novelesque_life's review against another edition
1.0
1 STAR
"A wayward wife, an oedipally obsessed e-mail snoop, a pint-sized Civil War re-enactor (oops, make that living historian) and a cheerfully oblivious cuckold comprise the Shaws of Chicago, the decidedly quirky characters of Jane Hamilton's fourth novel, Disobedience. An unlikely family to fall prey to the vagaries of modern life, the Shaws are consumed with clog dancing, early music and the War Between the States. They do possess a computer, however, and when 17-year-old Henry stumbles into his mother's e-mail account and epistolary evidence of her affair with a Ukrainian violinist, he becomes consumed with this glimpse into her life as a woman, not simply a mother.
To picture my mother a lover, I had at first to break her in my mind's eye, hold her over my knee, like a stick, bust her in two. When that was done, when I had changed her like that, I could see her in a different way. I could put her through the motions like a jointed puppet, all dancy in the limbs, loose, nothing to hold her up but me.
While his mother (whom he refers to variously as Mrs Shaw, Beth or by her e-mail sobriquet, Liza38), dallies with her pen pal, whom she calls "the companion of my body, the guest of my heart", Henry experiences his own sexual awakening, his 13-year-old sister, Elvira, retreats into gender-bending historical fantasy, and their father remains determinedly absorbed in pedagogical responsibilities.Ironically (and not completely convincingly) narrated by an adult Henry, Disobedience has a rollicking tone somewhat at odds with the sombre prospects that loom for this family. A very worldly teenager in some ways, despite the hippie wholesomeness of his family, Henry tells his tale in abundant, almost flowery prose, imagining his mother's private life with elegiac fervour." (From Amazon)
I was bored to tears with this one.
"A wayward wife, an oedipally obsessed e-mail snoop, a pint-sized Civil War re-enactor (oops, make that living historian) and a cheerfully oblivious cuckold comprise the Shaws of Chicago, the decidedly quirky characters of Jane Hamilton's fourth novel, Disobedience. An unlikely family to fall prey to the vagaries of modern life, the Shaws are consumed with clog dancing, early music and the War Between the States. They do possess a computer, however, and when 17-year-old Henry stumbles into his mother's e-mail account and epistolary evidence of her affair with a Ukrainian violinist, he becomes consumed with this glimpse into her life as a woman, not simply a mother.
To picture my mother a lover, I had at first to break her in my mind's eye, hold her over my knee, like a stick, bust her in two. When that was done, when I had changed her like that, I could see her in a different way. I could put her through the motions like a jointed puppet, all dancy in the limbs, loose, nothing to hold her up but me.
While his mother (whom he refers to variously as Mrs Shaw, Beth or by her e-mail sobriquet, Liza38), dallies with her pen pal, whom she calls "the companion of my body, the guest of my heart", Henry experiences his own sexual awakening, his 13-year-old sister, Elvira, retreats into gender-bending historical fantasy, and their father remains determinedly absorbed in pedagogical responsibilities.Ironically (and not completely convincingly) narrated by an adult Henry, Disobedience has a rollicking tone somewhat at odds with the sombre prospects that loom for this family. A very worldly teenager in some ways, despite the hippie wholesomeness of his family, Henry tells his tale in abundant, almost flowery prose, imagining his mother's private life with elegiac fervour." (From Amazon)
I was bored to tears with this one.
caedycon's review against another edition
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
A Map of the World was one of my few 5-star reads from 2021. Sadly, this book just did not hit me the same. Jane Hamilton's writing is still beautiful, but this book was a bit of a struggle to get through. I didn't connect very deeply with the characters, especially not Henry. I think it's kind of hard to get into a book when the main character isn't particularly appealing. I guess it was more a book about his mother, told through his eyes, than it was about him, and I did find her to be an interesting person. I liked the ending and what it says about marriage and compromise. Overall - lovely prose, but I won't be returning to this book or really recommending it.
booksaremysuperpower's review against another edition
3.0
A heartbreaking, and at times hysterical, read. I've read of Jane Hamilton books, and this felt like a departure from her heavy Wisconsin stories. Daughter Elvira is obsessed with Civil War reenactments... on this fact alone, I think you should go out and read the book. I think she is one of the best created characters ever, and I wish there was a whole novel devoted to her.
kfreedman's review against another edition
4.0
Good character development in this book. Narrator is mostly a teenage boy, description of his family dynamics, relationship with his sister and parents and so on. More complex and empathic than I had expected. Really good!
msmandrake's review against another edition
2.0
Another book on my shelf for years (I must have liked the cover?) that closed libraries steered me towards. And it was....fine, I suppose. This is the sort of book that makes me fear there is a point here about Life that I am not getting. It starts off with an interesting premise, the teen aged boy narrator snoops in his mother's email and discovers she is having an affair. And that's kinda it, no plot really develops from there. He just muses and imagines things. There is another child, Elvira, a young teen girl who is Civil War crazed. Now she was entertaining, but this is the sort of character where, if this was a memoir and she was real, I would say, oh my, she's great, truth is stranger than fiction! But as she is fictional, I don't believe her. Overall the book is repetitious, and slow, and nothing much happens, but it may have a point! I am just the wrong person to ask.
mhall's review against another edition
2.0
A teenage boy named Henry reads his mom's email and finds out she's having an affair, then creepily keeps secretly reading her email for months and months, printing out messages as an archive, and just generally creeping it up and obsessing about how her affair relates to him. His mom at one point goes to a tarot reader and emails a friend about how the reader told her that Henry and she were married in a past life, and now they're mother and son. Henry reads that email, of course, and thinks disturbing thoughts about his mom's affair. He refers to her variously as Beth, Liza, and Mrs. Shaw in his narration. Nothing really happens - Henry, the teenage boy, living in an upscale Chicago neighborhood, is described as smart and amiable, someone who does what's expected of him. His younger sister is the only character with any life: a butch girl obsessed with Civil War reenactments. This brings me to the heart of my irritation, which is that the mom is completely upset throughout the whole novel because her daughter wants to be a boy in Civil War reenactments. She is described as profoundly torn up inside that her daughter is not interested in feminine things or in wearing dresses, but the mom is such a poorly drawn character that it doesn't make sense that she would be upset, and then there's a climactic incident that ends with the daughter giving up on her obsession with the Civil War.
Horribly self-important and serious-minded, too literary, the description of a boy poisoning himself slowly by being unable to stop invading his mother's privacy doesn't ever come to life on the page - he's kind of a cipher who doesn't suffer consequences, and his mom is much the same.
Horribly self-important and serious-minded, too literary, the description of a boy poisoning himself slowly by being unable to stop invading his mother's privacy doesn't ever come to life on the page - he's kind of a cipher who doesn't suffer consequences, and his mom is much the same.
karasmichelle's review against another edition
4.0
Got this audiobook for a recent trip. It took me until the end to realize it was Robert Sean Leonard ("Dead Poet's Society" reading it. Anyway, I like Jane Hamilton. She doesn't sugarcoat anything. Here a teenager starts reading his mom's email and finds out she's having an affair. But he doesn't call her on it right away. Then the tale gets all twisty. There's an interesting subploat about the boy's younger sister and her hobby of dressing up as a Civil War reenactor.
magshugs's review against another edition
2.0
So last night when I couldn't sleep I was laying awake thinking about how I was going to review this. This is what I decided: I love Jane Hamilton; I do not love this book. I couldn't identify with any of the characters. I'm not even sure why. I just know that when it came to end, I was very glad. There were definitely parts of it I enjoyed. In fact, I really enjoyed the subplot about the sister, Elvira, more than anything else. So, I give this a big resounding "eh."