MANHATTAN BEACH by JENNIFER EGAN (2017)

I was surprised at this novel because it is nothing like Egan's A Visit From the Goon Squad, the winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 2010. That book is experimental in structure (even including a Power Point presentation), highly inventive, and satirical in tone. I thus expected something similar, but was disappointed to find that this is instead a realistic historical story, with a bit of mystery thrown in. It is interesting, though not a page-turner, and it is well executed for what it is, but what it is turns out to be less than intriguing as to plot or character.

The plot revolves around three different characters and their stories: Anna Kerrigan, whose father had disappeared years ago, works at the Brooklyn Naval Yard during World War II to support her mother and mentally and physically handicapped sister. She stubbornly fights to become the only female diver in a ship repair crew. As an adult, she once again meets Dexter Styles, whose home she had visited with her father when she was 12. Dexter is an underworld figure who has risen to surface respectability through marriage into a prestigious political family. And then there's the story of the absent father, who did what he felt he had to do to support and protect his family. Their stories intertwine, but somehow still seem disconnected. The mystery (what happened to the father?) is predictably solved. The characters seem flat, stock characters out of The Sopranos or suchlike.

I would not be so critical of this book if I had not expected so much. It is a competently executed conventional novel. It is moderately entertaining. However, it is not in any way outstanding.