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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.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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
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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!,
By smallbutfeisty (New Jersey) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Strange Fits of Passion: A Novel (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.
4.0 out of 5 stars
A good read,
By
This review is from: Strange Fits of Passion: A Novel (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.
4.0 out of 5 stars
A "movie of the week" subject, told in a different style.,
By
This review is from: Strange Fits of Passion: A Novel (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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