Manhattan Beach

The Girl And The Sea

Anna Kerrigan and Dexter Styles do not belong to the same world, but their paths cross in Pulitzer prize-winning author Jennifer Egan’s Manhattan Beach, a sprawling historical-cum-crime novel, set during the Depression and World War II.

When the novel begins, 11-year-old Anna Kerrigan accompanies her father Eddie to visit Dexter Styles at his house in Manhattan Beach. She plays with the host’s kids, charms Styles and almost forgets that strange meeting. What she does not know the is that Styles is a gangster, and that Eddie who has fallen on bad times, which force him to work at low wages for a corrupt union official, has approached the mob boss for a job. He needs money to buy a wheelchair for his severely disabled younger daughter, Lydia. Anna’s mother used to be dancer, but now stays home to care for Lydia and does some sewing for money. Lydia is lovingly cared for by her mother and sister, but Eddie is always uncomfortable around her. One day, he disappears and leaves the family to cope by themselves. Anna is heartbroken, but after days of grieving, stops waiting for him

Years later, when Anna is 19, she works as the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The War has taken away all the young men, and women are doing what was always considered men’s work. But Anna is not satisfied inspecting ship’s parts like an automaton; she fights discrimination and ridicule to be allowed to be a diver. At the yard, divers wore very heavy outfits and went underwater to repair ships. Nobody believes that a woman could move in a 200-pound costume, leave aside dive in it, but Anna shames the men into respecting her determination.

She run into Dexter Styles, who is more powerful than ever, and single-mindedly pursues him to find out what happened to her father.

The story elaborates on Anna’s life, as well as Styles’s complicated marriage and relationship with his wife’s family, particularly his father-in-law. Egan gradually reveals events from the past that have an impact on the present, and brief encounters in the present that change lives forever. 

There are is a large chunk in the book, set on a ship that is a dull read, but whenever the focus in on Anna, the story sparkles. Egan brings the thrill of diving alive—for Anna is not just a challenge to prove herself in a man’s world, but an almost spiritual path to fill the void in her life. Anna is such a remarkable young woman that the soap opera-ish fate Egan charts for her in the end comes a disappointment. Still, there are passages of exquisite prose, that make Manhattan Beach worth a visit.

Manhattan Beach

By Jennifer Egan

Publisher: Hachette

Pages: 448