Ocean State by Stewart O'Nan: A review

The setting of Ocean State is the small working-class town of Ashaway, Rhode Island. The narrator is named Marie and she takes us back to the autumn of 2009 when her older sister Angel killed a girl named Birdy.

This isn't a murder mystery then. There is no mystery because we know from the very first paragraph of the book what happened.

Angel and Birdy had been in love with the same teenage boy. Or at least with all the intense single-mindedness of teenagehood, they thought they were in love. Angel's solution to this "love" triangle was to knock off one of its sides.

Angel's and Marie's mom, Carol, struggles to raise her two girls and to encourage them to make lives for themselves somewhere away from Ashaway. She just wants to get them through high school and to help them as much as she can with college. Her dreams did not work out and that has left her with the feeling that their lives are a matter of chance and are basically beyond their control. Things are bound to go awry even if they do everything right.

And then of course things do go badly awry when her older daughter commits murder.

Stewart O'Nan tells his story through the alternating perspectives of these four women. Thus, we spend time with and get to know both the victim and the murderer. But we also get to know the murderer's mother and get some sense of where she came from. And we see it all through the eyes of the murderer's younger sister who loved, admired, and perhaps envied her beautiful older sister. None of these perspectives that we are privy to are without their biases.

It's interesting that the teenage boy who is at the center of all this drama, Myles, is largely ignored. And yet he was an accomplice with Angel in the murder of Birdy and he was arrested, convicted, and served time for it. Was he the manipulator or the manipulated in the commission of the crime? Was he thrilled with the knowledge that he was the object of desire for two girls? What happened to him after he served his time? O'Nan doesn't give us a clue. One gets the feeling that he wasn't very interested in Myles.

As for our narrator, Marie, her sister's crime disrupted her life as well and she seems to have been something of a Sad Sack as a child and teenager. How could she have been otherwise, given the circumstances? Her telling of the story is presented as a way to get all of that out of her system and perhaps move on with her life. As the most sympathetic character in the story, the reader can hope that that worked for her.

The book is short, less than 300 pages, and it makes for propulsive reading. I was hooked from the first paragraph and found the book hard to put down. O'Nan does a good job of detailing the life in this small town and the characters are all interesting and well-drawn. One could hardly ask more of a writer.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Poetry Sunday: Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver

How about we share another Mary Oliver poem? After all, you can never have too many of those. In this one, the poet seems to acknowledge that it is often hard to simply live in and enjoy the moment, perhaps because we are afraid it can't last. She urges us to give in to that moment and fully experience the joy. Although "much can never be redeemed, still, life has some possibility left." Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is no...

Poetry Sunday: Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney

My mother was a farm wife and a prodigious canner. She canned fruit and vegetables from the garden, even occasionally meat. But the best thing that she canned, in my opinion, was blackberry jam. Even as I type those words my mouth waters! Of course, before she could make that jam, somebody had to pick the blackberries. And that somebody was quite often named Dorothy. I think Seamus Heaney might have spent some time among the briars plucking those delicious black fruits as well, so he would have known that "Once off the bush the fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour." They don't keep; you have to get that jam made in a hurry! Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney Late August, given heavy rain and sun For a full week, the blackberries would ripen. At first, just one, a glossy purple clot Among others, red, green, hard as a knot. You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust ...

Poetry Sunday: Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman

You probably remember poet Amanda Gorman from her appearance at the inauguration of President Biden. She read her poem "The Hill We Climb" on that occasion. After the senseless slaughter in Uvalde this week, she was inspired to write another poem which was published in The New York Times. It seemed perfect for the occasion and so I stole it in order to feature it here, just in case you didn't get a chance to read it in the Times . Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman Everything hurts, Our hearts shadowed and strange, Minds made muddied and mute. We carry tragedy, terrifying and true. And yet none of it is new; We knew it as home, As horror, As heritage. Even our children Cannot be children, Cannot be. Everything hurts. It’s a hard time to be alive, And even harder to stay that way. We’re burdened to live out these days, While at the same time, blessed to outlive them. This alarm is how we know We must be altered — That we must differ or die, That we must triumph or try. ...

The Nature of Things

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