Picking up connected characters from her 1996 National Book Award-winning story collection Ship Fever, the latest from Barrett follows her Pulitzer Prize finalist Servants of the Map. In the fall of 1916, as the U.S. involvement in WWI looms, the Adirondack town of Tamarack Lake houses a public sanitarium and private "cure cottages" for TB patients. Gossip about roommate changes, nurse visits, cliques and romantic connections dominate relations among the sick-mostly poor European immigrants-when they're not on their porches taking their rest cure. Intrigue increases with the arrival of Leo Marburg, an attractive former chemist from Odessa who has spent his years in New York slaving away at a sugar refinery, and of Miles Fairchild, a pompous and wealthy cure cottage resident who decides to start a discussion group, despite his inability to understand many of his fellow patients. As in Joshua Ferris's recent Then We Came to the End, Barrett narrates with a collective "we," the voice of the crowd of convalescents. Details of New York tenements and of the sanitarium's regime are vivid and engrossing. The plot, which hinges on the coming of WWI, has a lock-step logic, but its transparency doesn't take away from the timeliness of its theme: how the tragedy, betrayal and heartbreak of war extend far beyond the battlefield. (Oct.)
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In the early 1900s, patients at the Tamarack State Sanatorium for the Treatment for Tuberculosis are of two different sorts. The wealthy can live in some comfort by renting little chalets, while working-class patients must make do in the barracks-like dormitories. Then factory owner Miles Fairchild crosses the line by proposing a weekly discussion group, which he opens with some pompous lectures on paleontology. Soon the less fortunate patients are revealing a depth of knowledge and experience the condescending Fairchild could not have imagined. Meanwhile, emotional entanglements flare everywhere. Miles falls for Naomi, the wayward girl who drives him to the sanatorium; she's interested in a patient named Leo, trained as a chemist in Russia and now given access to the X-ray equipment by technician Irene. But Leo is forming a bond with Eudora, Naomi's best friend and herself an aspiring technician. It all leads to a very real explosion, with sabotage suspected as America's entry into World War I looms. Miles leads the charge in accusing Leo, and it's heartrending to see how his old friends turn on him. Though not as powerfully written as Barrett's The Voyage of the Narwhal, this is a deft and quietly wrenching tale of human misunderstanding. For most collections. [See Prepub Alert, LJ6/1/07.]
—Barbara Hoffert
Shadows revealed by X-ray machines and generated by the gathering momentum of World War I darken and enrich the texture of Barrett's demanding, rewarding sixth novel (Servants of the Map, 2002, etc.). Featuring descendants of characters in her earlier books, it's a crowded group portrait filled by the patients, staff and outside "help" brought together in 1916 at a tuberculosis sanatorium (Tamarack State) in the Adirondacks of upstate New York. Narrated by the patients (identified only as "we"), it describes the facility and its operation, gradually narrowing focus to concentrate on recent Polish-German immigrant Leo Marburg (whose peregrinations have prevented him from completing an education in chemistry), his fellow patient and eventual antagonist, wealthy cement-plant owner Miles Fairchild (who resides in a comfortable "cure house" outside Tamarack State), as well as the three women who touch, and alter, both men's lives. This trio includes X-ray technician Irene (a victim of the new science she has mastered), who welcomes Leo as a promising kindred spirit; teenaged Naomi (who becomes Miles's driver, but not the sweetheart he yearns for); and "ward maid" Eudora, who arouses in Leo the passions Naomi (who loves him, and not Miles) cannot arouse. Mounting evidence that the United States will enter the European war (very skillfully layered in) heightens tensions, as do the presence of a tin box entrusted to Leo's care, a fire of suspicious origins and Miles's patriotic fervor, which turns weekly discussion groups he has organized into a proving ground for one's loyalty. This richly detailed, highly intelligent novel is too slowly paced to elicit reader interest early on, but it buildsand persuades most impressively, creating a compelling picture of how "together, without noticing exactly what was happening, we'd contributed to destroying our own world."A marvel of intelligent design, and a truly original cautionary tale, from one of the most interesting and unconventional of all contemporary American writers.
"Barrett’s powers of historical evocation, especially her knowledge of the scientific preoccupations of the time, are impressive."
"Every page seems so vibrant, its people so alive…Majestic, breathtaking, thrilling."
"Barrett’s writing has a quality of reflective mildness, a restraint which some might call quiet…There is an elegance of tone, but an enormous amount happens. The Air We Breathe is turbulent and dramatic, full of longing and death and lust, the yearning to cover one’s own life and way in the world."
"Here [in The Air We Breathe], as in several of her other works of fiction, including the National Book Award–winning Ship Fever, Barrett enriches her story with science…In fact, her style, always stylish and exact, is at its most compelling when she’s describing her characters’ engagement in their scientific studies."
"[Barrett’s] gift for story, for mining America’s past, and her ability to construct a specific moment in the quest for knowledge are remarkable."
"Barrett eloquently blends scientific elements like TB and chemistry with her diverse characters’ hopes and heartbreaks to bring the book to crackling life."
Jeff Woodman once again draws upon his thespian experience in this narration, which showcases his performance ability. The central character is Leo, a Russian immigrant who develops tuberculosis and is shipped to a harsh treatment center in the Adirondack Mountains that resembles a prison more than a hospital. Woodman’s Leo is an expertly crafted individual with an impressively accurate Russian accent that evokes his melancholic state upon entering the center. Despite the sheer number of immigrant characters in the story, each one receives his or her own accent and personality. Woodman no doubt took liberties with some of these, but the result is a wide variety of fascinating characters who create a memorable, almost cinematic, experience. L.B. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
