Aquamarine [Paperback]

Carol Anshaw (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 13, 1992

Explores three hypothetical schemas that could have been the life of swimmer Jesse Austin if she had made different choices and had not been haunted by her loss in the Mexico City Olympics. 10,000 first printing.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Anshaw recounts the life of a one-time Olympic swimmer in three richly textured, cleverly interlinked novellas.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

When she was 17, Jesse Austin lost an Olympic gold medal in the 1968 100-meter women's freestyle swimming event by a hair to contender Marty Finch. Twenty-two years later, Jesse is still haunted by this loss and by her love affair with Marty. Her present life is shown in three possible versions: as a small-town wife; a New York City cosmopolitan woman involved in a lesbian relationship; and as a divorcee with two children. Anshaw's interesting format works well, providing excellent characterizations and three gripping plot lines. She employs wry humor and a deft style to explore the choices we make and why we make them, with cogent insights into sexuality and parenthood. The portraits of Jesse's independent-minded grandmother and her retarded brother, Willie, are very well done. Highly recommended.
- Harriet Gottfried, NYPL
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 197 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin; First Printing edition (February 13, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395585627
• ISBN-13: 978-0395585627
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,966,588 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Light and heavy at the same time, June 20, 2001

By 

David Myers "david" (Franklin, TN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Aquamarine (Paperback)

Anshaw writes with a believability that makes you think this is autobiographical. I haven't got any information on that, but I suspect she's just *THAT GOOD* as a writer. Structured as a set of three closely tied "what-if" novelettes which all use the same characters and same protagonist to examine a particular woman's midlife, Anshaw hits the nail on the head again and again. You will not read many novels concerning sexual ambiguity that are as good as this one. And yet the book is about so much else that I feel unfair in pigeonholing it to some kind of "bi-girl" subgenre.

Even though the writing feels light in many places, the effect slowly starts to pile up in heavier and heavier subtexts until it will have knocked you flat by the end, trust me.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Book took my breath away!, September 18, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Aquamarine (Paperback)

This is a book filled with remarkable, vividly drawn characters and places. Smartly interwoven stories told with such splendid honesty and powerful moments that the reader feels compelled to turn the page. If you miss Aquamarine you have missed a beautifully written story.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Technically competent, yet unsatisfying, March 3, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Aquamarine (Paperback)

I had heard many good things about this novel. Anshaw is a fine writer and many of the descriptions of situations and feelings are well-done. However, I just never became very interested in Jesse, the "heroine". Part of the theme of the book is that Jesse reached her peak at the 1968 Olympics and everything after is just epilog, but I still wish the book had helped me connect with her more. The three part structure is a clever concept and I especially enjoyed the parallels between Jesse's universes in the first and second sections. Still, I never felt that Jesse was a particularly interesting or likable character. That's a big problem in a book like this where so much of the book is focused on one character.