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Strange Fits of Passion: A Novel [Paperback]

Anita Shreve (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)

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Book Description

Publication Date: Oct 14 1999 | Series: Harvest Book
A labyrinthine tale of truth and deception from acclaimed novelist Anita Shreve
 
 
Everyone believes that Maureen and Harrold English, two successful New York City journalists, have a happy, stable marriage. It's the early '70s and no one discusses or even suspects domestic abuse. But after Maureen suffers another brutal beating, she flees with her infant daughter to a coastal town in Maine. The weeks pass slowly, and just as Maureen begins to settle into her new life and new identity, Harrold reappears, bringing the story to a violent, unforgettable climax.

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Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

As she did in her first novel, Eden Close , Shreve opens this absorbing story with oblique hints of a violent event--here a murder committed by a woman in response to domestic abuse--then segues to flashbacks that slowly reveal the circumstances leading up to it. A reporter who wrote a book about the crime shares her notes, presented in alternating versions and voices. Most affecting is the voice of the accused woman, who flees Manhattan with her six-month-old daughter to seek sanctuary in a coastal Maine village where she is protected by the clannish but sympathetic townspeople. She finds temporary solace in an affair with a sensitive lobsterman, but is betrayed to her husband by another man out of jealousy. Shreve is particularly effective in evoking the landscape and atmosphere of a close-knit community and the authentic vernacular of its nicely differentiated inhabitants. Her elegiac, portentous prose provides effective pacing. The novel's main drawback, however, lies in its predictability, and in the lack of credibility for the heroine's violent act, faults Shreve somewhat overcomes by raising the question of journalistic integrity (did the reporter alter her notes?) and the possibility that the accused woman's account might have contained deliberate falsehoods. In spite of its superficialities, however, the novel is often insightful and moving.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Thrilling and finely written . . . Ms. Shreve renders the beleaguered woman's voice, and the voices of other townspeople, with the arresting clarity we ask of all good writing."-The New Yorker

"Shreve's prose is clear and compassionate, and her message moving."-The Washington Post Book World

"Superbly rendered . . . both touching and troubling. The box-within-a-box structure moves Shreve's subtle and searing book beyond the contemporary horror genre. It creates a kind of double novel."-Cosmopolitan
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Customer Reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
51 reviews
4.6 out of 5 stars
Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Anita Shreve is a winner again! Jun 14 2004
By smallbutfeisty
Format:Paperback
This is the third Anita Shreve book I've read, and they are among my favorite books every time. This tells the story of a woman escaping NYC and her abusive husband and heading to a sleepy Maine fishing town.
While the story itself is intriguing, the medium in which it is told makes the book stellar. It is told in letters to a reporter writing a story for a magazine. Twenty years later, the reporter is giving the interview letters to the abused woman's daughter. The interview letters are coming from the victim in jail, so that is established at the very beginning; the reader can guess what ultimately happened, but the getting there is the best part.
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4.0 out of 5 stars A good read July 3 2004
By John I. Provan
Format:Paperback
I have liked all of Anita Shreve's novels. If you are looking for a book that will be a nice easy and entertaining read during a vacation - like lets saying laying on a beach somewhere then this book or one of Anita's novels is for you. They all about love and violence. You want to know who did the crime but also will the love affair last or not.
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4.0 out of 5 stars A "movie of the week" subject, told in a different style. Jun 17 2004
By The Feisty Curmudgeon
Format:Paperback
The way the story is presented in "Strange Fits of Passion" is unusual and interesting. Shreve writes of Maureen English, alias Mary Amesbury, who is a victim of domestic violence, in an almost detached manner. Maureen/Mary has finally had enough, takes her 6-month-old daughter and a few hundred dollars in cash, and flees to a small town in northern Maine, where she lives for 6-7 weeks, until her abusive husband finds her. Each chapter is told from a different point-of-view, usually Mary's, but also that of the reporter who is writing an article on Mary, as well as that of the townspeople who live in Maine. The tale starts when Mary first meets her husband and ends after he finds her and their daughter hiding in the Maine cottage. "Strange Fits of Passion" takes place in 1970/1971, when spousal abuse was little known and rarely discussed.

Shreve's detached manner in writing the story is, I think, deliberate and is what makes the story interesting. This is not one of those cheesy "woman in jeopardy" stories, but is more a study of the effects of abuse on the victim and how she is viewed by others (and herself). There is some suspense, as we are told from the beginning that "something awful" happened the night that Mary was found by her husband, although it's not hard to figure most of what happened as the tale unfolds. Overall, "Strange Fit of Passion" is a tragedy presented in a nonjudgmental way, and one that lets the reader make up his/her own mind when it comes to the guilt or innocence and circumstances involved in the abusive relationship.

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Most recent customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars It doesn't get any better than this...
This is one of my favorite books, ever.
Published on May 14 2004 by MalibuRamos
4.0 out of 5 stars Reads true to life,
Lately, I have read quite a few books with this theme, and as a rule they usually read a like, but not, "Strange Fits Of Passion," by Anita Shreve. Read more
Published on May 4 2004 by John Savoy
5.0 out of 5 stars haunting tale--DON'T be turned off by the theme!
This is a great book. Don't let the idea of a book about domestic violence turn you off. This is deftly written without a lot of actual descriptions of violence. Read more
Published on Nov 6 2003 by Alicia Walker
4.0 out of 5 stars Another page-turner by Anita Shreve
Anita Shreve is my all-time favorite author. Her characters literally come alive. I feel as if I know them, as if I am one of them. Read more
Published on Sep 4 2003
5.0 out of 5 stars Any violence is disturbing to a caring person but...
this story by Anita Shreve grabs you and holds to the very last page and will stay with you forever. Read more
Published on July 27 2003 by Joymarie
4.0 out of 5 stars A disturbing look at domestic violence
Anita Shreve is a fine author, and she again shows her talent in this early novel. Strange Fits of Passion is a well written page turner that delves into the terrifying realm of... Read more
Published on May 21 2003 by J. Fercho
5.0 out of 5 stars Captivating story that lets the readers think for themselves
I've read a few of Shreve's books and find her to be an up and down writer. Strange Fits of Passion is definitely an "up". Read more
Published on Mar 29 2003 by Erin
5.0 out of 5 stars When "passion" crosses over the line
This is a thriller of a story that has all the ingredients to qualify as an electric "page turner".

The setting of a small coastal town in Maine is eloquently depicted by the... Read more

Published on Nov 6 2002 by Janice M. Hansen
5.0 out of 5 stars When "passion" crosses over the line
This is a thriller of a story that has all the ingredients to qualify as an electric "page turner".

The setting of a small coastal town in Maine is eloquently depicted by the... Read more

Published on Nov 6 2002 by Janice M. Hansen
5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Read!
I took this book to read on vacation. Once I started it, I couldn't put it down, and ended up without anything to read the last couple of days! Read more
Published on Oct 5 2002
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