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Title: All He Ever Wanted by Anita Shreve ISBN: 0-316-78226-2 Publisher: Little Brown & Company Pub. Date: 15 April, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.63 (59 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Gripping and Unforgettable
Comment: Anita Shreve simply does not write ordinary books. Even her lesser efforts tend to leave the reader gasping for air at the end--and "All He Ever Wanted," one of her best, in my opinion, is breathtaking in the same shocking way.
Written entirely from the point of view of a stodgy male college professor circa 1900, this is the story of a passion so intense, so unlike the writer himself, that it is scarcely believable, especially when related in the stilted flowery language of the day.
Nicholas Van Tassel, a rather ordinary pedantic with nothing particularly unusual about him, happens to be in a hotel restaurant when it catches fire. This single pivotal episode in his otherwise unremarkable life changes him forever--it is during the rescue effort that he encounters Miss Etna Bliss, and falls head over heels into a passion that borders on, indeed IS, an obsession.
Hampered by the extreme rules of etiquette governing proper men and women of the day, Van Tassel nevertheless pursues Miss Bliss, finally persuading her to marry him despite her the fact that, as she honestly tells him, she does not love him. Love will come, thinks Van Tassel, hardly able to believe his luck in winning his prize. And that hope, that fantasy, that overwhelming obsession of his entire being, eventually destroys the narrator, his wife, and his entire family.
Shreve stays in character completely and thoroughly, managing to evoke the failings of the man himself, the restrictions of the society in which he lives, and the hopelessness of his obsession without ever once betraying herself. It is safe to say that the author stays well in the background while letting Van Tassel tell his own tragic story.
I consider this book a minor masterpiece. Shreve is an acquired taste, I know--but truly innovative and absolutely original in every book she writes. "All He Ever Wanted" is no exception.
Rating: 1
Summary: Begged to borrow it--then returned it unread--tiresome book
Comment: The stilted language was unbearable. The pace was horrific. I am a big Shreve fan, but this was a disappointment. I read the first 50 or so pages, skimmed the end. On the bright side, I guess Shreve does a very convincing old man!
Rating: 2
Summary: this book was not what i was expecting
Comment: i expected bigger lies and bigger deciet but it just wasn't that. i mean the guy was wrong for not letter her have the house.
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Title: Strange Fits of Passion: A Novel by Anita Shreve ISBN: 015600710X Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 11 November, 1999 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Eden Close by Anita Shreve ISBN: 0156005891 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 1998 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Resistance by Anita Shreve ISBN: 0316789844 Publisher: Back Bay Books Pub. Date: 01 January, 1997 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Where or When : A Novel by Anita Shreve, Virginia Barber ISBN: 0156006529 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 13 May, 1999 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Sea Glass: A Novel by Anita Shreve ISBN: 0316089699 Publisher: Back Bay Books Pub. Date: 21 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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