Sea Glass

Anita Shreve

I enjoyed it. It's a fairly simple, straightforward story (even somewhat predictable) and a very fast read but the characters were intriguing and I thought it had a great sense of place, like other Shreve novels. If you read and liked FORTUNE'S ROCKS, SEA GLASS is sort of a sequel - different characters at a later time period but same location (same house, hotel, beach, etc.).

The main character in the novel is a young newly wed named Honora. She and her husband buy an old house on the beach right before the bottom falls out of the stock market in the 1920's, which drastically changes events in their lives. The story is told from the perspective of the different characters - Honora, her husband, a rich Boston socialite, a mill worker in the nearby town, and a young fatherless boy who also works in the mill - as their lives become intertwined due to various events that occur.