A review by evanbernstein
The Air We Breathe, by Andrea Barrett
3.0
This was a very well written novel, but in the end, it was fine to read, but I didn't really like it or love it.
The setting for the story was at a curing house of tuberculosis in the 1910s in upstate new york. As a piece of historical fiction, I thought it was lovely: I got swept into a part of the world I did not know about and learned a lot about the time and the people of the time.
My biggest complaint with the novel was done deliberately by the author, and I understand why, but it left me not craving to pick the novel up again: it was set in a setting where the people have to be very slow and still or they risk a relapse of tuberculosis so the overall pace of the novel is extremely slow. This works as a literary device, but kept me distant from wanting to pick up and read more.
However, I thoroughly loved the device of having the narrator be the "we" (I've never read a book in first person plural before).
As I said, it is a well crafted novel, with good characters who grow and change throughout the story, but it didn't captivate me as much as I'd like.
The setting for the story was at a curing house of tuberculosis in the 1910s in upstate new york. As a piece of historical fiction, I thought it was lovely: I got swept into a part of the world I did not know about and learned a lot about the time and the people of the time.
My biggest complaint with the novel was done deliberately by the author, and I understand why, but it left me not craving to pick the novel up again: it was set in a setting where the people have to be very slow and still or they risk a relapse of tuberculosis so the overall pace of the novel is extremely slow. This works as a literary device, but kept me distant from wanting to pick up and read more.
However, I thoroughly loved the device of having the narrator be the "we" (I've never read a book in first person plural before).
As I said, it is a well crafted novel, with good characters who grow and change throughout the story, but it didn't captivate me as much as I'd like.