Manhattan Beach: a Novel / Jennifer Egan, 438 p.
In 1943 New York, Anna Kerrigan longs to leave her tedious job on the waterfront measuring shipbuilding parts with a micrometer for greater excitement. She finds it by becoming a diver, a highly trained position involving danger and lots of pushing of gender boundaries. Meanwhile, she is consumed with the search for her absent father, mysteriously disappeared during her teenage years. What was her father's connection to the charismatic nightclub owner Dexter Styles? Is he still alive? Can she trust Dexter?
A very solid and suspenseful piece of historical fiction, strenuously researched. I enjoyed the strong sense of place, and was hugely amused by the many underworld conversations which all amounted to the same thing: who's better, an Irish criminal or an Italian one? The most notable element of the plot was for me the nuanced treatment of Lydia, Anna's developmentally disabled sister. Nostalgia, suspense, and danger on the high seas add up to an engaging read.
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