Rating: 
Summary: Slightly Let Down
Review: I have to temper my comments on "Disobedience" by stating that after reading the magnificent "A Map of the World," I expected to be blown away by everything Jane Hamilton created thereafter. Unfortunately, upon first reading "Disobedience," I found myself to be more than a little disappointed.The idea is simple enough: 17 year old Henry Shaw accidently stumbles upon a stream of e-mails between his mother and her extramarital lover. Of course, this discovery forces Henry to re-examine everything he thinks he knows about his family, himself, and life in general. I found this basic story to be a compelling idea rich with possibilities. Unfortunately, the story seems to lose focus on more than one occassion, and moves relatively slowly throughout. I found Henry's sister, Elvira, to be horribly over-examined from the beginning; a mistake only slightly redeemed by the end of the book. With all of that being said, I find myself growing more fond of the book as I put more distance between myself and the reading. I believe the priciple idea behind it was unique and compelling. I admire the fact that writers like Hamilton can create a novel from something so simple, so un-earth-shattering. I'd probably enjoy it more upon a second read. Of course, that may not be enough to tempt you to give it a first read.
Rating: 
Summary: Another good book by a great writer
Review: Jane Hamilton has perfect pitch! Each word, each sentence, each character is in perfect harmony. The Shaw family of four is disobedient in terms of middle-class, upper-midwest morals. Elvira, the 13-year-old sister and most colorful character in the book, a cross-dressing civil war living historian, seeks every possible opportunity to get it wrong. The father, an amateur historian and professional teacher, lacks passion and presence. Elizabeth, the mother, recreates period music on the piano, has an affair with a violinist, and arranges trysts for Henry, her 17-year-old son. Henry reads his mother's e-mail. Sometimes, even great signers choose odd operas and inappropriate roles. Ms. Hamilton's choice of a seventeen-year-old male for her first person voice was odd. Certain scenes were nearly perfect. Most seemed much more like the son's voice as imagined by the mother. Tolstoy's Anna Karenina works. Hamilton as Henry doesn't. If you're looking for a book about a seventeen-year-old boy becoming a man, don't look here. If you're looking for some of the best writing in America, buy this book. Jane Hamilton is among the best writers in the country.
Rating: 
Summary: Family life revealed!
Review: I listened to the cassette version -- twice! The tapes make wonderful travel companions on a long journey. Other reviewers have summarized the plot. Seventeen-year-old Henry discovers his mother is having an affair. Meanwhile, his sister Elvira engages in Civil War games, posing as "Elvernon," a hard-core participant, to the consternation of the same mother. Kevin, the father, comes across as a fairly passive history teacher, who supports the daughter and doesn't seem to interact much with Henry. Other reviewers complain that the narrator doesn't seem seventeen. Well, he's not! Right at the outset, he reveals that he's writing about events that happened about ten years earlier, so he's 27 or 28. During the year of the novel, he's a realistic, if somewhat precocious, teenager. Wisely, the narrative focuses on the most contradictory characters: Henry's mother Beth and his sister Elvira. Beth can be a paragon of domesticity (flipping her award-winning pancakes for breakfast) but she also has her book club and her affair. And in one scene, Henry suspects she's pushed him towards a romantic liaison. Elvira's passion is the Civil War, especially 1862. She has a female friend who typifies today's overconfident preteens, but she's happiest when she's in the field posing as "Elvernon." Elvira refuses to wear dresses and, at one point, shaves her head. Her mother worries: Is Elvira going to become a Lesbian? Kevin, the father, hovers in the background, often pulled by his own intellectual curiosity. However, Kevin understands Elvira and he reveals true wisdom when he points out that her Civil War re-enactments will give her skills wherever she ends up. And he behaves heroically in a crucial scene near the end. Hamilton's pacing is flawless. We move through some humorous episodes -- a wedding, visit to Beth's lover, visit to a fortune-teller, first love at camp -- to reach the pivotal scene of destruction. There is considerable irony as Beth and Elvira inadvertently contribute to each other's crisis.
I can't say more without spoiling a magnificent ending. It's the kind of book you want to discuss when you're done -- a perfect selection for a book club, preferably one that's more serious than the one in this book!
Rating:
Summary: Bold Decisions
Review: A rite of passage story about Henry, who at 17 has discovered his mother's infidelity by reading her email messages, Disobedience explores complex family and gender themes. Marital strife, the disillusionment of a young man with his mother, a pubescent girl's rejection of her female self, and the desire of all members of the family to live in some form of fantasy rather than reality form the spine of this story. Jane Hamilton has made some bold decisions as an author in the writing of Disobedience. Henry's imagination about the affair is the primary source of information about his mother's feelings. Hamilton loops back and forth through time as she follows Henry's description of the events of his senior year from his vantage point as an adult almost ten years later. Hamilton has written a novel about infidelity in which the wife, the husband and the lover are all still likable, wherein no one person is painted with a black and white brush. The Shaw family that Henry observes is both distanced by time and brought forward by passion in such a way that the reader is never at rest, never lulled into an easy acceptance of the narrative line. I highly recommend Disobedience for a thought or discussion-provoking read. Just don't expect it to be unchallenging.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful writing, but......
Review: There is no question that Jane Hamilton is one very talented author. The woman is literate, funny and tells one hell of a story. "Disobedience" is no exception to this. Filled with the quirky, amusing antics of the Shaw family, Hamilton creates characters you want to know. When mother Beth Shaw's extra-marital affair is discovered by her email snooping son, the Shaw's lives become an open book. Herein lies my problem with the novel; the voice of our narrator Henry, the son in question. Henry is a seventeen year old boy, albeit a witty, intellectual one, but a teenage boy none the less. While Henry's dry observations had me laughing out loud on many occasions, a voice inside my head kept saying one thing over and over. "This is great writing, and I'm enjoying this story, but this is not how a seventeen year old boy talks or thinks, this is the voice of a middle aged woman" In her quest to be literary, the author has made Henry's narration far too mature and urbane to be believable. Even the most sophisticated seventeen year old would not have the life experience necessary to form the types of opinions on sexuality, infidelity and marraige that Henry is apparently capable of. While the novel is enjoyable and worth reading, Henry's voice never quite rings true.
Rating:
Summary: The power of family stories
Review: I love the way Jane Hamilton uses words. Her sentences soar yet the language is down to earth. Henry's description of his mother's infidelity tells the story of all families and their struggles. How family members can love and hate each other. How they wonder how they could even be related but will defend each other against all foes. I loved the different ways Beth Shaw could be and express herself depending on who she was with. Jane Hamilton lets us in on the secret that our lives all have many pages waiting to be discovered.
Rating:
Summary: falling off the pedestal
Review: When I first started teaching, I remember wondering to myself how in the world I was ever going to be a teacher . . . after all, teachers were perfect people! Growing up I always thought that my teachers walked on water. How could I aspire to be one of them? Of course it didn't take long to find out that teachers actually weren't perfect. That upset me at first. I guess that's what happens when someone falls off the pedestal. This is what happens to Henry in the novel Disobedience. At the age of 17- half boy, half man- Henry realizes that his mother is more than a mother- she is a woman and she is not perfect. This realization upsets, yet intrigues him. The remainder of the novel is a series of his reflections about human nature, families, and the complications of our lives. I thought Jane Hamilton did an excellent job of examining family dynamics in Disobedience. Her story brings to light what we all know but often fail to acknowledge- that you never really know what goes on in peoples' private lives (unless you know their email password). Seemingly happy marriages- and families- are often not what they appear to be. Often people are disobedient. This may be an "old story with nothing new in it," but it is intriguing nevertheless.
Rating:
Summary: Slightly Let Down
Review: I have to temper my comments on "Disobedience" by stating that after reading the magnificent "A Map of the World," I expected to be blown away by everything Jane Hamilton created thereafter. Unfortunately, upon first reading "Disobedience," I found myself to be more than a little disappointed. The idea is simple enough: 17 year old Henry Shaw accidently stumbles upon a stream of e-mails between his mother and her extramarital lover. Of course, this discovery forces Henry to re-examine everything he thinks he knows about his family, himself, and life in general. I found this basic story to be a compelling idea rich with possibilities. Unfortunately, the story seems to lose focus on more than one occassion, and moves relatively slowly throughout. I found Henry's sister, Elvira, to be horribly over-examined from the beginning; a mistake only slightly redeemed by the end of the book. With all of that being said, I find myself growing more fond of the book as I put more distance between myself and the reading. I believe the priciple idea behind it was unique and compelling. I admire the fact that writers like Hamilton can create a novel from something so simple, so un-earth-shattering. I'd probably enjoy it more upon a second read. Of course, that may not be enough to tempt you to give it a first read.
Rating:
Summary: Disobedience
Review: The title says it all. Each member of the family disobeyed and broke trust with the other family members. I finished the book because it was the selection for that month for my book group. But it's not among my favorites. It's not a "must read."
Rating:
Summary: Looking back without anger
Review: "Disobedience" is written as a first-person narrative ten years after the events of the story take place. A 17 year old "boy" (hmmm - there's that fine line between boy and man. . evident in the story itself) finds himself the unintended eavesdropper on his mother's affair through her e-mails. His own relationship with each of his parents, and theirs with his 13 year-old sister, a fanatic Civil War re-enactor who dresses and plays the role of a male, is colored by his secret knowledge of his mother's liaisons. The family is quirky enough, and the boy's insights into the absurdity of the male/female psyche keep the book moving, and filled with wry humor. The abridged audio version is only 4 cassettes - a "quick read." I highly recommend this work by an author whose work I have not read before. In fact, I have avoided opening any of her books because she was an Oprah Book Club pick!
| 
