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The Air We Breathe: A Novel by Andrea…
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The Air We Breathe: A Novel (edition 2008)

by Andrea Barrett

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5103847,611 (3.62)59
Fiction. Historical Fiction. HTML:

In the autumn of 1916, Americans are debating whether to enter the First World War. There are "preparedness parades," and headlines report German spies. But in an isolated community in the Adirondacks in upstate New York, the danger is barely felt. At Tamarack Lake the focus is on the sick. Wealthy tubercular patients live in private cure cottages; charity patients, many of them recent immigrants from Europe, fill the sanatorium.

Here, in the crisp air, time stands still. Prisoners of routine and yearning for absent families, the inmates, including the newly arrived Leo Marburg, take solace in gossip, rumor, and secret attachments.

An enterprising patient initiates a weekly discussion group. When his well-meaning efforts lead instead to tragedy and betrayal, the war comes home, bringing with it a surge of anti-immigrant prejudice and vigilante sentiment. Andrea Barrett pits power and privilege against unrest and thwarted desire, in a spellbinding tale of individual lives in a nation on the verge of extraordinary change.

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… (more)
Member:brenzi
Title:The Air We Breathe: A Novel
Authors:Andrea Barrett
Info:W.W. Norton & Co. (2008), Paperback, 320 pages
Collections:Read in 2009, Your library, Read but unowned
Rating:****
Tags:Adirondacks, tuberculosis, rest cure, historical fiction

Work Information

The Air We Breathe by Andrea Barrett

  1. 10
    The Given Day by Dennis Lehane (shearon)
  2. 00
    The Plague and I by Betty MacDonald (betsytacy)
    betsytacy: If the tuberculosis treatment aspects of The Air We Breathe are of particular interest, I'd recommend Betty MacDonald's humorous memoir of her time in a tuberculosis sanitarium in the late 1930s.
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» See also 59 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 39 (next | show all)
Tamarack Lake, in upper state New York is a sanatorium tucked into the Adirondack Mountains. It is the fall of 1916, on the cusp of America entering the war. Wealthy tubercular patients live here, stuck in a monotonous routine. Gossip and rumors abound. This is a highly ambitious and smart novel, touching on science, anti-immigrant prejudice and mulitple romantic interludes. My issues were in the uneven narrative flow and convoluted storylines, along with keeping up with the myriad of characters. I prefer her short fiction but I still think it is worth reading, especially for Barrett fans. ( )
  msf59 | Jan 24, 2021 |
I love the collective narrator and the mystery and the people. ( )
  BridgitDavis | Sep 21, 2017 |
@ Sanatoriums in upstair N.Y. patients took "cure" of rest + open air (or on Boats in harbor)
Leo + Eudora

In the fall of 1916, America prepares for war—but in the community of 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. Prisoners of routine, they take solace in gossip, rumor, and—sometimes—secret attachments. But when the well-meaning efforts of one enterprising patient lead to a tragic accident and a terrible betrayal, the war comes home, bringing with it a surge of anti-immigrant prejudice and vigilante sentiment.
  christinejoseph | May 15, 2017 |
This novel moved way to slow and nothing much happens. The narrators are a group of patients in Tamarack Lake Sanatorium who are all there for a cure from TB. ( )
  Smits | Aug 29, 2016 |
The Air We Breathe is narrated by an unnamed patient residing in a sanatorium in the Adirondacks as the first World War approaches. The patients, all of whom suffer from tuberculosis, have been sent here by the state; most of them are poor immigrants, many of them Jews, Russians, and Germans. Because of the healthful environment, many private homes in the area also cater to wealthier TB victims. One such home is run by Mrs. Martin, with the help of her teenage daughter, Naomi. When one of her tenants decides to start a Wednesday learning circle at the state institution, the story is set into motion.

Although Miles's lectures on fossils initially bore the men, the Wednesday group flourishes when others share their expertise and life stories. There's Ephraim, a communal apple farmer; Irene, the Russian radiologist; and Leo, a former chemist who attracts the romantic interest of both Naomi and her friend Eudora, an aide at the sanitorium who longs to follow in Irene's footsteps. Meanwhile, Miles has fallen in love with Naomi, who has been serving as his driver. As one would expect, conflicts develop from misplaced romantic notions, and even the serene town of Tamarack Lake is not immune to the effects of the rising war in Europe and the political fallout at home.

Barrett is often praised for bringing science and technology into her novels, and there are lengthy sections here on chemistry, radiology, fossils, etc. I have to admit that, while I was engaged with the characters, I found the science rather awkwardly integrated and intrusive: it felt like the author was writing a novel to expound on scientific topics rather than writng a novel in which science plays a role. ( )
2 vote Cariola | Nov 6, 2014 |
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Nölle, KarenTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Men are like plants; the goodness and flavour of the fruit proceeds from the peculiar soil and exposition in which they grow. We are nothing but what we drive from the air we breathe, the climate we inhabit, the government we obey; the system of religion we profess, and the nature of our employment. Here you will find but few crimes; these have acquired as yet no root among us. ---J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur: Letters from an American Farmer; Letter III, "What Is an American?" (1782)
In the first place, tuberculosis is largely a disease of the poor--of those on or below the poverty line. We must further realize that there are two sorts of poor people--not only those financially handicapped and so unable to control their environment, but those who are mentally and morally poor, an lack intelligence, will power, and self-control. The poor, from whatever cause, form a class whose environment is difficult to alter. And we must further realize that these patients are surrounded in their homes by people of their own kind--their families and friends--who are also poor. It is this fact which makes the task so difficult, and makes the prevention and cure of a preventable and curable disease a matter of utmost complexity. --Ellen N. LaMotte, The Tuberculosis Nurse: Her Functions and Qualifications (1915)
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Imagine a hill shaped like a dog's head, its nose pointed south and resting on crossed front paws.
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Fiction. Historical Fiction. HTML:

In the autumn of 1916, Americans are debating whether to enter the First World War. There are "preparedness parades," and headlines report German spies. But in an isolated community in the Adirondacks in upstate New York, the danger is barely felt. At Tamarack Lake the focus is on the sick. Wealthy tubercular patients live in private cure cottages; charity patients, many of them recent immigrants from Europe, fill the sanatorium.

Here, in the crisp air, time stands still. Prisoners of routine and yearning for absent families, the inmates, including the newly arrived Leo Marburg, take solace in gossip, rumor, and secret attachments.

An enterprising patient initiates a weekly discussion group. When his well-meaning efforts lead instead to tragedy and betrayal, the war comes home, bringing with it a surge of anti-immigrant prejudice and vigilante sentiment. Andrea Barrett pits power and privilege against unrest and thwarted desire, in a spellbinding tale of individual lives in a nation on the verge of extraordinary change.

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W.W. Norton

2 editions of this book were published by W.W. Norton.

Editions: 0393061086, 0393333078

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