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Buy The Air We Breathe: A Novel by Andrea Barrett available and for sale on Brightsurf
| View Larger Image | The Air We Breathe: A Novel
by Andrea Barrett
| | List Price: | $24.95 | | Price: | $16.47 | | You Save: | $8.48 (34%) |  | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours | | | | | Sales Rank: | 159763 | | Studio: | W. W. Norton | | | Binding: | Hardcover | | Number Of Pages: | 320 | | Publication Date: | October 01, 2007 | | Publisher: | W. W. Norton |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
The exquisite, much-anticipated new novel by the author of Ship Fever, winner of the National Book Award.
In fall 1916, Americans debate whether to enter the European war. "Preparedness parades" march and headlines report German spies. But in an isolated community in the Adirondacks, the danger is barely felt. At Tamarack Lake the focus is on the sick. Wealthy tubercular patients live in private cure cottages; charity patients, mainly immigrants, fill the large public sanatorium. For all, time stands still. Prisoners of routine and yearning for absent families, the patients, including the newly arrived Leo Marburg, take solace in gossip, rumor, and—sometimes—secret attachments.
An enterprising patient initiates a weekly discussion group. When his well-meaning efforts lead instead to a tragic accident and a terrible betrayal, the war comes home, bringing with it a surge of anti-immigrant prejudice and vigilante sentiment. The conjunction of thwarted desires and political tension binds the patients so deeply that, finally, they speak about what's happened in a single voice.
The Air We Breathe, though entirely self-contained, extends the web of connected characters begun with Ship Fever. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 12 reviews)
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Whose voice is this anyway? 
Refreshing to step out of the modern world and into a sanitorium for indigent TB patients in upstate New York at the start of World War I. Forced into inactivity by the prevailing wisdom on TB treatments --keep 'em 1) flat on their backs to promote blood flow to the infected lungs, 2) calm, and 3) outdoors as much as possible-- this diverse group of immigrants turns to the world of their minds to pass the long hours. No surprise that their human relationships are equally diverting and ultimately destructive to the residents and staff.
The story, unfortunately, becomes tedious and confusing at times. I kept hoping that the narrator --a female patient perhaps?-- would soon step out of the background and bring the plot back to clarity and interest. Alas, this never happened, and once again I was left wondering why I don't just borrow books from the library instead of buying them.
March 08, 2008 | |
"We" loved this book! 
I've always been curious about the TB sanatorium of the early 20th century. The legality of government enforced quarantine and the effectiveness of the treatment on the individual and the rest of the country all came to my mind when the Aids epidemic first hit in the 1980's. Barrett gives us all a wonderfully realized look inside such a place. The scientific detail was fascinating and the characters were, for the most part, admirable and very sympathetic, in spite of their human failings in the end.
The book is written in the collective "we" representing the entire community. The reader observes the action as one of the group without being one of the main characters. This unusual point of view is reason alone to read this original novel. Altogether a "don't miss this" book.
March 01, 2008 | |
Great character development and a logical story. 
I purchased this book during the week after its release in October and put it on a shelf so that I could read other books first. The Air We Breath by Andrea Barrett was worth the wait.
Set during the years immediately before WWI, The Air We Breath is a wonderful example of a plot that builds slowly and pays great attention to the characters that live in the story. In places the story crawls and in others you can barely hold on. The fire that destroys one of the sanatoriums is a case in point. Friction between Naomi and Miles, and the crush she has on Leo also adds to the tension in the book.
The book is also an interesting study into class relations. Seeing how the less fortunate patients see the world through eyes that are a bit fatalistic is a wonderful contrast to the way Miles sees the world and how he chooses to interact. Miles development of the Wednesday afternoon gatherings at another house is a case in point.
If you've read Barretts earlier works Voyage of the Narwhal, Ship Fever, Servants of the Map then you know what a strong writer she is. The Air We Breath, while set differently and a little less adventurous is a fitting addition to her body of work.
Barrett is a terrific spinner of tales that demand the attention of the reader.
February 01, 2008 | |
What a disappointment 
I was so excited to begin reading this book. I was equally excited to finish it. It began nowhere, and it ended nowhere with many pages in between. I love the Adirondacks. I love reading about history. I love a good novel. Unfortunately this book did nothing to help me enjoy any of the above. I didn't care about any of the characters. The story was so loosely woven that I had to struggle to pick up the book to finish it.
It is as though the author was trying desperately to write using a new literary device and she didn't care if the book "worked" or not. I felt like I was back in school and I was being forced to read a bad piece of poetry. I wanted so much to like it.
January 15, 2008 | |
Quiet and powerful
Andrea Barrett lovingly explores the poetic relationship between science and the desires of the human heart. Many of her characters find themselves pondering their lives in places separating them from the rest of society - a ship frozen in the Arctic, an expedition in an exotic place - and in this novel the characters are quarantined in a tuberculosis sanitarium in upstate New York on the eve of the First World War. The story revolves around one patient, Leo Marburg, a recent immigrant, who while at first chaffing under the restrictions imposed by the rules of the institution (like the rigidly enforced rule to relax), finds friendship and love through a weekly discussion group. He also finds a purpose when one of the doctors lends him chemistry books to study so that he may help her with the radiographs she uses to chart patients' progress, setting into motion events that ultimately trigger a tragedy.
Barrett paints a quiet picture of very human characters with all their charms and flaws thrown together by outside forces, coming together, and pulling apart. Readers of some of her previous books (Ship Fever, The Voyage of the Narwhal, Servants of the Map) will recognize familiar names. One of the delights of reading Barrett is how she weaves characters, and even objects, from one story and one time period to another, creating a world of relationships and history. But not having read any of her other works does not at all detract from the enjoyment of this book. In one slim volume, this novel takes on issues of war, friendship, love, betrayal, time, philosophy, gender, class, and guilt, all written in beautifully clear, lyrical prose. Highly recommended.
January 04, 2008 | |
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