Blue Water [Kindle Edition]

A. Manette Ansay (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Vinegar Hill author Ansay's latest, a probing character study, Meg Van Dorn and her husband, Rex, struggle with the loss of six-year-old son, Evan, in a crash with Cindy Ann Kreisler—Meg's best friend from high school and an alcoholic, who was drunk at the wheel. The two file a civil suit that would financially ruin the well-off Cindy Ann, but Meg has a change of heart, given the impending marriage of Meg's older brother to Cindy Ann's sister; it's more a contrived plot device than a genuine narrative event, but it does force Meg to constantly shift her perspective on the tragedy, especially as Ansay offers a sympathetic sketch of Cindy Ann and her troubled past. Most of Meg's emotional cycling takes place on the Atlantic coast, where she and Rex have gone sailing as a coping strategy and have fallen in with various strands of lower-end sailing culture: the book's best energy is spent in places like the Island Girls bar, to which Meg eventfully repairs one night without Rex. The resolution of Meg and Rex's marital issues seems glaringly underwritten in the final chapters, but on the whole, this is a solid and revelatory novel on themes of grief and loss. (On sale Apr. 25)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

As revealed in her memoir, Limbo (2001), Oprah author Ansay is no stranger to inexplicable suffering, and her understanding of pain and stoicism shapes her finely crafted books. Her fifth novel is a perfectly pitched, impossible--to-set-down tale of the consequences of the death of a child. Megan loses her "miracle" son in a car accident caused by a woman she was friends with back in high school, Cindy Ann, now a divorced mother with a drinking problem. Demoralized by the lawsuits they've brought against Cindy Ann and unable to resume their old lives, Megan and her husband set off on a sailboat for ports unknown. Ansay also avoids the predictable and heads into the mythic with dramatic revelations of the wildness of the ocean and the human psyche as she portrays a sisterhood of women at sea nursing secret sorrows, and charts a cathartic reconciliation as two grieving families try to regain their spiritual bearings. Ansay's story of loss becomes a saga of transformation as rage, guilt, and bottomless anguish are converted into kindness, compassion, and forgiveness. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 241 KB
• Publisher: HarperCollins e-books; 1st edition (October 6, 2009)
• Sold by: HarperCollins Publishers
• Language: English
• ASIN: B000GCFWZ0
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #164,827 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Realistic portrayal of the complexities of grief, April 18, 2006

By 

Beth Cholette "doctor_beth" (Upstate NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blue Water: A Novel (Paperback)

Every parent's worst nightmare is to lose their child, and for Meg Van Dorn and her husband, Rex, this nightmare comes to life when their young son--a miracle, late-in-life baby and their only child--is killed by a drunk driver. But the situation is further complicated by the fact that the driver, Cindy Ann, grew up with Meg, and at one point in time, she and Meg had been close friends. Although Meg and Cindy Ann had drifted apart, their paths crossed again when Cindy Ann's sister began dating Meg's brother, and then yet again when Cindy Ann, driving her three daughters to school, hit the car driven by Meg, with her son Evan in the back seat.

In order to escape the constant reminder that Cindy Ann and her children lived on while Evan was dead, Meg and Rex decide to rent their house and fulfill Rex's life-long dream of sailing wherever the wind should take them. Leaving the baggage of their previous life behind, they rejoice in the freedom of their new world--for a time. But with the one-year anniversary of Evan's death comes changes, including the siren call of the past which refuses to be silenced.

I enjoyed this book very much. Ansay paints an accurate portrait of grief and loss, skillfully depicting the complexities involved. She casts doubt upon the common assumption that drunk drivers are always the "bad" guys (or always guys, for that matter), showing that the effects of tragedy are wide-spread and suggesting that forgiveness might be more important than justice. The novel's conclusion, which might be seen as unconventional, realistically follows from the events of the plot. Blue Water showcases the intricacies of life, love, and death, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it; I also plan to seek out other works by this author.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "There will never be closure.", April 21, 2006

By 

Kathy K (Northeast, PA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Blue Water: A Novel (Paperback)

Losing your only child in a drunk driving accident is devastating enough, but when the inebriated driver behind the wheel turns out to be an old high school friend, an unthinkable volcano of emotions erupts. That's the scenario Megan Van Dorn and her husband Rex are facing when they decide to leave their lives behind and find solace on the deep blue ocean. Alone and adrift, Meg and Rex soon find that while you might be able to run from your circumstances, you can never hide from the haunting memories. On their journey, the Van Dorns encounter other sea-drifters, just like them, who are trying to escape their own demons, and through these individuals they discover that there are never easy answers. In Blue Water, Ansay asks the burning question: "How can one live in a world like this, and then keep on living, after it happens?" The novel brings to the light the varying ways in which we grieve and move on with our lives following an unspeakable tragedy. As someone who has lost a loved one to a drunk driver, I can attest that it does so quite effectively.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best, May 31, 2006

By 

Gaie Mitchell (Conway, NH United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blue Water: A Novel (Hardcover)

A story of loss and the devastation it reaps is poignantly and beautifully written. Having lost my son five years ago and been given many books to comfort and soothe, this one is authentic and really nailed what it is like better than most. The book is honest and redemptive. I highly recommend it!