Real Rating: 3.5* of five
I read this not realizing it was a sequel. That could be part of my lack of enthusiasm. The strongest reason I didn't fall all over myself to praise this novel, though, is right here:
<blockquote>I have learned one of the lessons of loneliness, one of its shocking side effects: when you are in a state of longing, desire goes on and on, like an ocean without a shore.
&ndash;and&ndash;
Here's something else about us torchbearers. We are possessive of the one we love and we are determined to maintain our hold on the idea of them. Our idea of them is really all we have. When you think about someone more or less constantly, you begin to believe—though you would never say so, not even to yourself—that they belong to you.</blockquote>
Beautiful sentences, aren't they? But what a world they paint. That's my issue...I don't want to spend much time in Kip's world because it grates on my nerve to be asked to invest in unrequired longing. It feels to me like the relationship he maintains with savvy, manipulative Thaddeus is a shield against intimacy. That isn't my own personal jam of a read.

I expect fans of Andrew Sean Greer and Peter Cameron will disagreee with me. Prioritize lovely language and fully limned characters over a story you're rooting for an exact outcome to end? This is your lucky review, here it is! I myownself just wanted it to end and wasn't invested enough to mind about how. To my saddened annoyance.

Ecco Press offers a trade paper edition for $15.99 or an ebook for $9.99. Either seems like a good buy for those intrigued.

A meditation more than a novel, this work takes the reader on a journey of two obsessions: unrequited love (the narrator’s) and money (Thaddeus, the friend he is in love with). While I enjoyed living in the narrator’s mind, the novel mostly conjures pity for its inhabitants and moves very slowly.

Wow, Second book I am clearing out of my NetGalley dashboard that did not download for me read from a year ago. I gave up trying to access the book. (No troubles recently.) Reviews have been 5 stars so definitely marking this to read when I have time. Darn it. This looks great too! People pranting not only the story was great but excellent writing too. Marking as a must read!

Picking up where his most recent novel, River Under the Road, left off, but writing squarely in the vein of Endless Love, his classic novel of passion and obsession, Scott Spencer gives us an intimate, immersive, and unsettling portrait of the devastation we will wreak in the name of love, and the bitterness of a friendship ravaged by fathomless yearning.

I liked this book...I felt like I was missing something in the beginning though. Maybe more of a backstory on Kip and Thaddeus? I was engaged in the storyline and the ending kind of left me saying - WHAT?? I need to know what happened after the letter!

All in all, it was a good read and I would recommend it.

The dynamic of Kip and Thaddeus is toxic and unhealthy. I understood the rationale behind the Kip's obsessive love but at a certain point I did not see the value in the dynamic for the plot. Romantic love? Maybe. Envy? Possibly. The relationship between these two men hinges on the fact that anyone is supposed to like Thaddeus. Attempts to make him remarkable only highlight his narcissitic personality and Kip is the perpectual victim of this abuse. The novel was a slow-burning, beautifully written story which characters that possessed a humanity that sometimes escapes the most adept of writers. It was just hard to like either character at a certain point when it seemed like Kip was never going to get over his obsession and was too blind to how he enabled the bad behaviors of Thaddeus. This novel sticks with you in the best and worst ways. It stays with you because it's extremely well written and the characters still bother you days later.

I had a difficult times getting through this book. I started reading it at he beginning of quarantine and found that I didn’t have enough brain power or focus to make it through it. I picked it up again later but just felt utterly exhausted by the time I finished reading.

I really wanted to love this but just couldn't get myself to continue reading it unfortunately. I will try this again at a later time. Thanks very much to the publisher and to Netgalley for this copy of this book.

An Ocean Without a Shore is a heartbreaking exploration of the consequences of obsession and unrequited love. Full of flawed humans, this book takes a no holds barred look into the life of a man who cannot fully accept who he is and is being buried under the weight of the obsessive love he feels for his best friend, who quite frankly is a terrible person. Both men live in a fantasy world of their own making, neither willing to come out into the real world and deal with anything. This book will break your heart, even as it infuriates you.

3.5 stars

Well, I have mixed feelings about this book. I’m kind of in the middle with my like/dislike for it. Throughout the book I just kept saying...how can you constantly put up with this guys actions. Thaddeus was a user of Kip, I definitely would t call what they had friendship. It was one sided and he was extremely selfish, in my opinion. And kip just let him continue to walk all over him. I get unrequited love, but when does it stop? I suppose we eventually get this answer, and what a shocking answer it is. I was loathing Thaddeus by the end of this book, there really wasn’t one redeeming quality about the man. And I just felt sorry for Kip.

This book had a lot of repetition between Thaddeus & Kip, it got a bit boring. But the underlying meaning was good and I think the ending somewhat saved the book for me. This wasn’t a book that I breezed through, it took time to read and digest.

I didn’t like this book! I returned it so I could read books that I really enjoyed if I’m being honest!

Scott Spencer knows a thing or two about thwarted love and frustrated longing. Thirty years or so ago, I marveled at his breakout book Endless Love, a ferociously sexual book about the obsessional love a teenage boy had for a girl named Jade and her family.

That unrequited and dangerous love is again mined in the author’s latest book, but this time, the characters are Kip Woods, who works at a high-end boutique investment firm, and his long-term obsession, Thaddeus Kaufman, a married screenwriter whose is on a downward financial trajectory.

Thaddeus is a charmer and a manipulator, who lives with his wife and two kids in an estate called Orkney that he can ill afford. Kip is a closeted gay man who has long lived under “the intricate nature of barricades and blind alleys” with which he had for virtually his entire life hidden his nature. Long ago, Thaddeus’ uncle—also gay—predicts to Kip that his nephew will destroy him. As readers, we know from the first few pages that Kip is waiting to be sentenced for—something. We know the dark trajectory this story will take but we don’t know the plot twists and details.

As we pay witness to Thaddeus’ incessant and sometimes cloying need for favor from his far more successful friend—who keeps his ardor for Thaddeus hidden—questions arise about the very nature of love and obsession. Does the yearning become its own reward—more satisfying than anything that could ever be achieved by moving on? Is each person allocated just one other who loves us without question, without reason, and without recourse—and what happens when that person does not reciprocate? Is the price of freedom from that kind of painful longing worth the ensuing feeling of emptiness?

Set against a backdrop of societal inequalities and money-worship gone amok, An Ocean Without A Shore begins rather slow and then gradually builds suspense and tension. Scott Spencer’s writing and insights are beautifully and sensitively rendered. At times, I wondered how the two key characters could be so blinded to each other’s real natures and why Kip would still be so enamored of his cloying friend, but that is part of the story: the pursuance of the love object becomes its own fathomless end. There is much to like and mull over here. A big thanks to Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins, for the pleasure of being an early reader in exchange for an honest review.

An Ocean Without a Shore is legendary writer Scott Spencer’s latest novel. I had never read anything by him, but knew he was the author of Endless Love”.

This novel is actually a sort of sequel to one of Spencer’s previous books, River Under the Road, whose protagonist was Thaddeus Kauffman, the object of Kip Woods’ (the MP) obsession and love.
Kip is a closeted gay man that works for an investment company: he is well respected by his colleagues and his boss, loved by his family and by his few friends. One friend in particular, Thaddeus, holds a special place in his heart: ever since they were in college, they had been really close: but as Kip grew older, he wondered if this was more because Thaddeus needed to be adored, rather if he actually valued their friendship.

Although Kip had tried multiple times to confess his feelings to his friend, he could never do so in words: but would always be there in times of distress – like when he bought 10 acres of his property to get him somewhat on his feet, economically, or like when he went with him to deal with his mother’s will, after she died.
The unraveling of their friendship, which I still cannot really decode if it was based on selfishness or not, comes towards the end of the book.

I really enjoyed this novel, which I think is set slightly before 9/11, and continues after. I particularly found interesting the need for the MP to keep his sexuality hidden, although he excuses himself saying he was merely being private: effectively, he wants to be seen dating women, so no one can suspect that he is gay.

I found the writing very beautiful and smooth, and the narration easy to follow: I would find myself rooting for this unlikely pair, who, although “only” friends, definitely had an underlining narrative they were exploring, filled with things not said but definitely perceived. Thaddeus definitely teases Kip, suggesting they take trips together, and alluding to the emotional – and non – intimacy that lives between them.

I would’ve liked to have read River Under the Road before reading this, if only to understand Thaddeus’ character a bit better. Kip was a sort of a hero: a bit of a coward, but that would go to any lengths to help his love, and his family.

Thank you so much for allowing me to read the advanced copy of An Ocean Without a Shore. I recently read Endless Love by Scott Spencer and this book did not disappoint. I love his writing and I am so excited for others to start reading this novel!

I found it hard to get into. I've never Scott Spencer before and that might be why I struggled with this book. It is well written. There are moments that made me laugh out loud.

This book was hard for me to read. The author is clearly a great writer but the characters were not likeable enough for me to feel anything towards them. The unrequited love storyline can only go so far without it just being depressing!

This style of book just doesn't work for me. The prose is beautiful in some parts but I failed to connect with the plot and the characters; too often I felt bored or lost, wondering if something was going to actually happen, though I feel overall my adversity to it is more on me than it is the book: it's just not my genre. I have some minute issues with the characterization of the Kip, but I just wonder if we really needed another story about a repressed gay man and all of his self-hatred in 2020; I feel like it's way past due that we showcase narratives where LGBT people thrive, but I guess that's not a popular opinion. This is the kind of book I'd typically rate one star, two if I'm feeling generous, but I decided on three because I know it's not really bad, it's just not for me.

AN OCEAN WITHOUT A SHORE by Scott Spencer is a heartbreaking novel about a man, Kip, and his unrequited love for his best friend. This story is told in a flashback and I was kept guessing until the very end. Even though this book deals with some heavy issues such as love, loss and heartbreak I especially loved the humour throughout. There were some really funny lines that made me laugh out loud. I also loved that each chapter title was expertly named. It was really a pleasure to read this book.

★★★★✰ 4.5 stars (rounded up to 5)

“I have learned one of the lessons of loneliness, one of its shocking side effects: when you are in a state of longing, desire goes on and on, like an ocean without a shore.”


An Ocean Without a Shore surprised me. In the very first page our narrator, Kip Woods, informs us that he's awaiting his 'sentence'. Occasionally addressing his listeners/readers directly ('Your Honor' and 'the Court') he recounts the events that led to his present circumstances.
Set in late nineties, An Ocean Without a Shore follows Kip, a gay man in his forties who works at a small investment firm and has been in love with his best friend since their college days. Thaddeus Kaufman, married with children, owns a property he can't afford and as a persona non grata in Hollywood is struggling to succeed as a scriptwriter. When Thaddeus' latest writing effort bear no fruit, he finds himself in need of a bailout, so he gives Kip a call. Lucky for him, Kip is always read, and more than willing, to help.

“I realize this all sounds rather abject. But it's not really love unless there is something abject in it. Don't you think?”


There is much to be admired in the novel. Scott Spencer high-register prose is striking. I was dazzled by Kip's vocabulary, his expressive descriptions, and his long moments of introspections. Spencer beautifully renders Kip's many feelings and thoughts, hinting at his underlining loneliness, vibrantly rendering his desire for Thaddeus. There is yearning, resentment, and sorrow. Kip is a private and remote person who has never fully reconciled himself with sexuality. What weighs on him the most are his unspoken feelings for Thaddeus. While some, such as Thaddeus' wonderful uncle Morris, know just how deeply Kip feels for Thaddeus, Kip fears exposure. Ignoring his friends warnings, and and going against his own better judgement, Kip time and again comes to Thaddeus' aid. Over the years, and in spite of their geographical locations, Kip thinks only of Thaddeus. Even when he realises that Thaddeus has grown into a deeply flawed man, he's unable to 'start living' his own life.
Throughout the course of the novel there are many scenes featuring characters who make only small appearances. Yet, even if they appear for only a scene, readers are giving a clear impression of who they are. The people in this novel have their history, one that has clearly shaped who they are. The people surrounding Thaddeus are particularly toxic, they have fraught relationships with each other, and Kip almost seems at the periphery of this drama.
A sense of unease pervades Kip's narration. We know that something is bound to happen, we can see how skewed his relationship with Thaddeus is, and of course, as Kip remind us, we know that he stands accused of a crime.
The setting and atmosphere within the novel have a deeply nostalgic quality. Spencer further enriches his narrative by adding a plethora of literary references and by having characters discuss politics and social issues relevant at the time.
Kip's philosophical meanderings are engrossing. While the questions he poses himself do not have easy answers, they do give us a glimpse into the most vulnerable parts of himself. In spite of his self-awareness her pursues a path of unhappiness, landing himself in a prison of his own making.
An Ocean Without a Shore is not a happy novel nor is it populated by happy people. There are few moments of respite for Kip, as he has, by the time the book has started, dedicated his life to a person that is not available (nor is he deserving of Kip). Yet, even if readers will despair at Kip for his undying devotion to Thaddeus, and for his inability to move on with his life, we will often feel as he does (unreciprocated love is a painful and all too common thing.
Kip's reticent and slightly ambivalent narration brought to mind Charlotte Brontë's Lucy Snowe (from Villette), while the complex relationship between him and Thaddeus reminded me of the Teddy Wayne's Apartment. Certain scenes wouldn't have been out of place in an Ann Patchett novel (although Spencer's novel is far more cynical, e.g. “You could almost despise them, but really in the larger scheme of things they were just irrelevant. As most of us are.”).
Readers who prefer fast paced narratives may want to steer clear of this novel. But if you are looking for a heartbreaking character study, look no further. Spencer charges seemingly ordinary moments and exchanges with tension, forcing us to question his characters' intentions and the outcome of their relationships.
An Ocean Without a Shore is a spellbinding and elegantly written novel that touches upon many themes, such as loneliness, love, family, memory, and money. Kip's narration, which could be subtle and oblique one moment before becoming openly emotional or heartbreakingly poignant, spoke to me (perhaps because I share some of his weakness).
However saddening Kip's story was An Ocean Without a Shore remains a thing of beauty.

AN OCEAN WITHOUT A SHORE
BY SCOTT SPENCER

I remember when I was a young teenager my mother and I going to see the movie, "Endless Love." It was based on the book by Scott Spencer. If you are old enough to remember that movie then you already know what an intelligent writer Scott Spencer is on the complexities and multilayered emotions that are involved by a life long love. A love so deep that starts in youth until you realize that that object of your desire is not in love with you in quite the same way. This gem of a novel is written so beautifully and the author has a deft command of language. There were so many philosophical observations about life that I would have filled this review with hundreds of quotes. Scott Spencer is sophisticated enough to understand what motivates people in every kind of relationship.

In this cleverly plotted tale of a gay man named Christopher Wood--nicknamed Kip, as a reader I was so enamored by the dialogue between Christopher and all of the characters. Christopher is narrating the story of how he is in a jail of his own making by the end of the story. He fell in love with Thaddeus in their youth. Thaddeus and Kip are best friends. Thaddeus is married to Grace who he confides to Kip that he doesn't think that his daughter Emma is his. Thaddeus thinks Grace had an affair with a handyman that lives on their property. Thaddeus is a struggling writer of screenplays in particular and living on many acres of beautiful undeveloped land in the Hudson Valley outside of New York City. Grace is also a struggling artist whose paintings have gotten nothing but rejections until recently. The couple live beyond their means in a huge old antiquated house that is falling apart and they can't afford to heat.

It is Kip whom Thaddeus asks for a loan of $130,000.00 dollars in exchange for some acres of their land. It is understood between both Kip and Thaddeus that the arrangement is only temporary and when Thaddeus pays back Kip that Kip will surrender his acres of land. Kip is a broker on Wall Street and money is of no importance to him as he earns a fortune. Kip does realize how pervasive money can be in our society. Kip is kind he is noble and he has loved Thaddeus into their middle aged years but always keeping it a secret as he is a private man.

When Thaddeus's mother commits suicide in her used bookstore in Chicago Kip witnesses some pretty grotesque behavior from Thaddeus as he demands to see the will in his mother's lawyer's office. He practically assaults the attorney because she says that it has to be registered with the court first. It is Kip that Thaddeus calls to fly from the bay area in California to make the final arrangements with regarding his mother's affairs such as cremation. Thaddeus is so money hungry he ransacks first the bookstore and then her apartment.

Thaddeus reminded me of an immature opportunist that was delusional about his talent as a writer living in a loveless marriage. He knows that Kip has always loved him and he wasn't beneath asking Kip to put his job on the line not to mention prison by asking Kip for information about what we know would be inside trading.

This was a superbly well written novel handling the dynamics of a love that is taken for granted by Thaddeus and I felt that the scales were tipped and that there was a power imbalance between them. I don't want to give anymore spoiler information but I was pleasantly surprised how much I loved this novel. There is so much wisdom written into the plot and the characterization's brilliantly done. As I said Scott Spencer writes interesting observations about what motivates us as human's and his prose is simply exquisite. This is a stunning work that I am grateful to have had the opportunity to discover. Brilliant insights. Poetic narrative. A book that I was sorry to say goodbye to when it ended. Highly recommended and Five plus stars!

Thank you to Net Galley, Scott Spencer and HarperCollin's Publisher's for providing me with my ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.