If you are expecting Compass Rose to be the further adventures of Dick Pierce then you will be disappointed. What Compass Rose does, however, is take up the story from a whole other viewpoint, following the women in Dick Pierce's life. That is the beauty of this sequel - you hear the voices that were part of Dick's story have their own story, stories just as compelling and demanding to be heard. Spartina is about ambition and the recklessness that often comes with ambition. Compass Rose is about the daily business of living, whether ambition is alive or not. Casey is a marvelous writer. ( )

compass rose by john casey
Dick Pierce is now focusing on the women in his life: his wife May.
Elsie the woman who born their daughter Rose. She allows him to bring the baby to his house for hours during her life as Dick has two boys at home. Everybody loves Rose.
Land deals, ship being broadsided and sinking, and some sex scenes make this a really good read about family life and living on the island and making a living from the sea. ( )

I loved this book. I loved SPARTINA too, and this follows those characters and that spectacular place. John Casey has the ability to get inside his characters' heads in an amazing way, and make them breathe. Highly recommend. ( )

Interesting study of personalities in a small New England town. Sequel to Spartina. The people are very well drawn, but in the end not as powerful as Spartina for me. ( )

I had to apply Nancy Pearl’s Rule of 50 to this book: “If you still don't like a book after slogging through the first 50 pages, set it aside. If you're more than 50 years old, subtract your age from 100 and only grant it that many pages.” Although I went beyond my Pearl-allotted pages, I did not make it to the end of this book. I was disappointed and surprised that it wasn’t better, because it’s a sequel to “Spartina,” Casey’s earlier novel about life in coastal Rhode Island, and a truly great book. Written more than 20 years ago, Spartina tells the story of Dick Pierce, a fisherman who, with what sometimes seems heroic effort, builds his own boat so that he can make something of himself by taking it deep-sea fishing. It’s a compelling account of an ordinary man who is searching for meaning in his life.

Pierce by no means a perfect man, and amongst his failings in “Spartina” is his infidelity to his wife May. “Compass Rose” is about the aftermath of that affair: it’s the story of Elsie, Pierce’s lover, and their daughter Rose, but it’s also the story of May and her interest in having Rose in her life. And it’s the story of the natural world in South County, Rhode Island: there are long stretches of (the first part of) the book that are descriptions of the nature reserve where Elsie works. But for me, anyway, the novel just didn’t work: it was an effort, rather than a pleasure, to read this book, and I felt, per Nancy Pearl, that it was just too much slogging. ( )