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Ocean State by Stewart O'Nan PDF DownloadOcean State by Stewart O'Nan KINDLEOcean State by Stewart O'Nan EBOOKOcean State by Stewart O'Nan EPUBOcean State by Stewart O'Nan Read onlineOcean State by Stewart O'Nan Full PDFBook Description: Set in a working-class town on the Rhode Island coast, O’Nan’s latest isa crushing, beautifully written, and profoundly compelling novel about sisters, mothers, anddaughters, 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 outwho did it. The story that unfolds from there with incredible momentum is thus one of the build-up toand 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 theyconverge in a climax both tragic and inevitable. Watching over it all is the retrospective testimony ofAngel’s younger sister Marie, who reflects on that doomed autumn of 2009 with all the wisdom ofhindsight.Angel and Birdy love the same teenage boy, frantically and single mindedly, and are compelled bythe intensity of their feelings to extremes neither could have anticipated. O’Nan’s expert hand paints afully realized portrait of these women, but also weaves a compelling and heartbreaking story ofworking-class life in Ashaway, Rhode Island. Propulsive, moving, and deeply rendered, OceanState is a masterful novel by one of our greatest storytellers.=====================================================================As a young writer, my naiveté about the publishing process nearly led me to financial ruin.Here’s how to avoid my mistakes.The first thing I tell debut authors is this: Assume nothing.If just one person had sat me down when I signed my first book contract and explained howpublishing works, how nothing is guaranteed, and how it often feels like playing RussianRoulette with words, I would have made much sounder financial and creative decisions. Iwould have set a foundation for a healthy life as an artist, laying the groundwork to thrive inuncertainty, to avoid desperation, panic, and bad decisions that would affect me for years tocome.How would my life be different if a fellow writer or someone in the industry had told me thatthe money I’d be receiving for my advances was absolutely no indication of what I couldmake on future book deals? What pain could I have avoided if they had advised me not tospend that money as though there would be more where that came from? I suspect I mayhave avoided a near nervous breakdown and not come so perilously close to financial ruinand creative burnout. But no one came forward.Let me back up. One of the most respected publishing houses in the world gave me$100,000 to write two books, one of which was already finished, and I was feeling… well,fancy.
As a kid who’d once stood in line with her mother to get food stamps, I could not believe thefigures in my bank account.Now, I want to acknowledge the inherent privilege that I hold as a white, educated,middleclass American. The problems I write about here are “struggles” many people wouldlove to have. They are good problems. Lucky, even. Growing up with a lack of financialliteracy didn’t mean there weren’t opportunities for me out there because of my positioningin the world. I had a leg up, even when it felt like I was in the trenches. Access equalsprivilege, and I understand that. I try hard to acknowledge my privilege and not be part ofthe problem, but didn’t do so explicitly in the original version of this article. Revising is myfavorite part of the writing process, and clearly a big part of my personal life. In fact I wish Icould go back and revise the past six years.I did play it smart, though: I didn’t quit my day job, and wrote a larger-than-usual check tomy student loan company when the advance came through. I didn’t know if this was aonetime thing or not.Each new book is like a weekend in Vegas: Maybe I’ll get lucky, maybe I won’t.But when I sold a trilogy to another publisher the following year for over $250,000 dollars(even now I cannot believe I wrote that sentence and, furthermore, that it’s true), I reallythought I had made it — forever, not just for a moment. Not for this one book deal. Forever.Otherwise, I reasoned, they would never have paid me such enormous sums. Thesepublishers must be investing in me for the long run. I was one of their own.It had happened twice in a row, these six-figures: Surely I had somehow become one of thechosen few. After years of research and struggle to break out in such a ferociouslycompetitive industry, I’d somehow come out ahead.But in that process, I’d somehow missed several critical aspects of the business, and thatwas on me (to some extent). Surely there were writers who had gotten the memo abouthow advances worked, and the ins and outs of publishing. But so much of an aspiringwriter’s life — and so many of the resources available to them — is focused on getting thatfirst book deal. What came after was beside the point.It would also be fair to say that the same energy and drive that had landed me a book dealin the first place guided much of my decision-making process in ways that weren’t alwayshelpful. I reasoned that if I’d achieved the impossible once, why not again? Someone has tobe on the bestseller list, win the National Book Award, have the big movie deal.Did anyone working with me — agency, publishing team — tell me that a sumptuousadvance was not something I should depend on or get used to? Or that, in fact, it’sextraordinarily common in the publishing industry for untested debut writers to be paid largesums that they may never see again? No. Did anyone in the publishing house take meunder their wing and explain to me how the company made decisions about future bookdeals? No. Did the publisher tap a more seasoned author on their list to mentor me, asmany major corporations encourage within their companies? No. Did the MFA in writingprogram that I was part of, in any way, arm me with the knowledge to protect and advocatefor myself in the publishing world? No.After that second advance came through, I stepped into my dream life: I quit my day job towrite full-time, moved to New York City, bought $15 cocktails, and learned (with astonishing
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