Anita Shreve (1946–2018)

This one grabbed me in a way others have not done for a while. I can't say why. Somehow I responded to Margaret's situation and her response to it.

Margaret and Patrick, new married couple, go to Africa. Specifically, to Kenya. Patrick has a chance to study equatorial medicine while Margaret simply wants to see Africa. She quits her photography job in the US to go, and eventually finds herself another one, as freelance photographer for a controversial newspaper in Kenya.

Before she finds this show more job, however, she and Patrick are living in a little house behind a big one, and the owners of the property invite them to go with them on a climb of Mount Kenya. Patrick is excited about the climb and Margaret, less enthusiastic, goes along. An incident happens on the climb that changes everything, that radiates outward and affects many people.

This is something Shreve does regularly, according to reviewers (I have only read a few other books of hers): create small events that cause cracks that become canyons. I love this because it is so often such small things that send us in different directions.

We follow Margaret as she copes with changes and tries to adjust, to get things back where they were. But is that possible? show less

The Pilot’s Wife by Anita Shreve is a 1999 Bay Back Books publication.

I read this book a long time ago, before I become a member of Goodreads and well before I started writing book reviews.
But, when I heard of Anita Shreve’s passing, this book came back to the forefront of my mind, as I recalled bits and pieces of it quite vividly.
Although I have so many books to review, with deadlines, no less, I couldn’t resist giving this book a second look.
This novel, when it was first released, show more benefited greatly from the press that resulted from Oprah Winfrey’s having selected it for her book club. However, initially, I wasn’t sure if it was my kind of book and didn’t immediately rush out and buy a copy at the peak of its popularity. But, eventually, my curiosity got the best of me. I never could have imagined the impact this book would have on me, or the way it would guide my reading habits from that time forward.

Briefly, for those who may not have read the book or just a quick refresher for those who have- Kathryn’s husband, Jack, is a pilot, and together they have a teenage daughter. Life is pretty good, and Kathryn has learned to accept the ebbs and flows within her marriage. But, when she gets the news a plane Jack was piloting exploded in midair, everything she thought she knew about her daughter, her husband and even herself is thrown into question. Was it a mechanical malfunction, or pilot error- or something far more sinister?

Jack’s occupation explains his absences from home, but it is an adjustment his family has had to learn to live with. His job also comes in handy when it comes to sustaining secrets and hiding things from his wife and daughter. Many may question how naïve Kathryn was, but I didn’t feel as though she buried her head in the sand. Of course, as the story unfolds, episodes from the past all click into place and Kathryn realizes she was naïve, perhaps complacent, was too trusting, too confident in her life, but didn’t she have the right to be? Or should she have remained in a state of hyper awareness at all times? Is is wrong to enjoy contentment?

Even now, with the passage of time, the emotions the book stirred in me the first time around, resurfaced once again, as strong as before, maybe even more so, even knowing everything that was going to happen in advance. The story still held my rapt attention and sucked me into Kathryn’s mind -numbing vortex as she stumbles across one shocking betrayal after another.
The suspense is still nearly unbearable at times, the characterizations firm, if not always likeable, and the tantalizing and teasing pacing, is genius.

The story does seem dated a little, at this point, and as a more jaded reader, I may have figured things out a lot quicker if I’d been reading it for the first time, but it is still a powerful heart wrenching novel of suspense and riveting family drama. I have read several other books written by Shreve over the years, but so far, although very well written, they didn’t quite manage to have the same effect on me as this one did.

4.5 stars rounded up show less

I read The Pilot’s Wife in 1998 and really loved it. Since then I think I have read all of Anita Shreve’s new books, and several of those that preceded TPW, looking for one that was “as good”. Testimony comes closest.

Set at a Vermont private school and told from both teenage and adult perspectives, it is the story of a sexual encounter among three male students, age 18-19 and a female student, age 14, and the events pre- and post that encounter. That central event is described in the show more first pages, so there is no real suspense, just a series of subplots surrounding it. This is fundamentally a sad story, with really no redemption at the end, but it does not have the same maudlin tone that I have not liked in some of Shreve’s other work. With the exception of the young woman involved in the sex (who appears to have some other emotional trouble going on), everyone else seems to accept the responsibility for and consequences of their own misguided decisions and poor judgment. Everyone suffers here, several characters behaved very badly, but Shreve makes you care about them all, even as you see their inappropriate behavior leading down a ruinous path. None of the characters are fundamentally bad people (a question on that for one of the young men), just people who made poor choices when it really counted, and I think Shreve’s ability to create that empathy for these characters is what distinguishes this from other perhaps similar stories

So, Testimony is not TPW, but definitely worth the read. show less

Audiobooks depend on a good narrator, and in this case, Dennis Boutsikaris is excellent. If snobby has a sound, it is Boutsikaris as Nicholas Van Tassel. He and Shreve capture very well the ivory towers (real and assumed) that make up academia and the folks inhabiting them.

As the Amazon description states, this is a novel set in the early 1900s; some may say that the time period is an explanation for Nicholas' behavior towards his wife. I saw this as a commentary on the subtle side of show more domestic abuse, which doesn't always need to manifest itself in a physical way. Nicholas' controlling tactics are ones characteristic of someone who is emotionally abusive, tendencies fueled by Nicholas' inherent jealously in terms of his colleagues and his wife's past. The lengths he goes to in order to gain all he ever wanted becomes the climax of the novel, and the ultimate question for Nicholas as he reflects on his life (and tells the story in flashback as he writes his memoirs on a train ride to his sister's funeral )is whether it was worth it.

I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. I also had the printed version, and I read the last several chapters as opposed to listening to them. Still, the audiobook kept me engaged and, perhaps more importantly, awake on my long afternoon commute home. show less