When I was in eighth grade my sister helped kill another girl.
For the Oliviera family - mum Carol, daughters Angel and Marie - autumn 2009 in the once-prosperous beach town of Ashaway, Rhode Island is the worst of times. Money is tight, Carol can't stay away from unsuitable men, Angel's world is shattered when she learns her long-time boyfriend Myles has been cheating on her with classmate Birdy, and Marie is left to fend for herself. As Angel and Birdy, both consumed by the intensity of their feelings for Myles, careen towards a collision both tragic and inevitable, the loyalties of Carol and Marie will be tested in ways they could never have foreseen.
Stewart O'Nan's expert hand has crafted a crushing and propulsive novel about sisters, mothers and daughters, and the desperate ecstasies of love and the terrible things we do for it. Both swoony and haunting, Ocean State is a masterful work by one of the great storytellers of everyday American life.
When I was in eighth grade my sister helped kill another girl.
From the striking opening line of Ocean State, the reader is thrust into the world of the murderer, Angel, and her family, and the victim, Birdy, as they plummet towards a conclusion both tragic and inevitable. Overarching it all is the testimony of Angel's younger sister Marie, who reflects back on the doomed autumn of 2009 with all the wisdom of hindsight.
At its heart, the murder is a crime of passion - Angel and Birdy love the same teenage boy, frantically and single mindedly, and are compelled by the intensity of their feelings to extremes neither could have anticipated. O'Nan's expert hand paints a fully realized portrait of these women, but also weaves a compelling story of working-class life in Rhode Island, animating the banality of poverty.
Propulsive, moving and deeply rendered, Ocean State is a masterful novel by one of the great storytellers of hard-scrabble America.
