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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780380732883
ISBN number: 0380732882
Label: Harper Perennial
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 304
Printing Date: April 01, 2006
Publishing house: Harper Perennial
Release Date: April 11, 2006
Sale Popularity Level: 615830
Studio: Harper Perennial
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Product Description:
From New York Times bestselling author A. Manette Ansay comes an unforgettable story of two families united by tragedy -- and one woman's deeply emotional journey toward a choice she'd never thought possible.
On an ordinary morning in Fox Harbor, Wisconsin, Meg and Rex Van Dorn's lives are irrevocably altered when a drunk driver -- Meg's onetime best friend, Cindy Ann Kreisler -- slams into the Van Dorns' car, killing their six-year-old son, Evan. As Meg recovers from her own injuries, she and Rex are shocked when Cindy Ann receives a mere slap on the wrist. In their rage and grief, they buy a boat to sail around the world, hoping to put as much distance as possible between themselves and Cindy Ann. But when Meg returns to Fox Harbor for a family wedding, she's forced to face the complex ties that bind her to the woman who has destroyed her peace.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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This is a "less-than-wonderful" novel.
There is an awful lot of whining, but it isn't even COHERENT
whining. Many passages are written in an impressionistic, stream-of-consciousness, inner-dialogue style; annoyingly, and confusingly, WHOSE inner dialogue shifts and changes, with no notice or warning; you don't even know WHO is whining.
One place it rings false is in the 'nautical' department. The language the author uses, repeatedly, gives away the fact that she is not a sailor. No sailour would ever would ever refer to replacement shrouds as 'spinnaker poles', this is the nautical equivalent of mistaking an ant for elephant, they are just not in the same category. Perhaps she has indeed been on a boat--perhaps for an afternoon--but is impossible to believe she actually crewed on one, and lived on one, given these obvious nomenclature errors. Since the sailing voyage is a major part of the book's premise, its believability suffers tremendously.
Too many authors nowadays confuse whining with drama, self-pity for
depth, and political correctness for meaning. This novel makes all three of these mistakes, in abundance. I bought it at a steep discount; even at that price, it's no bargain.
Rated by buyers 
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This story is a tragedy, from beginning to end. The story goes back and forth between present conflict and past horrors.
And yet, unlike many stories which might cover the death of a child and its horrific reprecussions, this is not at all voyeuristic. Instead, it is a lesson.
Life is not fair. Into every life rain falls. And there are very few real villans in the world. Each character in this story, from the parents of the child to the killer of the child (and, seemingly, every person met along the journey of acceptance of the child's death), has a horrific story and either someone they need to forgive or a reason they need to be forgiven. At one point, without saying it, the reader realizes the author is telling us that we all are both - the forgiver and the forgiven. Shades of grey are everywhere, and unless you force yourself to acknowledge this, you may end up bitter, drinking in a bar of lost souls.
This book was lyrically written, poignant, and achingly sad. There is no triumph, there is no rainbow. But somehow, it is not hopeless. And for achieving this balance, I think the author deserves credit.
(*)>
Rated by buyers -
This was the very first of Ansay's books I have written, but won't be the last. The author's beautiful prose is surpassed only by her heartfelt understanding of her characters. "Forgiveness" over "Vengenance" is offered as an avenue for peace, but does not becone a panacea. Life's tragedies can be unbearable, and yet so real.
Rated by buyers -
As with her other books, including "Limbo" and "Read This and Tell Me What is Says," Mansay's prose in "Blue Water" is quiet, precise, full of gentle rhythms, and believable in every detail. I was convinced while reading that Mansay had to have personally experienced every single event in the book--including having her boat struck by lightning--so powerfully did she evoke every thought, every response of her characters. Mind you, I was a resisting reader; I was determined that I would not forgive Cindy Ann, even if Meg did; I was determined I would not see Cindy Ann's point of view even when the first-person narrative crossed the usual point-of-view boundaries and brought me into Cindy Ann's head, then the head of her daughter Amy. I refused to believe that the world could be at once so loving and so terribly destructive. And yet Mansay pulls everything off beautifully, quietly, weaving all the strands of grief and loss and shame and determination and anger and hope into a lyrical, balanced minuet. There is no redemption for any of the characters; there are only the choices they make, which seem at once painful and utterly real. I read this book in one sitting and finished it with tears in my eyes, so surprised and moved was I by where Meg's journey had finally brought me. You don't need to know sailing or small Midwestern towns to understand how setting has shaped Mansay's characters, nor do you need to have experienced devastating grief or shame to understand the emotions that drive them; the superior writing does that work for you. All you need to do is open the book and listen.
Rated by buyers -
Depictions of life at sea and in transient port communities provide a rich backdrop for the story of a sailing middle-aged couple after losing their young son in a car collision with a drunk driver. That driver just happens to be a friend from adolescence of the dead boy's mother, Megan, and the accident happens while each mother was taking her children to school. Megan narrates the novel. She and her husband Rex are possessed by their anger at the injustices of losing their son this way, and by the legal system's failure to punish the perpetrator.
Others have commented on the portrayal of grief in this novel. That was indeed well done, but what I liked even better was the portrayal of the grieving parents' efforts to cling to each other and their marriage, the ends they go to not to have to feel, the fragile, brittle bond that they are left with, and the ultimate futility of their efforts to escape their history.
I have admired Manette Ansay's writing for a long time. I found nothing in this book to disappoint. The characters and their predicaments are finely wrought. The prose is both crisp and lyrical. This is a book well worth reading twice -- once for the story -- and again for the craft.
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