and it seemed to jump all over the place with the story line. So I fault it on plot and character. In the interview, Ms Egan discusses how she reads books that were written in the time period in order to build a sense of the culture.
    • 3/5
      This book opens when Anna is twelve, accompanying her father, Eddie, to the beach home of an organized crime boss, Dexter Styles. To provide for his family during the Great Depression, Eddie has reluctantly taken advantage of his relationship with unsavory connections to become a union “bagman,” and later, “an ombudsman” for the mob. Fast-forward several years, and we find Eddie has disappeared, leaving his family with no idea what happened to him. Anna takes a job at the shipyard during WWII, and attempts to make her way in the world.

      This book couldn’t quite decide what it wanted to be. Was it a mystery, a maritime tale, an organized crime saga, a family drama, a coming of age story? It was a bit of each, but ended up not doing any of them particularly well.

      What worked for me:
      - Anna and her father were interesting characters, and Anna’s devotion to her disabled sister was touchingly rendered
      - Historical setting and shipyard activities described in a vivid manner
      - Strong female characters
      - Beautifully written in many places
      - The ending

      What didn’t work for me:
      - Lots of unbelievable elements, inconsistencies, and convenient plot devices
      - Significant time spent on secondary characters that didn’t add much, if anything, to the story
      - Lack of cohesiveness and meandering nature of the storyline
      - Uneven pacing - the first 2/3 very slow, then a flurry of activity, then slow again
      - Didn’t find it particularly compelling
      - Liberal (and unnecessary) use of ethnic slurs

      I had not read any of Egan’s previous efforts, but was aware she had won the Pulitzer for A Visit from the Goon Squad, and this one was nominated for the National Book Award, so perhaps my expectations were too high. I think many readers of historical fiction will enjoy it.
    • 1/5
      DNF.
      Made it to about 46% read and just couldn’t force myself to keep going. So much potential for an interesting story, but it all seemed bloodless to me.
    • 4/5
      Side-by-side stories of two protagonists whose fortunes intersect in not terribly surprising ways, but who are in no way stereotypical of their "Types" in this sort of literature. Anna Kerrigan helps care for her severely disabled younger sister, who suffered oxygen deprivation during birth. The whole family loves Lydia intensely, and father Eddie goes to desperate lengths to provide for them all, until he mysteriously fails to come home one day, leaving behind roll of cash and a comfortable bank balance, but no message at all. Dexter Styles is a gangster with very nice upper crust connections and an ambition to sever his underworld connections while keeping his life and fortune intact. He knows how to use people, while Anna slowly realizes that she must develop that skill in order to survive. Set during WWII, the book takes us in great detail into the world of divers working in the Brooklyn Naval Yards, and to the extremely hazardous life aboard Merchant Marine ships. If you are at all claustrophobic, or have this reader's terror of being on the open sea (or worse still, under it), portions of this novel will be a tough go. But it IS worth it. This was a gripping, and often unpredictable tale.
    • 3/5
      Three point five stars because I have never read a story like this. Entwining the lives of mobsters, divers, WWII, and the start of the rise of women in jobs previously held by only men, makes this an interesting read. I fail to understand though how a young girl purposefully embarks in a relationship with someone she knows is shifty, and who may have been involved in her father's disappearance. The writing is more than fair with frequent thrilling scenes, but there are short and strange relationships that really go nowhere or to places not normal for folks in wartime or otherwise. I did find myself skipping through scene setting and characterize thinking in quite a few places. I don't feel like I missed a thing. While the ending was not as strong as I like, it was still kind of heartwarming to a degree.
    • 4/5
      Excellent prose. I enjoyed the atmosphere she created and was submerged in the history. I liked the journey Anna took. Sometimes it reached too far without quite making it, and I never was that engrossed by Myles or Eddie. the strongest parts happened in the first and last thirds. The parts with Lydia were well done and I liked how. Eddie connected to her.
    • 4/5
      WWII at Home and Sea Brought to Life

      Jennifer Egan brings life to the way Americans fought World War II at home and on the shipping lanes of the world. She spices up the story by adding a gangster element and a mysteriously missing father. And she tells her tale with considerable style that lends a good bit of noir color to the novel.

      In the process you learn about the role of women working on the home front in jobs traditionally filled by men, including deep salvage and repair diving (though the first woman army diver, whom Egan interviewed, Andrea Motley Crabtree, didn’t dive until 1982 and the first female Navy diver, Donna Tobias, 1975), deep diving in those weighted suits with globe helmets, and the various types of jobs women performed in the Naval boat yards. Egan also reminds you of just how restricted were women’s lives and what a liberating experience war work proved to be for many, as well as how the consequences of sex fell fully on women. Unless you knew someone who served in the United States Merchant Marine, you might not be familiar with its vital role in winning the war, and just how dangerous shipping work was (733 ships sunk in the war, and one in 24 mariners killed, the highest rate of any service); Egan brings merchant work and dangers to life.

      Manhattan Beach revolves around the lives of three characters. Anna Kerrigan is a strong young woman, who accompanied her father on his job that consisted of meeting with people and delivering things. When he goes missing, she’s left to help her mother, a former follies performer, earn a living and care for her brain damaged at birth sister. She finds work in the Naval shipyard, where she inspects parts. Eventually, she works her way into the deep diving program, and she becomes involved with a sophisticated gangster, Dexter Styles.

      Styles (really an Italian who changed his name) is well placed in the mob. His superior prizes him as a big idea man. He manages a string of mob owned nightclubs. He’s also married into an influential blue blood banking family, where the head of that family also holds him in high regard. He’s a man bridging two different and not so different worlds who walks a tightrope demanding he maintain a balance of honesty and decorum, even in the most trying circumstances. It is Styles that Anna’s father, Eddie Kerrigan., worked for.

      Eddie once was on top of the world, then the Great Depression happened and he found himself reduced to doing odd jobs for his old orphanage buddy, Irish mob boss John Dunellen,. Though Eddie saved Dunellen from drowning when they were boys, it doesn’t earn him much extra financial credit with his friend. Eddie becomes a bagman for Styles to earn money to support his family and care for the sick daughter, a costly undertaking. Then something happens and Eddie disappears, assumed by his family and everybody else as dead. Except for Anna, who despite reality never loses the hope that her father will turn up.

      Now, without reveal anything, Egan peppers her novel with lots of twisty turns. Many of these really do stretch credulity. Yet, so skillfully does Egan fill her novel with historical realism that her prose persuades you to accept some turns you might otherwise scoff at. Not only has she written a top-notch historical novel, she’s engineered an engaging story that maybe in a slightly alter universe might have happened. It a real pleasure to read.
    • 4/5
      Set in Brooklyn in the 1930s and 1940s, Jennifer Egan's Manhattan Beach follows the life of Anna Kerrigan from when she is eleven until she is an adult. At the beginning we see Anna and her father Eddie visiting the notorious gangster Dexter Styles at his home. After his career was ruined during the Great Depression, Eddie Kerrigan started working for Styles. Kerrigan's other daughter, Lydia, is paralyzed and Eddie needs Styles' help to pay for a wheelchair. As the story continues, Eddie leaves his family from one moment to the next and Anna, her mother and her sister Lydia are on their own, barely able to get by. When Lydia dies and Anna's mother moves to live with relatives, Anna remains in New York alone. She works in the Navy Yard and wants to become the first female diver, which she eventually manages. The paths of Dexter Styles and Anna cross again when she sees him in one of his nightclubs. In her quest to find out more about her father's disappearance Anna tries to get closer to Styles and they soon become attracted to one another. Will Anna find out the truth about her father's disappearance? How will she cope living in Brooklyn on her own?I found the setting and the topic of the novel highly intriguing right from the beginning. Following Anna's life through ups and downs made for some captivating reading. I was not so much driven by the urge to know what happened to her father, but rather by seeing Anna create a viable space in society for herself and overcoming all the obstacles life constantly put in her way. Egan's writing is highly readable and contributes to the overall pleasure of reading Manhattan Beach. 4 stars.
    • 3/5
      Overall, this was a decent read with a unique setting and a story that sets it apart from the mass of WWII-era historical fiction. And yet...I found it hard to get through and at times I was frustrated with both the writing and the characters. I'm certain a reader who really appreciates literary fiction could gush about how wonderful this book is, but I just wish the author could have been a little more clear about what kind of novel she was writing and straightforward in the plot, rather than letting the story meander at times.
    • 4/5
      Objectively, this is an excellent novel. It's well written, the characters are interesting, and it's well structured, effectively employing multiple points of view. The setting and backdrop are flawless.

      And yet--unlike Welcome to the Goon Squad, Manhattan Beach lacks a propulsive spark. It moves a little too slowly, a little bit too measured. I can't fault it, and yet it stops just short of being superb.
    • 3/5
      historical fiction/mystery (1930s-40s Brooklyn with mobsters). I read to page 53, but wasn't in the mood for this type of book at the time. The writing was very good (though a different style from Goon Squad), I just couldn't get into it--maybe another time.
    • 1/5
      Jennifer, you broke my heart. This book was such a disappointment. I re-read your first book, the Invisible Circus, the week before tackling Manhattan Beach... an unwise decision in hindsight. I have not just enjoyed, but LOVED, everything else you have written, up to but excluding MB. I hold out hope that this very minute, you're writing the final pages of another brilliant book that will make up for this... let's call it a speed-bump. Fingers crossed!
    • 3/5
      I'm reading from my book shelves. This is one I selected because it was on the shelf for awhile.The plot seemed disjointed. Though, I was pulled into the background of theBrooklyn Naval Yard. And the information regarding World War II, and the idea that the main character was a woman who tenaciously learned how to dive underwater to repair the large ships that needed small and large repairs.There is a background of mafia interaction, and when Anna's father disappears, she strongly knows it was his ties to the underground that were his demise.There were some good things about the book, including the hard work that women performed while men were at war, and the fact that Anna was given training as a diver.I can't recommend it, but I saw from the review that many thought highly of this book.
    • 4/5
      That was an interesting and engaging novel. There is some messy plotting, and there was one twist that worried me, but Jennifer Egan brings them all together nicely. Anna is a compelling protagonist, and I was really interested in her success. The Dexter/Eddie subplot is less interesting, but that's partly a matter of personal taste. I think this book moves fairly quickly and picks up speed as it goes.
    • 3/5
      Maybe because it took me nearly a month to finish listening to the book, I feel it is three stories in one, connected thematically only when I really look for a connection.
      Anna's is the main story, her father's and Dexter Styles are secondary. Anna's diving experience was interesting, but nothing else about the story was particularly unheard of or captivating. It was not awful, but not amazing, either.
      Theme? The lies and lives we tell for family.
    • 3/5
      This novel was recommended to me because of the NYC references. I didn't realize that it was Great Depression/WWII historical fiction, which gave it an additional check in the positive column for me.I listed to the e-audiobook and was able to handle the narrative switching okay. But there was a bit of time switching as well, which confused me a bit.I kept on seeing shades of the fab movie "On the Town", with the Brooklyn Navy Yard setting. The diving, naval and marine segments were most intriguing for me.I wished some of the story lines of various secondary characters had been expanded in an epilogue.I didn't deeply connect really to any of the characters except maybe Anna's younger sister, Lydia.
    • 3/5
      I enjoyed a lot of the imagery in this book, and there were times that I felt connected with Anna, especially in the scenes with Lydia. At the same time, though, I didn’t really understand her character. Her interest in diving felt random, and she never solidified for me into someone rebellious, if that’s what the writer was going for. I heard Egan talk and I know the book started because she wanted to write about diving, then she built a book around it. I think that shows but not in a good way. The threads just never quite connected for me.
    • 3/5
      3.5 Eh.

      Strong character- I liked her, but the story felt choppy. There were plenty of really interesting parts but overall it wasn't horrible, but not a favorite.
    • 3/5
      When Anna is young, she goes on business with her father to visit Dexter Styles and while their fathers are talking, Anna and Dexter’s daughter head to the beach to play. When Anna is grown up, the Second World War is happening, her father has since disappeared, and Anna is working, but what she really wants to do is learn to dive. I listened to the audio. There were three (?) narrators (the two male narrators (I think) sounded very similar to me; I couldn’t tell their voices apart, plus there was one female narrator). The book was mostly from Anna’s and Dexter’s points of view, but occasionally Eddie’s (Anna’s father’s) POV came into play, as well. As expected, for me, I lost interest more in the male narrated portions. I did (eventually) enjoy Anna’s, particularly her quest to learn to dive. I did not like Dexter at all, though. (Not surprising, really, as he was a mobster), so I didn’t like when Anna’s and Dexter’s paths crossed. I also just didn’t like him. Not sure if I would have liked it better had I not listened to the audio; I’m still not sure the gangster/mobster aspect of Dexter would have interested me, anyway.