Riding a train south many years later, he unwinds his memories of the years that followed and struggles to understand the mystery his life became on that night. This is no ordinary tale of obsession. All He Ever Wanted is a story about different kinds of love, different ideas of what love is, and how lives can be strained to breaking over those differences. It is a powerful exploration of the music and silences of family life, the unhinging forces of desire, the wrenching power of secrets unrevealed, and the bewildering territories of betrayal and loss. Written with the maturity, beauty, intelligence, and grace that are Anita Shreve’s hallmarks, All He Ever Wanted is a story that powerfully conjures another time and place, peopled by unforgettable characters as real as the emotions that bring them together.
Anita Shreve returns to New England for another look into the lives of men and women in the early twentieth century. Nicholas Van Tassel is writing his memoir of a life centered around Etna Bliss, a woman whose love remained elusive even after their marriage many years earlier. Dennis Boutsikaris is masterful as the voice of Professor Van Tassel, portraying the character as he is: insecure, arrogant, and blindly devoted all at once. Like the heroine in Shreve's Fortune's Rocks, Etna is a woman oppressed by the times in which she lives; these restrictions inevitably lead to conflict and bewilderment. Shreve writes with masterful description and is capable of taking the listener back in time. L.B.F. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine
Digital Rights Information
OverDrive WMA Audiobook
Burn to CD:
Not permitted
Transfer to device:
Permitted (3 times)
Transfer to Apple® device:
Permitted
Public performance:
Not permitted
File-sharing:
Not permitted
Peer-to-peer usage:
Not permitted
All copies of this title, including those transferred to portable devices and other media, must be deleted/destroyed at the end of the lending period.