The Stars Are Fire - Anita Shreve

The author is a favorite of mine, and I looked forward to reading her new novel.  She has a good skill of being able to draw the reader into the world of late 1940s Maine.  Grace is a young mother of two, and pregnant with another when  huge fires surround their small seaside town.  As her husband has gone to help fight the fires she is left with her best friend  to try and save her young family.

Not the happiest if stories to read, Grace has a fairly tough life where she suffers a lot of sorrow and worries, it does give a snapshot of what life must have been like for a lot of women in that era. 4/5

Rescue - Anita Shreve

Rescue - Anita Shreve (2011)

Anita Shreve is one of those authors that I look forward to her new books, and search them out but the results can often be a bit hit or miss for me.  This one was one of those that I didn't really gel with, the characters were a bit on the annoying side.  An ambulance officer begins a relationship with a woman who he treats after she has an accident after drinking.   Sixteen years later he is bringing up their daughter alone, and is struggling with a bit of teenage rebellion.

I found ambulance officer Webster a bit weak, and his family a bit flat and two dimensional and Shelia, well she was just plain annoying.  Nothing seemed likable in the book really, the characters or the town, it all felt a bit like I'd heard it before.  2/5

A Change in Altitude - Anita Shreve

A Change In Altitude - Anita Shreve (2009)

I was thinking that Anita Shreve is a pretty consistent author and one who keeps focused on telling one story at a time. Rather than a complicated plot, hers are often simple, with no back and forth in time and characters, that can make a story muddled or overly long.

Patrick and Margaret have come to Kenya not long after marrying, and I guess the whole story encompasses their experience, the vast culture shock, the isolation and the complexity that is Africa. A bit of a cliche, with him being a doctor and her being a photographer, it was still an interesting read. I found the beginning a bit stiff and hard to get into, but once past the first thirty pages the story held together well and I was interested to see where it went. 3/5

Testimony - Anita Shreve

Testimony - Anita Shreve (2008)
I had seen this book sitting on the shelves at the local bookstore, and was so quick in ordering it at the library that I only had to wait two weeks for it to come through. I ordered it based on the author, as I have enjoyed most of her previous writing, and I had not taken the time to read the blurb. In fact, I started the book not knowing what it was about, if I had I may have had reservations about the content.

At a private high school, the headmaster is given a video tape to look at. On it he finds a graphic and disturbing record of a fourteen year old girl student, involved in sexual activities with three much older male students. Cleverly, rather than taking one viewpoint, Anita Shreve allows all the characters a voice and a platform. We hear from the girl, the boys, their friends and roomates, parents and teachers, as this effects so many people. Although a clever method of telling the story, I did ultimately become a bit distracted and confused by who was who.

I have to say though that I will be only giving this a 2/5, as a tale of sexual assualt is not the type of story I would want to reread, or to recommend to anyone else.