Ocean State
(Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read)
Set in a working-class town on the Rhode Island coast, O'Nan's latest is a crushing, beautifully written, and profoundly compelling novel about sisters, mothers, and daughters, and the terrible things love makes us do.
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. Propulsive, moving, and deeply rendered, Ocean State is a masterful novel by one of our greatest storytellers.
If you are having problem transferring a title to your device, please fill out this support form or visit the library so we can help you to use our eBooks and eAudio Books.
Stewart O'Nan. (2022). Ocean State. Grove Atlantic.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Stewart O'Nan. 2022. Ocean State. Grove Atlantic.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Stewart O'Nan, Ocean State. Grove Atlantic, 2022.
MLA Citation (style guide)Stewart O'Nan. Ocean State. Grove Atlantic, 2022.
| Library | Owned | Available |
|---|---|---|
| Shared Digital Collection | 3 | 3 |
OverDrive Product Record
- sortTitle
- Ocean State
- crossRefId
- 6455577
- images
- cover:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/6852-1/{3223ACA3-D1FB-43BF-9D8B-6DE3A4B59E5D}IMG100.JPG
- type: image/jpeg
- thumbnail:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/6852-1/{3223ACA3-D1FB-43BF-9D8B-6DE3A4B59E5D}IMG200.JPG
- type: image/jpeg
- cover150Wide:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/6852-1/{3223ACA3-D1FB-43BF-9D8B-6DE3A4B59E5D}IMG150.JPG
- type: image/jpeg
- cover300Wide:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/6852-1/{3223ACA3-D1FB-43BF-9D8B-6DE3A4B59E5D}IMG400.JPG
- type: image/jpeg
- cover:
- formats
- identifiers:
- type: ISBN
- value: 9780802159281
- name: Adobe EPUB eBook
- id: ebook-epub-adobe
- identifiers:
- identifiers:
- type: ASIN
- value: B09B18S11B
- name: Kindle Book
- id: ebook-kindle
- identifiers:
- identifiers:
- type: ISBN
- value: 9780802159281
- name: OverDrive Read
- id: ebook-overdrive
- identifiers:
- mediaType
- eBook
- primaryCreator
- role: Author
- name: Stewart O'Nan
- id
- 3223ACA3-D1FB-43BF-9D8B-6DE3A4B59E5D
- title
- Ocean State
- starRating
- 3.4
- dateAdded
- 2022-03-12T00:12:00Z
- contentDetails
- href: https://link.overdrive.com/?websiteID=141&titleID=6455577
- type: text/html
- account:
- name: Sacramento Public Library (CA)
- id: 1151
OverDrive MetaData
- isPublicDomain
- False
- images
- cover:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/6852-1/{3223ACA3-D1FB-43BF-9D8B-6DE3A4B59E5D}IMG100.JPG
- type: image/jpeg
- thumbnail:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/6852-1/{3223ACA3-D1FB-43BF-9D8B-6DE3A4B59E5D}IMG200.JPG
- type: image/jpeg
- cover150Wide:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/6852-1/{3223ACA3-D1FB-43BF-9D8B-6DE3A4B59E5D}IMG150.JPG
- type: image/jpeg
- cover300Wide:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/6852-1/{3223ACA3-D1FB-43BF-9D8B-6DE3A4B59E5D}IMG400.JPG
- type: image/jpeg
- cover:
- isPublicPerformanceAllowed
- False
- formats
- fileName: OceanState_9780802159281_6455577
- partCount: 0
- fileSize: 2182655
- identifiers:
- type: ISBN
- value: 9780802159281
- rights:
- type: Copying
- value: 0
- type: Printing
- value: 0
- type: Lending
- value: 0
- type: ReadAloud
- value: 0
- type: ExpirationRights
- value: 0
- name: Adobe EPUB eBook
- isReadAlong: False
- id: ebook-epub-adobe
- onSaleDate: 3/15/2022
- samples:
- source: From the book
- formatType: ebook-overdrive
- url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=3223aca3-d1fb-43bf-9d8b-6de3a4b59e5d&.epub-sample.overdrive.com
- fileName: OceanState_6455577
- partCount: 0
- fileSize: 0
- identifiers:
- type: ASIN
- value: B09B18S11B
- name: Kindle Book
- isReadAlong: False
- id: ebook-kindle
- onSaleDate: 3/15/2022
- samples:
- source: From the book
- formatType: ebook-overdrive
- url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=3223aca3-d1fb-43bf-9d8b-6de3a4b59e5d&.epub-sample.overdrive.com
- fileName: OceanState_9780802159281_6455577
- partCount: 0
- fileSize: 0
- identifiers:
- type: ISBN
- value: 9780802159281
- name: OverDrive Read
- isReadAlong: False
- id: ebook-overdrive
- onSaleDate: 3/15/2022
- samples:
- source: From the book
- formatType: ebook-overdrive
- url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=3223aca3-d1fb-43bf-9d8b-6de3a4b59e5d&.epub-sample.overdrive.com
- languages
- code: en
- name: English
- creators
- role: Author
- fileAs: O'Nan, Stewart
- name: Stewart O'Nan
- imprint
- Grove Press
- subjects
- value: Fiction
- value: Literature
- value: Suspense
- value: Thriller
- publishDate
- 2022-03-15T00:00:00-04:00
- publishDateText
- 03/15/2022
- mediaType
- eBook
- shortDescription
Set in a working-class town on the Rhode Island coast, O'Nan's latest is a crushing, beautifully written, and profoundly compelling novel about sisters, mothers, and daughters, and the terrible things love makes us do.
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...
- isOwnedByCollections
- True
- title
- Ocean State
- fullDescription
Set in a working-class town on the Rhode Island coast, O'Nan's latest is a crushing, beautifully written, and profoundly compelling novel about sisters, mothers, and daughters, and the terrible things love makes us do.
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. Propulsive, moving, and deeply rendered, Ocean State is a masterful novel by one of our greatest storytellers.
- sortTitle
- Ocean State
- crossRefId
- 6455577
- reviews
- premium: True
- source:
- content:
October 1, 2021
A young woman is murdered in 2009 working-class Rhode Island, and events unfold from the perspectives of characters: Angel, the murderer; Birdy, her victim; Carol, Angel's mother; and Marie, Angel's younger sister, who looks back on a tragedy spurred by Angel's and Birdy's love for the same teenage boy. From O'Nan, author of the nationally best-selling, Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist Last Night at the Lobster.
Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
- premium: True
- source:
- content:
January 1, 2022
Prolific, protean O'Nan examines a familiar subject, hard-pressed working-class life in America, through the lens of a Rhode Island murder. Ashaway, Rhode Island, in 2009 is a typical postindustrial town; the mill that employed most of its residents is closed, leaving people like Carol to scrabble for a living as a nurse's aide to support her two teenage daughters. One of them, Marie, opens the novel with these words: "When I was in eighth grade my sister helped kill another girl." This is not a whodunit but an exploration of why the murder happened; O'Nan tells the story with his characteristic compassion (and artistic boldness) by inhabiting the consciousnesses of four unhappy, conflicted females. Overweight, unpopular Marie is the fearful, helpless observer. Carol wants more for her girls than she has, "but exactly how that will happen she can't imagine"--so she focuses instead on finding a new boyfriend who's better than the parade of losers who have earned her eldest daughter Angel's contempt. Angel can't see any way out either; her post-graduation future promises little beyond continuing to work in her dead-end after-school job while privileged boyfriend Myles heads for college and "she'll lose him to some rich girl." Actually, Myles is already cheating on her with Birdy, the victim-to-be, whose lovestruck perspective is the fourth narrative strand. But she's no rich girl; Birdy and Angel are more alike than different, frustrated and obsessing about a boy who doesn't seem worth it. Seen only through others' eyes, Myles' role in the ensuing tragedy remains murky. The novel's main thrust is also unclear; Marie's closing monologue suggests themes of memory and identity that weren't particularly evident as the story progressed. However, the book is rich in social detail, including the teenagers' socially networked world, and warmed by O'Nan's customary tenderness for ordinary lives. Everyday People was the title of one of his first great novels, in 2001, and depicting everyday people with sensitive acuity remains one of his principal artistic achievements here. Not one of this gifted author's best, though it's finely rendered with poignant realism.COPYRIGHT(2022) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
- premium: True
- source:
- content:
January 1, 2022
The latest from O'Nan (Henry, Himself, 2019) begins with the shocking and tragic end of a teen love triangle. Angel's longtime boyfriend Myles cheats on her with classmate Birdy. When their relationship is revealed, the reconciled Angel and Myles kill Birdy. But rather than homing in on the murder, O'Nan focuses on four women at the center of the story, alternating between the contemporaneous perspectives of Angel, Birdy, Angel's mother Carol, and Angel's 13-year-old sister, Marie. In addition, the novel is framed by the reflections of Marie as an adult looking back on the murder's reverberations within their family and their working-class Rhode Island community. Like Carol, who is constantly starting over with new boyfriends with her children in tow, young Angel and Birdy are willing to go to extremes to be loved, but Marie has a harder time making sense of her sister's crime of passion and struggles to leave the past behind. O'Nan's detailed, sympathetic portrayal of his characters and their community will appeal to fans of Elizabeth Strout's My Name Is Lucy Barton (2016), Olive Kitteridge (2008), and Olive, Again (2019).COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
- premium: True
- source:
- content:
Starred review from January 17, 2022
There’s no mystery about what happens in this beautifully rendered and heartbreaking story from O’Nan (West of Sunset). In the opening pages, teenager Angel Oliviera murders another teen, Birdy Alves. O’Nan explores what led up to the killing and paints an intimate canvas of a small Rhode Island town in 2009. Women, teenage and adult, are the focal points and the narrators: Angel’s observant younger sister, Marie, sets the stage, and Birdy, Angel, and Angel’s mother, Carol, tell the story through a series of flashbacks and internal monologues. Birdy is dating Hector, but she’s in a clandestine relationship with Angel’s boyfriend. Angel frets about her mother’s desperate attempts to find love. Carol wants a better life for her daughters, but senses it’s “beyond her control” (the 2009 setting underscores the economic fragility). Social media serves as the ugly catalyst for the action that slowly, inexorably escalates. O’Nan evokes the feverish excitement of young love (“She only means to kiss him goodbye but they don’t know how to stop”) and the truly destructive force of jealousy. This isn’t a crime novel; it’s a Shakespearean tragedy told in spare, poetic, insightful prose. Agent: David Gernert, Gernert Co.
- premium: True
- source:
- content:
April 9, 2022
The latest by prolific novelist O'Nan (Emily, Alone) starts with a murder. From the first sentence, readers know who was murdered and by whom; the rest of the book builds up to the murder, tracing the lives, actions, and feelings of the murderer, 18-year-old Angel; her mother Carol; her victim, Birdie, also 18; and Angel's younger sister Marie, who observes the tragedy as it unfolds and then looks back on it years later. By then, everyone has patched together their torn-apart lives but none of them is ever the same. The novel is about a killing, but it's not violence or the catching of the killers--Angel and her boyfriend--that is its center. Rather, it's about blue-collar life in Rhode Island, and the slights and insecurities that come along with it. And here we are on familiar territory for the novelist, who's one of the premier chroniclers of the everyday lives, joys, and regrets of ordinary working-class people. VERDICT Readers who enjoy the fiction of Elizabeth Strout or Kent Haruf will love this book, which shows a big heart without a whiff of sentimentality.--David Keymer
Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
- popularity
- 738
- publisher
- Grove Atlantic
- links
- self:
- href: https://api.overdrive.com/v1/collections/v1L1BWwAAAA2I/products/3223aca3-d1fb-43bf-9d8b-6de3a4b59e5d/metadata
- type: application/vnd.overdrive.api+json
- self:
- id
- 3223aca3-d1fb-43bf-9d8b-6de3a4b59e5d
- starRating
- 3.4
- bisacCodes
- code: FIC030000
- description: Fiction / Thrillers / Suspense
- code: FIC043000
- description: Fiction / Coming of Age
- code: FIC045000
- description: Fiction / Family Life / General
