Jennifer Egan’s 2011 novel, on her Pulitzer. Experimental in form, the book had thirteen chapters from different points of view and different periods of time. It took her a while to come up with her next book, Manhattan Beach, and it was worth the wait. It is a meticulously researched, sprawling historical-cum-crime novel, set during the Depression and World War II.

Anna Kerrigan and Dexter Styles do not belong to the same world, but their paths cross, first when as an eleven-year-old, she accompanies her father Eddie to visit Styles at his house in Manhattan Beach. She plays with the host’s kids, charms Styles with her innocent honesty and almost forgets that strange meeting. What she does not know the is that Styles is a gangster, and that Eddie who has fallen on bad times, which force him to work at low wages for a corrupt union official, has approached the mob boss for a job. He needs money to buy a wheelchair for his severely disabled younger daughter, Lydia. Anna’s mother used to be dancer, but now stays home to care for Lydia and does some sewing for money. Lydia is lovingly cared for by her mother and sister, but Eddie is always uncomfortable around her. One day, he disappears and leaves the family to cope by themselves. Anna is heartbroken, but after days of grieving, stops waiting for him

_{source:Wall Street Journal}
Years later, when Anna is nineteen, she works as the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The War has taken away all the young men, and women are doing what was always considered men’s work. But Anna is not satisfied inspecting ship’s parts like an automaton; she fights discrimination and ridicule to be allowed to be a diver. At the yard, divers wore very heavy outfits and went underwater to repair ships. Nobody believes that a woman could move in a 200-pound costume, leave aside dive in it, but Anna shames the men into respecting her determination.

She run into Dexter Styles, who is more powerful than ever, and single-mindedly pursues him to find out what happened to her father.

The story elaborates on Anna’s life, as well as Styles’s complicated marriage and relationship with his wife’s family, particularly his father-in-law. Egan gradually reveals events from the past that have an impact on the present, and brief encounters in the present that change lives forever. 

_{source:SFGate} 
There are is a large chunk in the book, set on a ship that is a dull read, but whenever the focus in on Anna, the story sparkles. Egan brings the thrill of diving alive—for Anna is not just a challenge to prove herself in a man’s world, but an almost spiritual path to fill the void in her life. Anna is such a remarkable young woman that the soap opera-ish fate Egan charts for her in the end comes a disappointment. Still, there are passages of exquisite prose, that make Manhattan Beach worth a visit, and behind it all, there is also a mystery to be solved. The sea is like a character, acting as a catalyst for major turning points in the lives of the character, as well as providing a turbulent backdrop.Manhattan Beach