I was so excited by this woman that I ended up writing an essay about the experience of reading her letters, and that she had passed away by then. The Week's Best Stories From NPR Books Jennifer Egan Does Avant-Garde Fiction - Old School I was thrilled to have the experience of being in it, and yet I couldn't have wanted it off any more. There was a tremendous amount of pressure right at the top of my shoulders. And for a very long time, through the Vietnam War, that was the costume that was worn for diving.Īnd so I had a chance to put this on. The Mark V is the iconic diving suit with the cylindrical metal helmet, the big bulky profile, the metal shoes. There's a very strong association of veteran Army divers, and one of the things that they offer to their members is the chance to wear the old Mark V diving suit. On learning first-hand how physically demanding deep-sea diving was at the time There were certain exceptions, but she ultimately had a sad feeling about her diving career in that she felt that she would have liked to continue with it but that it was uncomfortable because she was a woman. Men did not want her there and they made that very clear. I mean, diving is a very physical undertaking, and so she was very articulate about the challenges of doing that as a woman, and especially the prejudice that she encountered. She was extremely helpful to me in understanding the difficulty of being a female diver.

On consulting with Andrea Motley Crabtree, the first female U.S. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. while also making it credible that she actually becomes a diver? And in a way, what came to my rescue was the fact that it was wartime and all kinds of things were happening then that would not happen at a normal time.'Ĭlose overlay Buy Featured Book Title Manhattan Beach Author Jennifer Egan

She says, 'One of the big technical challenges of my storytelling was: How can I do justice to what I know would've been a very, very poisonous atmosphere. The daughter, Anna, becomes the first woman to work as a deep-sea diver at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, which presented a particular kind of challenge for Egan: In reality, there were no women divers at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. It follows a father, his daughter and a gangster whose lives intersect in New York around World War II. Her new novel, Manhattan Beach, is the result of that research. Years before that book came out, Egan had begun researching the 1930s and '40s in New York City. In 2011, Jennifer Egan won the Pulitzer Prize for her novel, A Visit From The Goon Squad. Jennifer Egan's new book follows a woman who works the Brooklyn Navy Yard during World War II. Roosevelt sails down the East River after leaving the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1945.

Jennifer egan manhattan beach summary