Anna's care for her disabled sister and her desire to appear strong and capable to her father drives the first few chapters, but it is over all too soon. The first section is the strongest, introducing us to the spirited young Anna and her father, Eddie, who is about to break into the mob business in depression-era America. Is it a novel about a young woman navigating a male-dominated world and work force for the first time? Is it a gangster/mob story? Do we care either way? Personally, I didn't. This is a messy book, full of plot points that seem unnecessary and deliberately convoluted. Manhattan Beach feels like several stories in one, all struggling to come together, all lacking cohesion, none of them emotionally engaging.

is this really the same author who wrote A Visit from the Goon Squad? Um, definitely not what I was expecting from Egan at all. Manhattan Beach is a deft, dazzling, propulsive exploration of a transformative moment in the lives and identities of women and men, of America and the world.ġ 1/2 stars. With the atmosphere of a noir thriller, Egan’s first historical novel follows Anna and Styles into a world populated by gangsters, sailors, divers, bankers, and union men. One evening at a nightclub, she meets Dexter Styles again, and begins to understand the complexity of her father’s life, the reasons he might have vanished. She becomes the first female diver, the most dangerous and exclusive of occupations, repairing the ships that will help America win the war. Anna works at the Brooklyn Naval Yard, where women are allowed to hold jobs that once belonged to men, now soldiers abroad. ‎Years later, her father has disappeared and the country is at war.

She is mesmerized by the sea beyond the house and by some charged mystery between the two men. Anna Kerrigan, nearly twelve years old, accompanies her father to visit Dexter Styles, a man who, she gleans, is crucial to the survival of her father and her family.

Manhattan beach book summary