Ocean State
Fiction
Grove Press
March 15, 2022
Advance reader copy
240
Free from publisher
In the first line of Ocean State, we learn that a high school student was murdered, and we find out who did it. The story that unfolds from there with incredible momentum is thus one of the build-up to and fall-out from the murder, told through the alternating perspectives of the four women at its heart. Angel, the murderer, Carol, her mother, and Birdy, the victim, all come alive on the page as they converge in a climax both tragic and inevitable. Watching over it all is the retrospective testimony of Angel's younger sister Marie, who reflects on that doomed autumn of 2009 with all the wisdom of hindsight. Angel and Birdy love the same teenage boy, frantically and single mindedly, and are compelled by the intensity of their feelings to extremes neither could have anticipated. O'Nan's expert hand paints a fully realized portrait of these women, but also weaves a compelling and heartbreaking story of working-class life in Ashaway, Rhode Island.
My review:
I admit to having doubts when I found out this book was about teens behaving badly (I think murder is just about as bad as it can get!). I usually don't get on well with that subject matter, but I've read from this author before so decided to trust in his writing process. I'm very glad I did because I ended up really liking this one, not so much for the teens behaviors (still appalling), but for the relationships and how they intertwined. This book has one of those opening lines that are brilliant at sucking you into the story and characters immediately:
When I was in eighth grade my sister helped kill another girl. She was in love, my mother said, like it was an excuse. She didn't know what she was doing. I had never been in love then, not really, so I didn't know what my mother meant, but I do now.
That was Marie, who tells her part of the story about her older sister Angel. While Marie's perspective is more in looking back on "the incident", the other characters, Angel, Carol (Marie and Angel's mother) and Birdy (the murdered girl) tell their stories in present time leading up to the crime. These characters are wonderfully crafted, and the relationships within each family's structure are key to the actions of all involved. Another topic woven delicately through the novel is the idea of class. Angel and her mother Carol are stuck in a working class environment they both are desperate to escape from. How much does that play into the tragedy that ensues is a question the reader must ponder. This is a quiet book in that nothing much happens (until the ultimate known climax), except we see the day to day life of these people.
A lovely story. The writing and characters clearly take center stage since we know from the beginning what is about to happen. It's the unraveling of layers of their lives that keeps the reader engaged.
