- Paperback: 342 pages
- Publisher: Harvest Books (4 Oct 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0156031396
- ISBN-13: 978-0156031394
- Product Dimensions: 20.1 x 13.4 x 2.1 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,585,787 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
'an absorbing tale, told by an excellent American cast.' (SUNDAY TIMES )
'Anita Shreve also asks what a storyteller should do with her material, at the start of STRANGE FITS OF PASSION (Orion 12.99), her compelling, disturbing account of a murder committed within an apparently sublime marriage. Her narrator covered the original case: 20 years on, this journalist asks for forgiveness, fearing that her own article might have influenced its outcome.Tara Ward is the battered wife, Lorelei King the journalist.' (THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY ) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
'Anita Shreve also asks what a storyteller should do with her material, at the start of STRANGE FITS OF PASSION (Orion 12.99), her compelling, disturbing account of a murder committed within an apparently sublime marriage. Her narrator covered the original case: 20 years on, this journalist asks for forgiveness, fearing that her own article might have influenced its outcome.Tara Ward is the battered wife, Lorelei King the journalist.' (THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY ) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
'Anita Shreve also asks what a storyteller should do with her material, at the start of STRANGE FITS OF PASSION (Orion 12.99), her compelling, disturbing account of a murder committed within an apparently sublime marriage. Her narrator covered the original case: 20 years on, this journalist asks for forgiveness, fearing that her own article might have influenced its outcome.Tara Ward is the battered wife, Lorelei King the journalist.'
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
40 of 40 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Initailly I approached this book with caution. It was not a type of book I normally read, but had heard such great things about this author that I felt I should give it ago. The story of domestic violence is not an original one but Shreve's approach to it is. It is told from the perspective of a journalist writing a magazine article on a particular case and is put together chronologically through letters from the lead character to the journalist and the accounts of witnesses and friends. This makes gripping reading as some of the witness accounts appear to have their own agendas and conflict. This all culminates in the unravelling of the events leading up to the murder in the remote New England fishing town and the final article written by the journalist which cleverly twists aspects of the preceeding reports and leaving you doubting your own idea of what happens.
If anyone is unsure of this book, as I was initially, I would urge them to read it as it has been the best book I have read for a while. This is my first book by this author and I certainly will be looking out for her in the future.
35 of 35 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Anita Shreve's best work to date is a compelling, disturbing often deeply moving read. She takes a potentially over-familiar story of a woman fleeing from a violent marriage and turns it into something which is thought-provoking without being didactic and gripping without resorting to melodrama.
The narrative opens with a New York-based journalist visiting the daughter of a woman who was the subject of a book and article written by the said journalist. She presents the girl with a bundle of notes and transcripts written by the girl's mother and so the narrative switches to the second woman, Maureen English, another journalist. Maureen appears to have an idyllic marriage to her husband, Harrold, the star foreign reporter at the New York magazine where they both work. But in private, Harrold is a drunken monster who regularly beats and rapes his wife. After an especially brutal ordeal at the hands of Harrold, Maureen decides that she has no choice, but to leave him, taking their daughter, Caroline with her.
Maureen may be an intelligent, articulate woman, but Harrold's violence has turned her into a hollow shell, devoid of self-esteem and self-respect. Fearing that Harrold will kill her if he ever tracks her down, she takes refuge in the sleepy fishing village of St. Hillaire on the Maine coast where she rents a seaside cottage and tries to build a new life for herself, all the time fearful that Harrold will find her. However, her life becomes even more complicated when she begins a relationship with a kind-hearted fisherman, Jack Strout, himself stuck in a miserable marriage.
Shreve's cool, clear prose perfectly evokes the bleakness of a small town in the grip of a freezing winter as well as the inner turmoil of Maureen or Mary Amesbury as she calls herself on arriving at St. Hillaire. She is every bit as sympathetic a heroine as the brave, compassionate Claire Dussois of 'Resistance'. However, the real strength of the novel lies in Shreve's narrative technique in which the testimony of Maureen/Mary is punctuated with extracts of interviews with natives of St. Hillaire who spoke to the other journalist, Helen Scofield when she was writing her article. This device shows how what might have been a clear-cut story is an awful lot more complicated, especially when we get more than one narrative voice. But maybe Shreve is trying to tell us that nothing is ever clear-cut and that the function of her text is to actively involve us in the storytelling process.
The narrative opens with a New York-based journalist visiting the daughter of a woman who was the subject of a book and article written by the said journalist. She presents the girl with a bundle of notes and transcripts written by the girl's mother and so the narrative switches to the second woman, Maureen English, another journalist. Maureen appears to have an idyllic marriage to her husband, Harrold, the star foreign reporter at the New York magazine where they both work. But in private, Harrold is a drunken monster who regularly beats and rapes his wife. After an especially brutal ordeal at the hands of Harrold, Maureen decides that she has no choice, but to leave him, taking their daughter, Caroline with her.
Maureen may be an intelligent, articulate woman, but Harrold's violence has turned her into a hollow shell, devoid of self-esteem and self-respect. Fearing that Harrold will kill her if he ever tracks her down, she takes refuge in the sleepy fishing village of St. Hillaire on the Maine coast where she rents a seaside cottage and tries to build a new life for herself, all the time fearful that Harrold will find her. However, her life becomes even more complicated when she begins a relationship with a kind-hearted fisherman, Jack Strout, himself stuck in a miserable marriage.
Shreve's cool, clear prose perfectly evokes the bleakness of a small town in the grip of a freezing winter as well as the inner turmoil of Maureen or Mary Amesbury as she calls herself on arriving at St. Hillaire. She is every bit as sympathetic a heroine as the brave, compassionate Claire Dussois of 'Resistance'. However, the real strength of the novel lies in Shreve's narrative technique in which the testimony of Maureen/Mary is punctuated with extracts of interviews with natives of St. Hillaire who spoke to the other journalist, Helen Scofield when she was writing her article. This device shows how what might have been a clear-cut story is an awful lot more complicated, especially when we get more than one narrative voice. But maybe Shreve is trying to tell us that nothing is ever clear-cut and that the function of her text is to actively involve us in the storytelling process.
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
As other reviewers have said, the author has written a well-trodden theme in a completely original way, thus avoiding the usual angle taken when writing about domestic violence. Because previous reviewers have outlined the story so well, I will not repeat it. However, the tension created by Anita Shreve in much of the book, makes the reader almost taste the fear and foreboding experienced by a woman in fear for her life at the hands of her husband. Absolutely superb.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Shreve's Greatest Novel
A beautifully written and unputdownable novel about an abuse victim. Maureen English is a successful young journalist, married to another successful journalist, the charismatic... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Kate Hopkins
Not as good as what was to come later
This early novel from Anita Shreve is engrossing enough, but stylistically not a patch on the pared down approach she has honed in more recent times. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Jl Adcock
Chilling and believable
I've read a few fictional books covering the complex matter of domestic abuse and I have to say that this one is one of the strongest and most vivid I've encountered so far. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Nicola F (Nic)
Brilliant
There are already some very eloquent reviews of this book so I will keep it simple. I think this is one of the best books I have read in a long time and would urge anyone who is... Read more
Published 23 months ago by Mrs Williams
Strange Fits of Passion, Anita Shreve
This is a heart rending tale of a mother & her baby trying to escape her husband. She arrives at the end of the road in the middle of winter in Maine USA & discovers love,... Read more
Published on 5 April 2009 by Mrs. Alison Marchant-Jones
True To Shreve's Style
With reviews as diverse as the ones for this book, it would be difficult for someone wondering whether to purchase this book to decide if it's a good one or not. Read more
Published on 23 Sep 2008 by A. Rose
Sensitive story that plods along
This is my least favourite book in some time. That's not to say it's particularly bad, evidently the other reviewers here enjoyed it greatly, it just didn't grab me in the same... Read more
Published on 21 May 2008 by L. H. Healy
Another classic read
This is page turner in every way. A tried and tested tale about domestic violence given a whole new slant thanks to the innovative plot device. Read more
Published on 9 Aug 2007 by Hayles
A touching, moving story
The way the story was put together with interviews and journal was an interesting way of seeing all sides of the story. Read more
Published on 13 July 2005 by Ms. C. Jackson
A chilling and captivating read
The most frightening thing about this work of fiction is that it could probably just as well have been a true story. Read more
Published on 10 July 2002 by Christine L
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