Ocean State

OCEAN STATE is my tenth Stewart O'Nan book, but I think he's written nearly twice that many by now. I can't keep up with the guy. All of his books are very different, but no matter what the subject, he somehow manages to immerse himself into it; he BECOMES his characters. They are that believable, that real. And he does that again in OCEAN STATE. Tnis time he is four different women. Or maybe I should say one woman, three girls. Or maybe not.

The story happens mostly in 2009, the year the Yankees and the Phillies squared off in the World Series, which forms a loose backdrop for the story, set in Rhode Island, of course, in a dying mill town of blue collar types. The four principals are: a fading forty-something divorced mom, Carol, who show more works a low-paying job as a nurse in a nursing home; her two daughters - tall, beautiful, athletic (volleyball), popular Angel,18; and Marie, 13 and smart, plump and unpopular. That's only three, I know. The fourth is Beatriz, or 'Birdie,' 18 and short, cute, also athletic (soccer), who runs in a different clique, of mostly Portuguese- American kids. Both Angel and Birdie have steadies (Myles and Hector, respectively). But Myles, a very handsome rich kid (and something of an entitled prick), is also carrying on a secret thing with Birdie. Got that? And when I say 'thing,' I mean mostly sex, because these kids do have sex, all the usual varieties, and lots of it. But all the romantic feelings, envy and jealousy are in there too. I mean, you know, TEENagers. So, Birdie breaks up with Hector. Then Angel finds out about Myles and Birdie, and she is furious. I mean "Hell hath no fury" and all that. And there is all kinds of driving up and down the roads between all these little bitty RI coastal towns, so you get to know all the stores and businesses and hear all the latest hits. The local ambience is laid on so well that I almost felt like I could've found my own way to Myles's folks' beach house where so much of the sex was taking place. (Other places too, of course - in cars, Angel's room, a cemetery, etc.)

Oh, and there's a murder in here too, but you know that - and who did it - from the very first page. The first sentence, in fact.

The story is told from four viewpoints, kinda - those four women I named. But it is thirteen year-old Marie who anchors it all, with her first person narrative that opens the novel and appears sporadically throughout, then supplies the epilogue, looking back from years later. Very much like Harper Lee's Scout from TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, which, not so surprisingly, Marie is reading during the most important events depicted here - a school assignment. She loves the book, and identifies closely with Scout too.

But perhaps one of the most important elements of all to this story is the cell phone. The two older girls here are absolutely attached (addicted?) to their phones and to social networking. Their lives rise and fall by these ubiquitous devices. I'm old, so, while I know these awful, disturbing, constant connections in the lives of young people today do exist, I find it to be creepy, horrifying and just, well, sad.

So was I creeped out by this book, wit all the sex, the phones? Yeah, kinda (but mostly it was the phones). And yet, once again, O'Nan has so thoroughly "inhabited" these characters - and WOMEN this time! - that I could not stop turning the pages until I got to the end. Creepy, yeah, but Geeze you're good, Stewart. My very highest recommendation.

P.S. High school kids would/will love this book, but I don't think their parents would/will want them to read it. Just sayin'.

- Tim Bazzett author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER show less

As I said elsewhere on social media, Stewart O'Nan could write a phone book and I would read it. I am a longtime fan of his fiction* and anyone who visits my thread regularly knows of my great love for his novella, Last Night at the Lobster which I re-read every holiday season.

In Ocean State, O'Nan begins at the end with the acknowledgment of a murder. The story is told from a few different viewpoints - that of Carol, a single mother; her daughters, Marie and Angel; and a local teenage girl, Birdy. There is a boy involved in this story, and it is him - Myles - that I found to be the weakest link. He was sort of inscrutable to me and the least developed main character. But he was essential to the story, and so this felt off. Even so, show more O'Nan tells a compelling tale of teen love and angst, the pain of growing up and feeling misunderstood, the push and pull of families with little more than love and familiarity to keep them going. As usual, he uses small details to illuminate whole worlds, and his characters feel very real.

I have yet to read a novel by O'Nan that I didn't at least very much like, and this is no exception, even if it's not among my favorites.

4 stars

* He also has written a couple of non-fiction books - The Circus Fire which I am in the minority in thinking was not very good and rather boring; and a book, co-written with Stephen King, about their love of the Boston Red Sox which obviously makes it unreadable to me. show less

Ocean State, Stewart O’Nan, author; Sara Young, narrator

Three families are on a collision course to disaster . A group of teenagers, about to graduate, make foolish decisions that ruin their lives and alter their futures. Was it puppy love gone awry, jealousy that was all consuming? What bred the tragic circumstances these families had to face?

Two girls love the same boy. He, Myles, is somewhat of a philanderer. When his girlfriend of three years, Angel, discovers his infidelity, she is furious and attacks the girl, Birdy, with whom he has cheated. When Birdy persists in stalking him, both of them conspire to make her pay, even though he has been a willing participant in their “affair”. Perhaps to prove his love for Angel, he show more feels he must help her retaliate. None of these young adults seem to consider the consequences of their behavior or to really care about what might result. They break rules, casually hurt others, and show no appropriate remorse, so bent are they are on satisfying their own needs. Their uncontrolled passion destroys them.

Their families are economically diverse, and like all families, they experience growing pains from divorce, absent parents, grief, sibling rivalry, eccentric relatives and other struggles. Each of the families will suffer a profound loss, each will lose a child, but only one will lose a child forever.

What would cause such a lack of respect for human life? What would cause such desire, jealousy and fury that could drive a person to commit so heinous an act, as murder? Can it simply be attributed to their youth or their immaturity. Was it a lack of guidance or appropriate examples of behavior or neglect that was responsible for the irrational acts of these teens? Their goals were so unrealistic.

The families involved, immediate and extended, did not seem to be aware of what these children were doing or how they were suffering. They were so needy, but their needs were unmet and undisclosed to those that loved them. Each lived in their own selfish world, parent and child. Although, the adults were often poor examples of behavior, these teens were old enough to know better. Their infractions went unobserved or were ignored by those that could have guided them. Instead, their transgressions were just accepted as the normal wayward ways of youth, until they were not, until they went too far. Sometimes, the innocent paid the greater price for the crimes of those guilty. How far would a family member go to protect their loved one? How far should they go? Would the guilty do what was right, confess and repent, or would they save themselves and sacrifice each other? What is the appropriate punishment? How do their sins affect the other family members? Who is scarred more deeply? Does the legal system handle criminal charges equally for those incarcerated? Has parenting become a forgotten skill as self-satisfaction seems to take precedent in the lives of many of us? This brief novel asks all of these questions and more. show less

This novel begins with the ending; a girl talking about how her sister went to prison for her part in the murder of a teenage girl. From there, O'Nan returns to the beginning, telling the story from the point-of-view of the younger sister and of the murdered girl. O'Nan's a good enough writer to take all of the tension out of the story from the first page and still write a well-paced novel, although I think that the novels he writes that are based on issues are less strong or memorable than the novels he writes about family dynamics. This novel manages to address economic disparity and he writes beautifully of living in a run-down rental on the outskirts of a town divided between the wealthy people with ocean view homes and those who show more service their needs. But this novel lacks the depth of his quieter novels, like Wish You Were Here or the perfection of Last Night at the Lobster. It's still an excellent, well-crafted novel, just not one of O'Nan's best, but then his best novels are extraordinary. show less

The Short of It:

Only O’Nan could write a story where the murderer’s identity is revealed in the first paragraph and he still manages to hold my interest.

The Rest of It:

This is a simple story, really. Two young girls, in love with the same boy. The push-pull tension of the story is laid out slowly in its less than 250 pages. Angel knows that her boyfriend has been seeing another girl, Birdy, but in her mind, there is no other outcome possible. She will be with him and Birdy won’t be. How she gets to that decision is how the story plays out.

Angel’s younger sister Marie, reflects on that autumn where it all went wrong. There’s plenty of familial tension but it’s all a little gritty and unsavory and I had a hard time liking any show more of the characters. I felt empathy for Marie, having to deal with the aftermath of Angel’s actions and her losing the only person she was really close to. But if you are a fan of O’Nan’s, what you might miss in this story is the sense of place that he so elegantly builds in his other books. Other than that, I enjoyed Marie’s reflections on sisters, mothers, and life in general.

For more reviews, visit my blog: Book Chatter. show less

This novel begins with a shocking statement: “When I was in eighth grade my sister helped kill another girl.” The rest of the book focuses on the events leading to the murder (in the autumn of 2009 in a small coastal town in Rhode Island) and its repercussions.

The perspective of four women is given: Angel Oliviera is the accused; Carol is her mother; Marie is her younger sister; and Birdy is the victim. Angel has been in a relationship with Myles Parrish for three years when he secretly begins seeing Birdy. When two teenagers become intensely obsessed with the same guy, chaos is not unexpected.

The book can be described as a character study of these four women. Each emerges as a flawed, realistic character. Angel, for example, is show more beautiful, athletic, and popular; Marie describes her as “strong and confident with a wicked tongue.” Her weakness is being easy to anger. Angel’s fear is losing Myles who “was her first . . . her only.” She suspects she will lose Myles to some rich girl once he leaves for college the following year while she stays behind, working and attending community college part-time. In the meantime, she is desperate to hold on to him.

Carol is a divorced, single mother who works as a nurse’s aide in a seniors’ care facility. She struggles financially. She wants her daughters to have a better life and not repeat her mistakes, but her questionable choices do little to provide stability. She has a history of choosing unreliable men, two of whom she continues to see despite their tendency to violence. She often drinks to excess. Marie states her mother “was lonely and didn’t know what else to do.” It’s obvious that she is seeking excitement and romance, though financial stability also appeals. She acknowledges that she is self-absorbed and so has failed to see what’s been going on: “She’s been too busy, too caught up in Russ and Wes and trying to figure out the rest of her life to understand what was going on with Angel and Myles and this other girl.” Nonetheless, she supports Angel and tries to get her a good lawyer.

Birdy is a good girl who is close to her mother, though she changes once she becomes besotted with Myles. She starts sneaking around and lying; at one point, she wonders “if there’s anyone she won’t lie to.” Rather insecure, she falls for Myles’s charm and soon becomes desperate not to lose him to her rival.

Thirteen-year-old Marie is the opposite of her sister whom she idolizes. Despite Angel’s less than angelic behaviour towards her, Marie keeps her secrets. She thinks of herself as a nerd, someone who does well in school but has no real friends. She is kind-hearted but not perfect because she does act out. She is described as being “afraid of everything.” Often left at home alone, she spends her time over-eating.

In many ways, the book is about what people will do for love. Angel’s actions are extreme in this regard, but others also crave love and affection. Marie describes Carol as not being able to “stop wanting to be in love.” Birdy is willing to end a relationship with someone just so she can be with Myles. Marie thinks of herself as “the needy keeper of secrets”; wanting her sister’s love, she acknowledges inadvertently playing a role in events. In her closing monologue, Marie gives further details about what she has done because of love.

The title is perfect. Rhode Island is nicknamed the Ocean State so the title is a nod to the setting. However, it also refers to love. I thought of “Love is an Ocean” by Earth and Fire: “Love is an ocean always in motion/Endless and ever so deep.” And of course, love, like the ocean, is often stormy and unpredictable.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It caught my attention from the first sentence and kept it throughout.

Note: I received a digital galley from the publisher via NetGalley so quotations may not be as they appear in the final copy.

Please check out my reader's blog (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2022/03/review-of-ocean-state-by-stewart-onan.html) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski). show less

Ocean State by Stewart O'Nan is a very highly recommended literary fiction and a profound and heartbreaking family drama. This is an excellent novel and will certainly be on my top ten list for 2022.

Set in 2009, Carol Oliviera has two daughters, Angel and Marie, and they live in the working-class town of Ashaway, Rhode Island. Angel is a senior in high school and has been dating Myles for three years. Birdy Alves is dating Hector, but she and Myles are conducting a clandestine relationship, secretly cheating on their partners. The impending tragedy is foretold by thirteen-year-old Marie's opening statement, “When I was in eighth grade my sister helped kill another girl.”

Ocean State is not a murder mystery. It is a character study show more and the narrative is told through a series of flashbacks and internal monologues from the alternating perspective of these four women: Marie, Angel, Carole, and Birdy. Marie's account binds the whole story together as she is reflecting on all of the events which occurred years earlier. Each of these characters are depicted as realistic individuals with secrets, obsessions, guilt, and fears. Each of these characters are flawed, unhappy, and seeking love and acceptance. It is an intimate, sympathetic portrait of sisters, mothers, and daughters and how they interact with each other as well as a story of working-class life during a recession.

O’Nan is one of my favorite authors and Ocean State demonstrates all the reasons why. The writing is exceptional. Once you start it you will not be able to set Ocean State aside until you have finished it. It is beautifully written with insightful details and a plot that is heartbreaking and compelling. The details are meticulously chosen and the plot is deliberately crafted to make every detail vital to the story. Everything leads to the tragic climax, which even though we know it is coming, it is still poignant. And all of this is handled with compassion and tenderness.

If you enjoy literary fiction, Ocean State should be on the top of your reading list. This is a perfect choice for books clubs and one of the best books of 2022.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Grove Atlantic.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2022/02/ocean-state.html
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