Body Surfing
by Anita Shreve
Published by Little, Brown and Company
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Reviewed by Peg Brantley
Sydney’s entire life is ahead of her. She’s only twenty-nine and has already been divorced—and widowed. Without any sense of purpose guiding her, she takes a job as a tutor for a couple’s teenage daughter at their summer home on the coast of New Hampshire.
An Edwards’s family weekend brings the two grown sons for a visit. Ben is in real estate, and Jeff is a professor with MIT. Both men are successful, handsome and competitive—and it looks like the current prize is Sydney.
The fragile relationship she has established with the teenage daughter is solid compared to the tenuous, often cold, connection between Sydney and Mrs. Edwards. She feels like she walks a tightrope between servant and family member.
I had to get over the paragraphing style of the book, but once I did, I could enjoy Shreve’s sparse intensity and ability to draw characters with minimal information. Although the plot is predictable, the characterizations are memorable and tight—something Shreve excels at in all of her work.
Written in third person, the point-of-view is always Sydney’s and lends to the feel of a first person account. It’s easy to pull for the future of this young woman. You hope she will feel the surge of life and direction and trust again.
Armchair Interview says: If you have enjoyed Anita Shreve’s previous books, you’ll enjoy this one as well.