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"Arthur Henning arrives at the Duvall's country estate near New York City in the winter of 1946 with his young son, his sewing machine, and the painful history of the refugee--the home in Vienna he left behind, the wife and infant daughter who perished in London's blitz, and the friends who disappeared into the abyss of the Holocaust. Once an expert tailor, Arthur is now employed as a driver. He drives Mr. Duvall to work in the city, Mrs. Duvall to her shopping, their daughter, Aggie, to school. There's a cottage for him and his son, Toby, to live in, congeniality in the mansion's kitchen with the other servants, pleasure in watching Toby grow up alongside charming little Aggie. And so there he has remained for nearly a decade, hidden, unable to confront his shattered faith, his fear, and the measure of everything he has lost. Hidden, that is, until life steps in to release Arthur from his seclusion. On orders from Mr. Duvall, he must drive Aggie to her own confinement in that peculiarly American institution of the 1950s, a home for unwed mothers. The Duvalls' plan to give the baby away shocks Arthur from his emotional slumber--to results that are both unpredictable and inevitable.… (altro)
Carrie Brown makes her readers think and pass judgment. The characters in Confinement, like The Rope Walk, possess a maligned innocence. The novel challenges the reader to assess the characters' judgment and morality as they struggle with questions of religion, society, addiction, fear, love, and family. ( )
Very evocative, but narrow - I had a hard time relating to the main character and it got harder as the book went on. I didn't feel like the story came to any satisfying conclusion. ( )
What a touching book! A blurb on the back says of her earlier book, Lamb in Love, Brown "writes with a tremendous affection for her characters." That's certainly true again here. It would be easy to pass judgment on these characters for their faulty judgments & timidity; instead, we struggle right along with them as they face difficult choices. The main character is an Austrian Jew forced out of Vienna, along with his eife & son, by the Nazi invasion. His wife & new baby daughter die during the London bombings, & he & his son eventually find refuge on the estate of a wealthy couple outside New York City. He becomes something of a surrogate father to the couple's daughter, about the same age as his son. The daughter becomes pregant at age 17 & is sent off to a house for unwed mothers & to give the baby up for adoption. Arthur is tormented by the choice but unable to summon the wisdom & courage to alter the course of events. Throughout the book, he is tormented, comforted, & advised by dreams & daytime visions of a fellow Jew he witnessed suffering a beating in Vienna as the Nazis arrived. The visions are occasionally accompanied by reflections on God, until, late in the book, after the Viennese doctor appears several times alongside his grandson, then disappears. "Where are you? Arthur asked the empty bus. Speak to me. But the doctor never answered, any more than God had ever answered." (334) "Arthur minded Dr. Ornstein's disappearance from his life more than God's. Of God he had never been certain anyway, but at least he knew Dr. Ornstein had been real, had lived once, had known what it meant to have a man's heart, to play his fingers over the keys of his beautiful piano, to touch the mysterious wounds of his patients." (323) A profoundly moving, rich novel of love & longing for what's just out of one's reach. ( )
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It was only when He saw that justice by itself would undermine the world that He associated mercy with justice, and made them to rule jointly. Thus, from the beginning of all things prevailed Divine goodness, without which nothing could have continued to exist. -Louis Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews You'll race through the uninhabited park, a shadow facing more shadows. You'll think of someone who's no more and of someone else living so fully that her loife at its edges changes to love. Light, more light gathers in the room. No sleep, not tonight. -Adam Zagajewski, "Lullaby"
Dedica
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For John, as always. And for Olivia, who came to Vienna
Incipit
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The afternoon that Arthur came upon the child again, he had not been looking for him.
Citazioni
Ultime parole
Dati dalle informazioni generali inglesi.Modifica per tradurlo nella tua lingua.
He would find the words to say who he was, why he was there, and what he imagined, everything he could ever have imagined.
"Arthur Henning arrives at the Duvall's country estate near New York City in the winter of 1946 with his young son, his sewing machine, and the painful history of the refugee--the home in Vienna he left behind, the wife and infant daughter who perished in London's blitz, and the friends who disappeared into the abyss of the Holocaust. Once an expert tailor, Arthur is now employed as a driver. He drives Mr. Duvall to work in the city, Mrs. Duvall to her shopping, their daughter, Aggie, to school. There's a cottage for him and his son, Toby, to live in, congeniality in the mansion's kitchen with the other servants, pleasure in watching Toby grow up alongside charming little Aggie. And so there he has remained for nearly a decade, hidden, unable to confront his shattered faith, his fear, and the measure of everything he has lost. Hidden, that is, until life steps in to release Arthur from his seclusion. On orders from Mr. Duvall, he must drive Aggie to her own confinement in that peculiarly American institution of the 1950s, a home for unwed mothers. The Duvalls' plan to give the baby away shocks Arthur from his emotional slumber--to results that are both unpredictable and inevitable.
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