Manhattan Beach, by Jennifer Egan

Although I found Manhattan Beach to be a page-turner, I am a little puzzled by the rapturous reviews it received.  It is an enjoyable, well-researched novel set primarily during the Depression and WWII.  During the war years, the main character, Anna Kerrigan, works in the Brooklyn Naval Yard to support her abandoned mother and severely disabled younger sister.  Her father, with whom she shared a close bond, disappeared five or so years ago.  He worked as a bagman for the union and later for a wealthy and somewhat shady character, Dexter Styles.  Anna met Dexter when she is a young girl on a visit her father makes to his luxurious home.  At the Naval Yard, Anna manages to pass the physical exam to become the first woman diver, working in a 200-pound “dress” attached to an air hose.  These divers do the dangerous work of repairing damaged ships underwater.  Now a young woman, her path crosses again with Dexter, who doesn’t remember her and to whom she gives a false last name.  Will she be able to find out from Dexter what really happened to her father?  448 pp.