About this title: The National Book Award-winning author of "Ship Fever" delivers her eagerly anticipated new novel, set in 1916, in an isolated town in the Adirondacks, far from the war raging in Europe.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Very good. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. 1410403653 Former library item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned. Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. read more
Description: Good. 0393061086 Former library item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned. Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. read more
Description: Good. 0393061086 Former library item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned. Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. read more
Description: Good. 0393061086 Former library item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned. Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. read more
Description: Good. 0393061086 Former library item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned. Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. read more
Description: Good. Purchasing this item supports Pierce County libraries. Thriftbooks and PCL have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Like New. Former Library book. Book in almost Brand New condition. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Acceptable. Former Library book. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: W.W. Norton
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780393333077ISBN:0393333078
Description: Very Good. This book is in very good used condition. The binding is tight and pages are clean. The cover has bumps, scuffs and a crease on the bottom corner of the front cover. There is no creasing on the spine. It has been corner and edge bumped. read more
Description: Fine. 0393333078 Ships next business day. NEW/UNREAD! ! ! Text is Clean and Unmarked! --Be Sure to Compare Seller Feedback and Ratings before Purchasing--Has a small black line on bottom/exterior edge of pages. May have light shelf wear to cover from storage, if any. read more
Edition: First Edition; First Printing
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, New York
Date Published: 2007
Description: Fine. An Advance Reading Copy in pictorial wrappers. Detached from the rest of the country on the eve of World War I, the tuberculosis-stricken residents of an Adirondack lakeside sanatorium are housed in accordance with their economic status and languish in their isolation before an enterprising patient initiates a weekly discussion group. read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Edition: Advanced Reading Copy.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Date Published: 2007
Description: Fine. No dust jacket as issued. Like New and Unread condition. Advance Reader's Copy in softcover. Will be well protected for safe shipping. 297 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co
Date Published: 2008-10-17
ISBN-13:9780393333077ISBN:0393333078
Description: New. New, unread, unused & in perfect condition with no damaged or missing pages. Pre-release book with different cover. Great Copy. Ships Lightning Fast. read more
"The Air We Breathe returns us to Barrett's world of recurring characters (this time with a handy family tree at the back!) and follows the tale of Leo Marburg, whom we first met as an old man in Barrett's earlier short story collections. Here, Leo is a young man, newly diagnosed with tuberculosis, taking the cure in the Adirondacks, who interacts with other patients and one Miles Fairchild, whose wealth and self-importance will change more than one life at the sanatorium. The novel is told in the voice of an unknown narrator, also a patient. There's a romance and some parallels to the study of chemistry and x-ray machines. For me the novel drags and gets bogged down by the focus on getting well... I wanted to push the story along and tell the characters to move it! Leo's immigrant story sounds more colorful and compelling than his recuperation and I was frustrated to have so little of it. But, knowing Barrett, we'll revisit Leo and the others again in the future and continue to fill in the world of these characters."
"This was a great airplane read; not too difficult to read and very easy to become enmeshed in the story and characters. I read it in seven hours and it was a wonderful way to pass the flight time. The setting is an upstate New York small town which has become a haven for the wealthy and not so wealthy who have contracted TB in 1917-1918. There is a complicated love story, a WWI element, a socialist/ capitalist conflict and a thread which details the struggle of three women to rise above the conventions of a stifling society to follow their dreams. I love stories with many layers which are set deeply in a specific historical context and I love stories about topics I don't know much about. This is a book both men and women will enjoy and I would imagine would see much differently.
"Based on the recommendation I received on this book, I expected a lot more from it. I do have to give kudos to the author for the huge amount of research she must have done to write the story. The plot centers on a tuberculosis sanitorium in upstate New York during the era of WWI. The details were so interesting as to the treatment of TB patients at that time. Plus, one of the characters was mesmerized by dinosaur digs and the information on that was unbelievable. I just thought the writing got a bit dreary at times. It was told in narrative form, but as a reader you are never informed as to who the narrator was."
"Set in upstate New York's Adirondack Mountains in 1916 as the U.S. prepares to enter WWI, this story follows the lives of patients and care providers at a tuberculosis sanitarium for the indigent. Near the beginning of the novel, a wealthy business man, also staying in the mountains to recover from TB - but at one of the private cure cottages only afforded to the privileged, decides to begin a Wednesday lecture series at the sanitarium, whereby every Wednesday evening a different person (starting with himself) would be in charge of educating the group about something in which they are quite interested. For example, Miles, the business man whose idea the group was, began by lecturing for the first three Wednesdays about his passion of paleontology. It is these Wednesday sessions that set off a string of events around which the story revolves.
A number of themes dominate this book including: science (Chemistry in particular), anti-German sentiments spurred by the war, conditions for and treatment of immigrants, fear of socialism (sound familiar these days.....?), friendship, fear, and unrequited love.
I liked this book, but at times felt like it was just dragging on, and on, and ................................ I wished it had just picked up the pace a little in the narrative and then it would have been a 4 star for me. The characters were interesting and well-developed whether I liked them or not. It had one very interesting aspect that I'm not sure I can remember ever reading in another book: It seemed to be written from the point of view of the omniscient, collective "we". The "we" was the entire group of patients from the sanitarium. Strange to be reading from that point of view, and it kept me wondering throughout how or if the "we" would ever be fully explained - yet, lo and behold, at the end it was.
I recommend this book if any of the above themes interest you. If you enjoy this one, you may want to read more of Barrett's books because, apparently, some of the characters from this story appear in her other books, as well. In the back of this book is a 2-page family tree making the connections for the reader about how various characters from many of her books are related to one another."
We guarantee every item's condition, as described on Alibris. If you are not satisfied that an item is as described, return your purchase for a refund.
rating
