- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton (2001)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0340728256
- ISBN-13: 978-0340728253
- Product Dimensions: 21.1 x 14 x 3.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 499 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #2,030,859 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
Inside the house his father's clocks were striking the hour. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Inside the house his father's clocks were striking the hour. Read the first page
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Concordance
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Short of Breath,
By BJ Fraser (Michigan) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Oxygen (Hardcover)
By the time I finished this book, I really wondered what the connection was between the two stories of the story: the story of the Valentine family grappling with the death of the family matriarch, Alice, and the story of Hungarian playwright Lazlo who's caught up in some sort of political intrigue. Then, as rarely happens, I understood that the connection is in Lazlo's play, where at the end the miners underground begin to try tunneling up while someone above ground begins trying to tunnel down to save them. In this case, I'd say the two sides tunneling towards each other are Alice's son Alec (who's also translating the play into English) and Lazlo, but I might be wrong. The play ends ambiguously and so does Miller's book.Ordinarily I would have panned this book because when it ends, there is no resolution, but understanding the metaphor (or hoping I do), it makes sense to me. So I can understand why Miller ended the novel where he did. Still, as a reader I prefer concrete endings that resolve the issues being brought up in the book. My problem, another rarity, is that the book is too short. I was just getting to understand the characters and then the book is over, I'd have liked more time to flesh them out better. The other problem is that not a lot of interesting stuff happens. There's no action, there's not even a lot of dialogue, it's more about people THINKING about things, which while it gives us insight into the characters, does not make for an interesting story. Give me some love scenes, some car chases, a barroom brawl, SOMETHING other than characters contemplating the sad state of the universe. Anyway, what anyone reading this is wondering by now is: should I buy this book? I'd say yes, but only if you've nothing else to read. Miller's writing is good, the characters are decent, and all the contemplating does make you think.
2.0 out of 5 stars
What was the point?,
By A Customer
This review is from: Oxygen (Hardcover)
A friend highly recommended the book, partly because - since I'm Hungarian - one of the characters is an aging Hungarian playwright in Paris who'd once fought in the '56 revolution. Miller's writing style flows beautifully. But it flows nowhere. There are two distinct stories - bridged by the the play Oxygene. In one story, the Valentine sons gather to be with their mother, Alice, who is dying of lung cancer (she was a smoker you see). One of the sons, Alec is also translating the play Oxygene (written by the aging Hungarian in Paris). As Alice lies dying, Laszlo the Hungarian playwright is enjoying life in Paris with his young lover, rubbing facial cream into his skin to rejuvenate it, and mourning his lack of bravery during the revolution when he failed to save a dear friend. Oxygen is presumably the symbolic bridge that connects the two parts of this book since there's absolutely no other connection between the Valentines' story and Laszlo's story. We breathe oxygen you see to live. Alice is dying because she can no longer breathe. And so forth. A somewhat strained metaphor. The journey through a tale is made exciting and meaningful by an emerging character arc: there was next to none for the characters in this book. Maybe I"m old fashioned. I like a story. And I think I'm tired of reading books about dysfunctional families, and the failed 'average man'. No matter how nice the writing style.
2.0 out of 5 stars
I just didn't care to "get it.",
By A Customer
This review is from: Oxygen (Hardcover)
Let me preface by saying this was my first Andrew Miller novel. Based on the description and the reviews I'd read on Amazon, I was looking forward to an exhilarating reading experience. Well, I didn't get it. You probably know the threads of the story: several, unrelated plot lines where each character is challenged. If I cared to, I could discern the links between them all; however, I just did not care enough about the story or the characters to pull the threads together. All through the story, I felt that Miller was just on the edge of taking the plunge to explore these characters more fully, but it never happened. Some characters were well drawn, such as Laszlo and even Larry, but the others were not fully realized. Since the novel had "Finalist for the Booker Prize" emblazoned on its label, I expected more.
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