Bread upon the Waters (Mass Market Paperback)

by Irwin Shaw (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
The basic story is as familiar as TV's The Millionaire, as old as fairy tales about granted wishes: what happens to a reasonably happy, just-getting-by family when a chance encounter opens the doors to all sorts of experience and opportunity? The family is that of Manhattan public-school teacher Allen Strand, 50, who couldn't afford to be a historian and can't afford a vacation but otherwise is fairly content - with lovely wife Leslie (a piano teacher), tart daughter Eleanor (an ambitious businesswoman), guitar-playing son Jimmy. . . and tennis-playing Caroline, who one evening saves rich, powerful Wall St. lawyer Russell Hazen from muggers and brings the injured brahmin home for bandages and dinner. From that night on, lonely Hazen (estranged from his wife and daughters, guilty over the O.D. death of his homosexual son) gratefully adopts the Strands: he gives them concert tickets, invites them to his Long Island seaside manse, arranges for Caroline to get a scholarship to an Arizona college, introduces Jimmy to a music-biz titan, helps Eleanor's boyfriend to realize his dream of running a small-town newspaper. But soon - after Allen has a serious heart-attack while swimming at Hazen's - the benevolence turns sour: a recuperation trip to France is ruined by a nightmarish visit from the abusive Mrs. Hazen; Eleanor suddenly marries, moves to Georgia, and quickly faces real danger; Caroline (now with a beautifying, Hazen-sponsored nose job) becomes a freshman homewrecker; Jimmy turns into a ruthless showbiz cliche; Leslie starts spending time away from Allen in France, developing her artistic talent. "The family was finished." And, in the book's weakest subplot, Hazen (himself now falling apart) gets Allen a low-key private school job in Connecticut, also arranging a scholarship there for Allen's Puerto Rican protege-an unconvincing genius-in-the-raw type who reads Gibbon but won't give up his violence. Throughout, then, the point is clear: "opportunity is a two-edged weapon," fragmenting a family, bringing secrets to the surface (Allen learns that his family has always protected him from the truth), testing moral character. Unfortunately, however, to make that point, Shaw has filled this novel - his most serious book in years - with inconsistent characterizations and soap-operatic turns (the climactic rundown of family mishaps - including Hazen's suicide - is unintentionally comic). And Strand, who ends up back where he started (but alone), is a fuzzy, if vaguely appealing, protagonist. Still, Shaw remains a genial, seductive storyteller (especially adept with money matters and comfy milieus) - so even if you never quite believe this goodhearted modern-day morality play, you'll probably keep reading right along. (Kirkus Reviews) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Dell (November 1, 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440108446
• ISBN-13: 978-0440108443
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #669,607 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Angsty, but with substance, February 6, 2008

By	Rebecca M (Somerville, MA USA) - See all my reviews

In the tradition of Agee's A Death in the Family, or Guest's Ordinary People, this is a book about a family's whose life changes drastically after their tennis-playing teenage daughter becomes an unlikely hero one evening in Central Park. Driven by this one catalyst, the events that play out for the Strand Family become like dominoes, each one building momentum as they fall against each other.

Shaw does a masterful job with the narrative rhythm, careful not to show his hand too soon. This might infuriate some readers with a lack of patience or a preference for plot-driven narrative. The plot picks up speed about two-thirds of the way into the book, and comes to a halt (but by no means a "grinding" one) only at the very end.

This is a portrait of a family and the lives that touch it (and vice-versa). It is beautifully lifelike it its messiness, but also in its portrayal of perseverance. Tragedy does not always beget tragedy, but in Shaw's world, good deeds are not always wholly good, either.

It is a book about the complexities of life. The characters are "everyman" characters in that Shaw keeps them at a distance, so we become attached more to their predicaments than to the characters themselves. While this is more instructive for the reader, it does steal something from the fictional experience, at least for me.

Overall, a very fine novel that captures the angst of everyday life with a certain refreshing objectivity.

7 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars one of the best, July 13, 2000

By	michael hp (New York) - See all my reviews

I really enjoyed this book. It was a great story about power and wealth and it was just great reading.

5 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, September 29, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Bread upon the Waters (Hardcover)

My first Irwin Shaw's novel. Am impressed and ready to begin his 'Rich Man, Poor Man' now....