In the world of literature, Jennifer Egan is a witch who manipulates cause and effect.
On the eve of World War II, the United States, still shrouded in the shadow of the Great Depression, was undergoing an undercurrent of change. Everyone was aware that changes were taking place, but no one was sure where the future would lead. Jennifer Egan sowed the seeds of "Manhattan Beach" in this turbulent period, using words to cultivate a tropical rainforest-like New York with its own ecosystem. Before order was established, New York was in an ambiguous period of alternation between old and new. Ethnic gangs, Italian mafia, trade union groups, various forces alternate between each other. Eddie, a package delivery man who got involved in the gang industry to support his disabled little daughter; Eddie's unusual daughter, Anna, who wants to become a female diver; Steel, the gang boss who serves the mysterious Mr. Q and lives in the dark side of history. Through the ups and downs of the lives of three protagonists in different situations, Jennifer shows a mysterious, real and bloody New York.
Jennifer’s brilliance lies in constructing the story without leaving any trace, laying out a large number of details, using the details as gears to cleverly lock everyone and everything together, and then manipulating cause and effect to promote the plot. Her description of the background and environment is so delicate that many of the details that are sprinkled into the background of the story are not noticeable on the first reading. So when you notice these details, you are surprised to find that these details have grown strong veins in the soil, tightly connecting the previous and later stories. The best example of this is Mr. Q, the mysterious force that is least discussed in the story but cannot be ignored. At the beginning of the story, Eddie takes Anna to visit the Styles family and returns home with fresh tomatoes that are rare in winter. Tomatoes imply that Stiles took Eddie to see Mr. Q and got Mr. Q's approval. Later in the article, Mr. Q carefully cared for the grapevines he brought from his hometown, entertained his subordinates at home, and asked his three sons to help him with various affairs. Details such as Mr. Q's identity - the godfather of the Sicilian Mafia. The Mafia attaches great importance to family members, and family ties are above all else. This also makes it logical for Mr. Q to condone Badger's arrogance and Badger's challenge to Styles in the future.
Every character in "Manhattan Beach" has its own thickness, fullness and richness. This not only requires the support of the story, but also requires Jennifer’s deep understanding of human nature. For example, Eddie’s complicated relationship with his best friend Danelyn. Eddie saved Danelyn's life when he was a teenager, but for Danelin, who has a strong self-esteem, a great favor is equal to a great hatred. Daneline has a good face and is the eldest brother who works in the dock. On the one hand, he is grateful to Eddie for saving his life. On the other hand, because of this unpaid kindness, he subconsciously feels that he is inferior to Eddie, so he is jealous. Eddie obtained retaliatory psychological compensation by deliberately embarrassing Eddie in some small things. But no matter what, the brothers still love each other and their friendship is inseparable. Although Eddie has a sense of justice that is incompatible with his situation, he also has his dark side. His youngest daughter Lydia was born with a disability. Eddie felt that Lydia had ruined his originally happy life and could not accept this fate. He even killed Lydia in his fantasy to seek relief. He took his eldest daughter Anna out as a way to escape from his family. Anna's abundant and healthy vitality allowed him to escape the reality of Lydia's disability and paralysis. After Anna entered adolescence, she had her own ideas and was no longer Eddie's solution. No matter how hard he seemed to try, Eddie still wanted to escape the family. So he almost self-destructively avenged his brother and abandoned this weak family.
Jennifer's writing style is calm yet soft, without exaggerating the suffering or making condescending comments on the characters' actions. Facing the huge waves of fate, compared with Eddie and Danelyn, the female characters in the story burst out with surging and shining vitality. Eddie regarded Lydia as bad luck, but his mother Agnes and Anna regarded Lydia as a treasure and felt that it was unworthy of her to be born like this. Despite the hardship of life, mother and daughter would dress Lydia neatly and beautifully, take advantage of their free time to dance, and save every bit of fabric and feather to dress their family decently. Eddie's flight, or the collective flight of men in American society during World War II, gave Agnes and Anna the opportunity to find themselves. Jennifer focuses on the shaping of people, rather than deliberately using the characters' gender traits to create highlights. After a large number of men joined the army, many positions reserved for men lacked labor. Female workers filled these vacancies but were still restricted by old concepts. Women work in every position, from ship parts to welding, but women are not allowed on board ships. What being a woman has brought to Anna has never been beauty or warmth, but many obstacles. Anna's pursuit of self is not to do "what men do", but to do what she wants to do. Her persistence and struggle gently resolved many obstacles step by step, from not being allowed to enter the water at the beginning to becoming "our Kerrigan" in the words of her superiors and colleagues. Mother Agnes rebuilt her life after losing everything and set out again in middle age to become a nurse. Even her aunt Brianna, who was considered "degenerate", never gave up and finally followed her heart and completed her identity transformation. No matter the situation, these women have a spirited high-spirited attitude and never give up on their vocals.
Destiny is ups and downs, sometimes windy, sometimes rainy, the sea and Anna go hand in hand. For Anna, the sea is adventure, exploration and elusiveness, warmth, beauty and expectation. Life is like a sea, and whatever the sea wind blows away will be brought back to her by the waves.