All He Ever Wanted

by Anita Shreve

Hardcover, 2003

Genres

General Fiction

All Topics

Historical Fiction

Fiction

Collection

Diamond Building Library

Publication

Little, Brown&Company (2003), Edition: Large Print, 502 pages

Description

Fiction. Literature. HTML:"A marriage is always two intersecting stories." This realization comes perhaps too late to the husband of Etna Bliss-a man whose obsession with his young wife begins at the moment of their first meeting, as he helps Etna and her companions escape from a fire in a hotel restaurant, and culminates in a marriage doomed by secrets and betrayal. Written with the intelligence and grace that are the hallmarks of Anita Shreve's bestselling novels, this gripping tale of desire, jealousy, and loss is peopled by unforgettable characters as real as the emotions that bring them together..

User reviews

LibraryThing member bnbookgirl

Not one of her better books. Would not suggest to others.

21 more

LibraryThing member oldstick

I usually enjoy Anita Shreve's books but this was unusual. I forced myself to finish it. I liked the premise, and felt in the period but it left me feeling less than comfortable, as if I didn't really believe in the characters.

I'm going to try to read all her books so I can get a better idea of the

variety of her writing.

oldstick

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LibraryThing member sharlene_w

Interesting book written by a woman but from the point of view of the main male character. Decidedly flawed, devious and dark, Nicholas Van Tassel meets a woman by chance and then sets out to "have" her for his wife. Off to a less than spectacular start, their marriage suffers from the lack of

"partnership" as the love between them is not mutual. In fact, it often seems that Van Tassle's real true love is himself. I liked the unusual aspect that the person's mind you are inside through the course of this book is the one who is dysfunctional and thoroughly selfish. I did feel the book started out a bit slow and had a few stretches in the middle that I seemed to be plodding through, but overall an entertaining few hours spent.

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LibraryThing member Greatrakes

I doomed love affair between Nicholas Van Tassel and Etna Bliss, he older and obsessed, she still secretly in love with another. Sounds like Mills and Boon, but actually a really well written dissection of a marriage. Nicholas, who narrates the story during a Long train journey through the states

to a sisters funeral, turns out to be a complex character and we see him warts and all.

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LibraryThing member hammockqueen

usually I like shreve but this book was oft-putting. I just couldn't get into the characters.

LibraryThing member bearette24

I had mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, it was a gripping look at obsession. On the other hand, it was a lot of time to spend with a really unlikable narrator. Still, I have to give it four stars for Shreve's magnificent control of the language and ability to generate suspense.

LibraryThing member Matke

This is one of my favorite books by Shreve. For a while I read her work compulsively, whether or not I liked the plotlines or outcomes. Here the writing is reminiscent of Edith Wharton, the ending is not a deus ex machina concoction, and her character development is excellent. Of all the modern

authors who could be considered to write chicklit, Shreve produces the best writing. Her books are a great way to spend a couple of winter evenings.

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LibraryThing member readingrat

I found this diary of a doomed marriage set in the early 1900's between a man, who feels that his will should be enough to make something so, and a woman, who enters the marriage fully intending to play the role of the martyr, to be a thoroughly compelling tale.

LibraryThing member nittnut

This is a highly biased review. I took an instant and violent dislike to the narrator. I'm pretty sure the author wanted me to hate the narrator...

The narrator is telling the story of how he fell in love with a woman, pursued her, married her, and became disillusioned on their wedding night. He's a

pedantic, arrogant, prejudiced, boring jerk. He makes excuses for his behavior throughout the book, but I believe that the author wants the reader to see how weak his excuses are. He is willing to use any means to get what he wants, even involving his children in his manipulations of his wife and other relationships.

The most interesting question that is put forward in the story is whether the wife has the right to a private, inviolate space in her home. Much as the husband, who has a study or a sacred room established in the home where he goes to read the newspaper and smoke. Obviously, the narrator (the husband) does not believe that the wife has a right to any time or space of her own, and that along with a few other character flaws ultimately destroys their already weak marriage.

I'm just angry about this book, and I need to go read Little Women or something nice.

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LibraryThing member debnance

All He Ever Wanted places a man outside a burning hotel just in time for him to catch a glimpse of a striking woman who will linger in his mind for the rest of his life. Women's freedom...the nature of love and obsession...the chess-like moves of men in their search for power and love... all of

these are compelling aspects of this book. Recommended.

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LibraryThing member cindyloumn

Very disappointing. Boring. The one who told the story, very boorish, and bad man. Didn't really redeem himself at the end, and would like to have heard more of her story!
7/15/03

LibraryThing member debavp

Imagine a Harlequin written from the man scorned perspective, a pompous, pedantic man scorned at that. Still this was a surprisingly interesting read that brought some interesting questions about marital rights to light, and from the narrator's point of view those questions that were unasked by

both parties destroyed everything in their wake.

I think Shreve did not truly do Etna justice because there needed to be more revealed with regards to Samuel. She still may have been a bottom line cold-hearted bitch, but at least she would have had a tangible basis for it. Now one can only guess what Samuel did or did not do those many years ago that set the whole mess in motion.

The twenty year estrangement should have been given a bit more coverage instead of just being glossed over, but she still managed to weave a very intense story that covered more than three decades into barely a few hundred pages.

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LibraryThing member amandacb

This novel just made me...sad. I could not relate to the male protagonist after he snagged his love interest, as he seemed to morph into a different person. Even his obsession with this lady was a bit disconcerting and unbelievable. It's worth a read just for the oddness alone.

LibraryThing member miyurose

This is a bit of a strange tale. It’s the story of a man and the woman he wants to, and eventually does, make his wife, but it’s more complicated than that. We meet Nicholas in his later years, and we quickly learn that his wife Etna is gone. He is feeling compelled to tell us the story of

their marriage, so we get the entire tale through his eyes. What we find out is that Nicholas is not a very likeable guy. He’s obsessive, over emotional, exceedingly stubborn, and often blinded to the truth of things. He is convinced that Etna is the woman for him, though she never shows him much in the way of real affection. Heck, she runs away when he asks her to marry him! Yet, she must be his, so he makes it be.

This book sparked several interesting discussions in my book club, ranging from the biological urges involved in attraction and obsession to gender roles to gender stereotypes. And I had to leave early, so who knows what they talked about after I left!

The beginning of the book is pretty slow, so I’m not entirely sure I would have finished it if I wasn’t reading it for my book club. Thankfully, it does pick up after a time. Overall, All He Ever Wanted is a disturbing story, and Nicholas is a creepy guy. Even worse, he still doesn’t realize how wrong he is in the end.

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LibraryThing member CatieN

This is a story of obsession told from the viewpoint of the man who is obsessed. Set in the early 1900s, the times and the complete lack of rights for women play an important role in this book. Nicholas Van Tassel, after escaping from a hotel fire, happens to catch a glimpse of Etna Bliss. She is

not particularly beautiful, but there is something that draws Nicholas to her, and the obsession begins. The attraction is not there for Etna, but she marries Nicholas to gain some semblance of freedom in her life. The couple is content for years until a series of events conspire to end that contentment, and Nicholas's obsession rears its ugly head. Not always a pleasant read but compelling and very well written.

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LibraryThing member DivineMissW

This is an excellent book. It is all about love and what someone will do for it and without it. Human nature at its worst.

LibraryThing member t1bnotown

This one was a harder read than Shreve's "Rescue" (the other book of hers I've read), because we're reading from an unsympathetic narrator. I hate when we're not supposed to sympathize with the main character- I spend the book imagining, hoping, wanting them to be better than they are. If I heard

this story from the outside, I would be empathizing with the girl. As it was, I just so wanted them to be happy, which the narrator's actions themselves prevent. It was just so depressing!

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LibraryThing member elizabethraye

Worth the time time read. Haunting.

LibraryThing member moonshineandrosefire

Etna Bliss has just moved to the New Hampshire town where her uncle is a college professor. In one single moment, her life is totally transformed: she is dining in a hotel downtown when a fire forces her outside into the snowy streets. Amid the smoke and chaos of that night she is glimpsed,

standing under a street lamp, by a man who had been dining in the same room - a man who is so overwhelmed by the sight of her that he immediately rebuilds his life around a single goal: to marry Etna Bliss.

Nicholas Van Tassel is a proud and orderly man, ill equipped to deal with the ferocity of his love for Etna Bliss. But he is determined to have her, no matter what the cost. Riding a train south many years later, Nicholas reflects on the night of his first meeting with Etna, the drama that followed and struggles to comprehend the mystery his life became on that night.

I have to say that I really enjoyed this book and didn't want it to end. There were times during my reading that I almost felt sorry for Nicholas Van Tassel, stalker-type tendencies and all. To my mind, he was so wrapped up in his 'love at first sight' mentality that he was completely blinded to how unhappy Etna truly was in her life with him. I give this book an A+! and look forward to reading my next Anita Shreve book.

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LibraryThing member bettyandboo

Audiobooks depend on a good narrator, and in this case, Dennis Boutsikaris is excellent. If snobby has a sound, it is Boutsikaris as Nicholas Van Tassel. He and Shreve capture very well the ivory towers (real and assumed) that make up academia and the folks inhabiting them.

As the Amazon description

states, this is a novel set in the early 1900s; some may say that the time period is an explanation for Nicholas' behavior towards his wife. I saw this as a commentary on the subtle side of domestic abuse, which doesn't always need to manifest itself in a physical way. Nicholas' controlling tactics are ones characteristic of someone who is emotionally abusive, tendencies fueled by Nicholas' inherent jealously in terms of his colleagues and his wife's past. The lengths he goes to in order to gain all he ever wanted becomes the climax of the novel, and the ultimate question for Nicholas as he reflects on his life (and tells the story in flashback as he writes his memoirs on a train ride to his sister's funeral )is whether it was worth it.

I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. I also had the printed version, and I read the last several chapters as opposed to listening to them. Still, the audiobook kept me engaged and, perhaps more importantly, awake on my long afternoon commute home.

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LibraryThing member LibraryCin

3.5 stars

In 1900, when Nicholas van Tassel meets Etna Bliss, he falls head over heals in love. Though she admits to not loving him, she agrees to marry him, anyway. Nicholas is looking back on his life with Etna long after she is gone.

Nicholas is an academic and sounds very snooty. I'm not sure

if that was the way he is written and/or the way the narrator of the audio makes him sound. I suspect some of both. Either way, I enjoyed the book. The audio was able to hold my attention. It's not fast-paced, but I thought it was a good story.

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LibraryThing member techeditor

ALL HE EVER WANTED is a story of obsession. It is fiction written in the form of a memoir by a man who had been obsessed with his wife.

I felt sorry for this man, Nicholas, for about the first two thirds of the book. I forgave him his faults when (as I see from previous reviews I’ve read) others

did not because it was apparent to me that this memoir is Nicholas’s confession. He now sees his errors and is sorry. Later, though, I wondered: is Nicholas sorry because of what he had done or does he just feel sorry for himself.

Throughout ALL HE EVER WANTED, Nicholas gives hints of the outcome. Even so, this “memoir” is unpredictable. I didn’t know, while I read the last third of the book, why he was writing this. Was it meant to be a memoir, a confession, or a justification for bad acts?

I’m afraid that some other reviewers gave this book a low rating because they found the narrator/main character to be despicable. As I see it, Anita Shreve’s INTENTION was to, first, show what a sap Nicholas was and, later, horrify the reader with Nicholas’s actions. I don’t rate a book on the likability of its characters.

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