⋙ Download Fortune Rocks A Novel Anita Shreve 9780316734837 Books

Fortune Rocks A Novel Anita Shreve 9780316734837 Books

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Fortune Rocks A Novel Anita Shreve 9780316734837 Books

Anita Shreve writes so beautifully. I thought the 15 year old was a bit unrealistically bold and forward, especially considering the times, so that spoiled the story a bit; would have preferred a more gradual coming together of these two. And the scene in the kitchen defied belief. But still enjoying the book; still reading.


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Fortune Rocks A Novel Anita Shreve 9780316734837 Books Reviews

This book was hard to put down. It grabbed my attention from the beginning. Love books with strong women, especially at a time when women weren’t expected to be strong.
It is a book were by one get slowly into all the characters. Although there are many, it is easy to keep them apart and know who they are. With many twists and turns that one would not expect the story plays out perfectly.
This young girl, especially for the late 1800's was hellbent to live as her desires directed her. The fact that she was willing to live with and make the most of her seemingly reckless decisions was what made her a respectable person. She knew her own mind and lived accordingly for which I cannot fault her. The contrast in social mores between then and now show how much things have changed in the last 100 or so years.
I liked everything about this book. I considered it very well written.
In Anita Shreve's FORTUNE'S ROCKS, we are introduced to fifteen-year-old Olympia Biddeford, during her transition from girl to woman. In the late 1800's young women were expected to marry early, but the social mores were considerably restrictive.
So we have Olympia, vacationing with her parents near the ocean in an area called Fortune's Rocks. Carefully sheltered and well-tutored, Olympia has been raised to follow the usual course for cultured young ladies, marriage and family, in that order. But Olympia is swept away by the force of her own imagination and falls in love for the first time with a family man, a physician who is a friend of her father. While it is not uncommon for a young woman of Olympia's years to form an obsessive attachment to an older man, it is surprising that Olympia's passion is returned by 41-year-old John Haskell. His wife and four children are not living with him until their cottage is built. When Haskell reciprocates the fledging attraction, the two begin an ill-fated love affair. Too late, Olympia realizes that their actions will alter the future of both the Biddefords and the Haskells. The lovers are cunningly exposed and it is impossible to prevent the ensuing scandal. Olympia is with child and her father makes arrangements for the baby to be taken away from his daughter. The child is given to the local orphanage, and later placed with a local French Catholic family as foster parents. Three years later, when she is able, Olympia returns to Fortune's Rocks and endeavors to recover custody of her child. Her decision at this time and the consequences add much to the overall interest of the story. Olympia's quest leaves her once again with a decision that will impact more people than herself. Her final choices add the necessary maturity to this character. But we still must contend with the age difference between Olympia and Haskell. It is hard for this reader to understand how John Haskell can credit a fifteen-year-old with more maturity and life experience than is possible or even likely. Olympia eventually carries the weight of her actions credibly, including the tender affection for her first love. The pace of the story is sometimes uneven. Written in the wordy fashion of the times, while occasionally unrealistic, the novel piqued my interest after the lover's denoument, culminating with a thoughtful resolution.
Giving this book five stars because 7 isn’t an option! I enjoyed it so much, I honestly didn’t want to go to s Holiday parties or otherwise socialize, I just wanted to keep reading this book. The characters were well developed, the story beautifully told. I have read other books by Anita Shreveport, and it is a sure thing that I will read more.
I hate to give a book that kept me entertained for the six-hour flight from Baltimore to Las Vegas only 3 stars, but there it is. I love Anita Shreve's books and only wish I had her talent and storytelling ability. That may be one reason this book disappointed me. Unlike "The Weight of Water", which told the story of a forbidden (and even more taboo) love in an lyrical and breathtaking way, this story left me cold.

Olympia Biddeford was, to me, a highly unlikable character. It is a testimony to Shreve's writing that I kept on reading despite this. Her lack of integrity, her total refusal to repent the evil of a love affair that hurt many innocent people, made me really angry. I know she was supposed to seem headstrong, sensual, and outside of the mores of her conventional turn-of-the-century world. Instead, Shreve shows us a spoiled young woman, much sheltered, doted upon, and privileged, who takes what she wants and doesn't much care who gets hurt in the process. I found it incredulous that such a properly brought-up young woman, living during the time that she did, would wantonly engage in a love affair with a man old enough to be her father, and care so little about the judgment of society and her parents. The scene in which they are discovered, in the chapel, on the altar of a church, was revolting. Why did Shreve choose this? And how can one possibly sympathize with this character after such behavior?

I also found the writing to be stilted, and I didn't understand the use of the present tense. I suppose it was to make the story seem more immediate, in spite of the awkwardly written 19th-century semantics. Instead, it just irritated me. "The Weight of Water", at least the parts about the Norwegian girl and her brother, was far better written, both elegant and believable.

Some people have compared this book to "Emmeline", by Judith Rossner. That is one of my all-time favorite books, and I can't really compare the two. Emmeline was a true innocent, manipulated by an older man as lonely as she, and her circumstances warranted all the reader's sympathies. Olympia, on the other hand, was the agressor in this love affair, and that she made out the winner in the end, just made me all the angrier.
Anita Shreve writes so beautifully. I thought the 15 year old was a bit unrealistically bold and forward, especially considering the times, so that spoiled the story a bit; would have preferred a more gradual coming together of these two. And the scene in the kitchen defied belief. But still enjoying the book; still reading.