The Pilot's Wife

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Shreve, Anita	4-week checkout	Due 05-11-2024

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Character Study with Poetic Language submitted by Meginator on July 31, 2019, 9:57pm I’m somewhat jaded by overtly “literary” novels, but after enjoying this one I feel like I should be more willing to take a chance on them now and again. Anita Shreve hits on a nice balance of plot and poetic nuance, gently unspooling a compelling mystery as she probes into a bereaved wife’s complex and ever-shifting emotional journey. The language is often beautiful and the book has a few passages that stopped me dead in my tracks, whether for their beauty or their brilliant distillation of a vague phenomenon into words. Nor does this book revel in its cleverness; Shreve keeps things moving along at a pleasant, unhurried pace, and each development builds nicely on the others as everything comes together. Her handling of multiple timelines is graceful, too, and she knows just when and how to reveal information about the characters' pasts to illuminate the present without resorting to cheap gimmicks. The book isn't heavy on the action, but it is a wonderfully executed examination of grief and secrets that holds a few surprises.