A World Away
by Stewart O'Nan
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A major novel by the award-winning author named by Granta as one of America's best young writers. Set at a remote beachfront cottage in the Hamptons one summer during the Second World War, A World Away follows the fortunes of the Langer family, whose oldest son, Rennie, is missing in action in the Pacific theater. As we are soon aware, there is another battle raging at the same time, this one on the domestic front, as Anne and James Langer's marriage begins to unravel. In part to repay her show more husband for his affair with a student, Anne begins a clandestine romance with a soldier stationed at a nearby base. Yet all the passion and tenderness she finds with her lover is unable to ease Anne's empty ache from having her family torn apart.Thousands of miles away, Rennie is wounded in the effort to drive the Japanese from the island of Attu in the Aleutians, as Dorothy, his young wife, gives birth alone in San Diego. When Rennie comes home, his spirit as wounded as his body, it's clear that James and Anne must repair their own broken lives if they're going to help their son heal and bring their family back together. A World Away is a rich, romantic story that has all the depth and generosity of spirit Stewart O'Nan's work is known for. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
A WORLD AWAY (1998) is my tenth Stewart O'Nan novel, and I know there are more out there, so it certainly won't be my last, because I loved it. Reading this book made me think of a master painter, daubing on layers upon layers of paint. O'Nan paints with words, phrases, sentences, piling on pertinent details, layers of meaning, nuanced and delicate, with every detail placing the reader deeper into the story, into the minds of the characters, and the settings and situations they inhabit.
The primary place is a small town on Long Island in the summer of 1943, with frequent flashbacks to rural Vermont and upstate New York. The characters are the Langer family: James, a teacher; his wife, Anne, a nurse; their sons, 12 year-old Jay, and show more Rennie, a conscientious objector turned Army medic (and his young pregnant wife, Dorothy). O'Nan's omniscient narrator shifts skillfully between these five people, getting inside their heads and hearts, as the war rages on, a world away. Rennie ships out for the Pacific, ending up in the battle for Attu, in the Aleutians. The family's story is something of a potboiler, sans any false sentiment. There is adultery, there is heartbreak, anger, betrayals and forgiveness, birth and death. As the family gathers at the home of James's aging father in the Hamptons, who has suffered a stroke, young Jay is plagued by puppy love and nightmares, but finds a friend, while his parents fumble their way back to being a family, waiting for word of Rennie, who is MIA.
I found Rennie's role in the Aleutian campaign especially interesting, bringing to mind other books on that obscure part of the war which I've enjoyed - Charles Bradley's lovely memoir, ALEUTIAN ECHOES, Brian Payton's more recent novel, THE WIND IS NOT A RIVER, and Gore Vidal's nearly forgotten debut novel, WILLIWAW. O'Nan has obviously done his homework here.
I think I usually end up describing O'Nan's books as simply beautiful. Well, this one too - beautifully done. Simply beautiful. A book to linger over and savor. Loved it.
- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER show less
The primary place is a small town on Long Island in the summer of 1943, with frequent flashbacks to rural Vermont and upstate New York. The characters are the Langer family: James, a teacher; his wife, Anne, a nurse; their sons, 12 year-old Jay, and show more Rennie, a conscientious objector turned Army medic (and his young pregnant wife, Dorothy). O'Nan's omniscient narrator shifts skillfully between these five people, getting inside their heads and hearts, as the war rages on, a world away. Rennie ships out for the Pacific, ending up in the battle for Attu, in the Aleutians. The family's story is something of a potboiler, sans any false sentiment. There is adultery, there is heartbreak, anger, betrayals and forgiveness, birth and death. As the family gathers at the home of James's aging father in the Hamptons, who has suffered a stroke, young Jay is plagued by puppy love and nightmares, but finds a friend, while his parents fumble their way back to being a family, waiting for word of Rennie, who is MIA.
I found Rennie's role in the Aleutian campaign especially interesting, bringing to mind other books on that obscure part of the war which I've enjoyed - Charles Bradley's lovely memoir, ALEUTIAN ECHOES, Brian Payton's more recent novel, THE WIND IS NOT A RIVER, and Gore Vidal's nearly forgotten debut novel, WILLIWAW. O'Nan has obviously done his homework here.
I think I usually end up describing O'Nan's books as simply beautiful. Well, this one too - beautifully done. Simply beautiful. A book to linger over and savor. Loved it.
- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER show less
Good....but i thought the character development in his ‘Emily’ books was a bit more relatable. Overall, a nice read!
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ThingScore 75
Was fesselt den Leser an diesem einfachen Roman ohne erzählerische Raffinesse. Stewart O´Nan ist ein Meister der Beobachtung und des Details. Durch die Art, wie er jede Situation, jeden Gedanken ausleuchtet, entstehen neue Perspektiven. Die Menschen, die er vorstellt, sind allesamt durch den Alltag beschädigt. Sie wirken in ihrer Hilflosigkeit jedoch nicht lächerlich, sondern show more mitleiderregend. Die Erzählung durchzieht ein trauriger Grundton, Wehmut wohl darüber, daß schon das normale Leben so kompliziert zu sein scheint, daß es Menschen in Verzweiflung und Depression stürzt. Und besteht Hoffnung, daß im Alltag zugefügte Wunden verheilen können, wie das Ende andeutet. Die melancholische Grundstimmung, die den Roman durchzieht, löst sich teilweise auf, aber eben nur teilweise, denn der Krieg überlagert den Alltag, und ohne die Problematik des Alltäglichen zu bagatellisieren, wird unmißverständlich klar: der Krieg hat nichts Normales und Banales, der Tod, den er bringt, kann niemals human sein oder gar Versöhnung stiften. show less
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Author Information
39+ Works 10,607 Members
Stewart O'Nan was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on February 4, 1961. He received a B. S. from Boston University in 1983 and received a M. F. A. in fiction from Cornell University in 1992. Before becoming a writer, he worked as a test engineer for Grumman Aerospace from 1984 to 1988. He has written several novels including The Speed Queen, A show more Prayer for the Dying, Last Night at the Lobster, The Circus Fire, and Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season. In the Walled City won the 1993 Due Heinz Literature Prize; Snow Angels won the 1993 Pirates Alley William Faulkner Prize; and The Names of the Dead won the 1996 Oklahoma Book Award. Snow Angels was made into a feature film in 2007. In 1996, he was listed as one of Granta's best young American novelists. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- Sommer der Züge
- Original title
- A world away
- Original publication date
- 1998
- Epigraph
- Oh, I don't know what's right any longer. - Ilsa, "Casablanca"
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. -- FDR - Dedication
- For Trudy
- First words
- They drove the night, through the blacked-out city and out along the Island.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)That was all gone, and yet, years later, he couldn't help but remember how safe it made him feel then, that hope he hadn't known he'd saved, how even that summer he'd clung to it, those rare blue days when the war seemed far away, and unable to touch them.
- Blurbers
- Casey, John; Nordan, Lewis; Masters, Hilary
- Original language*
- Amerikanisch
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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- Members
- 147
- Popularity
- 223,284
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.63)
- Languages
- English, French, German
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 7
- ASINs
- 4
