The Odd Sea (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Frederick Reiken
- First Published: 1998
- Type of Work: Novel
- Time of Work: The 1970’s and 1980’s
- Setting: Western Massachusetts
- Principal Characters: Philip Shumway, Ethan Shumway, Lawrence Shumway, Mrs. Shumway, Halley Shumway, Amy Shumway, Dana Shumway, Melissa Moody, Victoria Rhone
- Genres: Long fiction
- Subjects: Maturation or coming of age, Family or family life, Parents and children, Art or artists, Death or dying, Missing persons, Painting or painters, Arts or crafts
- Locales: Massachusetts
Frederick Reiken’s first novel is a carefully wrought, richly textured story about the different ways a family copes with the mysterious disappearance of sixteen-year-old Ethan Shumway, the older brother of the narrator, Philip. It is also a meditation on the role that art plays in reclaiming that which has been lost.
Ethan vanishes one day in May after he walks from the driveway of the family home on his way to play in a local pond. No trace of him is ever found, except for one battered sneaker discovered two years later.
Each member of this close-knit family copes with...
[The entire page is 2158 words long]
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