Anita Shreve’s novel The Weight of Water, published in 1998, is a dual-narrative that intricately links a contemporary marriage in crisis with a notorious historical double murder.
In the present day, magazine photographer Jean Janes travels to the desolate Isles of Shoals off the coast of New Hampshire and Maine to shoot a photo essay on the 1873 Smuttynose Island ax murders. She brings along her five-year-old daughter, her husband Thomas (an award-winning poet struggling with alcoholism), Thomas’s brother Rich, and Rich’s girlfriend Adaline. Confined to a small sailboat, the group navigates complex interpersonal dynamics. Jean increasingly suspects an affair between Thomas and Adaline, which feeds into her own feelings of inadequacy, jealousy, and marital decay.
Interwoven with Jean’s story is the historical account of the 1873 tragedy. Through a recovered memoir written by Maren Hontvedt, the lone survivor of the attack, the novel recounts the brutal slaughter of Maren’s sister and sister-in-law. A man named Louis Wagner was eventually hanged for the crimes, though the historical record leaves room for doubt about whether a different individual committed the murders. Maren’s narrative delves into the harsh realities of a tight-knit, isolated fishing community, revealing how the claustrophobia of island life, unfulfilled desires, and lingering resentments ultimately paved the way for the catastrophic violence.
As Jean dives deeper into Maren’s writings, the themes of the two stories bleed together. Jean identifies with the intense isolation, frustration, and dark impulses of the 19th-century women. She discovers that the trauma and isolation of the island can drive ordinary individuals toward betrayal and violence. The parallels between Maren’s repressed jealousy and Jean’s mounting paranoia challenge Jean to confront her own complicity in the deterioration of her marriage.
The weight of the title serves as a multifaceted metaphor throughout the novel. It represents the oppressive burden of deep-seated secrets and unexpressed emotions, as well as the physical reality of the sea that isolates the characters and serves as a tool of both life and destruction. In both timeframes, the characters are surrounded by water that isolates them from the rest of society, trapping them within their own turbulent psyches and forcing them to face the consequences of their emotional neglect.
Ultimately, both Jean and Maren must grapple with the heavy emotional toll of their respective truths. Maren’s survival and subsequent choices carry a burden of guilt that she harbors for decades, while Jean must navigate the wreckage of her own relationship. Through this juxtaposition, Shreve illustrates how the passing of a century does not diminish the destructive power of unchecked human emotion. The Weight of Water stands as a poignant exploration of how jealousy, isolation, and suspicion can completely subvert human connections, leaving characters adrift in a sea of their own making.