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Title: Strange Fits of Passion: A Novel by Anita Shreve ISBN: 0-15-600710-X Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 11 November, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.6 (47 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Suspenseful and gripping
Comment: Fans of Shreve's other novels, including The Pilot's Wife and The Weight of Water, will appreciate this earlier effort, which, like the others, combines mystery and marriage to create a suspenseful, intriguing story about trouble. Like Anna Quindlen's novel, Black and Blue, Strange Fits of Passion revolves around a young mother who has taken her child and fled an abusive husband to settle in a new community and begin life again under an assumed name. The similarities end there, however, as Shreve builds a more complex, thickly layered story that involves numerous points of view and dips in and out of the past without ever becoming confusing or dense. The novel begins with a magazine writer, Helen Scofield, traveling to a college dormitory to visit Caroline English, the daughter of writer Maureen English, a woman who, we soon learn, was imprisoned for murdering her allegedley abusive husband, Harrold, also a writer, many years earlier. Helen's visit is, ostensibly, to deliver to Caroline the letters and transcripts that she collected as she investigated the murder for an article she was writing. We read of the relationship between Maureen English and her husband from her own point of view--reports of the abuse she suffered, the life she led in the small Maine fishing village to which she fled, and, later, the details of the event that took her husband's life. Interspersed with her memories are the reports from various members of the fishing community she lived in--people who variously report on Maureen and her life there, and who hold her responsible for the crime to varying degrees. Finally, we read the article Helen wrote about Maureen English, her marriage, and her decision to kill her husband, and learn an entirely other lesson about what the truth is and what it means to tell the truth. This is a fascinating, engrossing story.
Rating: 5
Summary: Fascinating story of spousal abuse and its aftermath.
Comment: In "Strange Fits of Passion," Shreve describes a woman in great distress. Maureen and Harrold both write for a magazine in New York in the 1970's. They fall in love and marry. Maureen learns too late that Harrold becomes abusive and vicious, especially when he is drunk. Unfortunately, Harrold is often drunk. During her pregnancy and after she gives birth, Harrold's abuse intensifies. Maureen hides the fact that Harrold is physically and emotionally abusive from her family and friends. Maureen is ashamed and she blames herself for her husband's cruel behavior. Finally, after a particularly brutal incident, Maureen packs up her baby, Caroline, and winds up in a small town in Maine named St. Hilaire; she hopes to escape her huband's wrath and protect her baby. Shreve captures the ambiance of the rugged town and its colorful inhabitants beautifully. Shreve populates "Strange Fits of Passion" with interesting and memorable characters, including Jack Strout, a lobsterman with whom Maureen falls in love. The author uses clever literary devices to tell this moving story, and I could not put this book down until I found out what happens to Maureen. "Strange Fits of Passion" is a powerful and and emotionally involving novel that explores the complexities of human relationships.
Rating: 5
Summary: It doesn't get any better than this...
Comment: This is one of my favorite books, ever.
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Title: Eden Close by Anita Shreve ISBN: 0156005891 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 1998 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Resistance : A Novel by Anita Shreve ISBN: 0316789844 Publisher: Back Bay Books Pub. Date: 01 January, 1997 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: All He Ever Wanted: A Novel by Anita Shreve ISBN: 0316735736 Publisher: Back Bay Books Pub. Date: 20 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Where or When : A Novel by Anita Shreve, Virginia Barber ISBN: 0156006529 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 13 May, 1999 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Weight of Water : A Novel Tag: Author of Resistance and Strange Fits of Passion by Anita Shreve ISBN: 0316780375 Publisher: Back Bay Books Pub. Date: 07 January, 1998 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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