When Madeline was Young - Hardcover

Hamilton, Jane

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385516711 ISBN 13: 9780385516716

Publisher: Doubleday, 2006

Synopsis

Jane Hamilton, award-winning author of The Book of Ruth and A Map of the World, is back in top form with a richly textured novel about a tragic accident and its effects on two generations of a family.

When Aaron Maciver’s beautiful young wife, Madeline, suffers brain damage in a bike accident, she is left with the intellectual powers of a six-year-old. In the years that follow, Aaron and his second wife care for Madeline with deep tenderness and devotion as they raise two children of their own.

Narrated by Aaron's son, Mac, When Madeline Was Young chronicles the Maciver family through the decades, from Mac’s childhood growing up with Madeline and his cousin Buddy in Wisconsin through the Vietnam War, through Mac’s years as a husband with children of his own, and through Buddy’s involvement with the subsequent Gulf Wars. Jane Hamilton, with her usual humor and keen observations of human relationships, deftly explores the Maciver's unusual situation and examines notions of childhood (through Mac and Buddy’s actual youth as well as Madeline’s infantilization) and a rivalry between Buddy’s and Mac’s families that spans decades and various wars. She captures the pleasures and frustrations of marriage and family, and she exposes the role that past relationships, rivalries, and regrets inevitably play in the lives of adults.

Inspired in part by Elizabeth Spencer’s Light in the Piazza, Hamilton offers an honest and exquisite portrait of how a family tragedy forever shapes and alters the boundaries of love.

About this title

Review:

"Mesmerizing. . . . Bittersweet, funny. . . . Hamilton affirms her status as one of our most magnetic and provocative novelists." --The Chicago Tribune"Among the most graceful and thoughtful writers to work the fertile ground that is the Midwestern family." --The Atlantic Monthly "Utterly elevating and joyful, a long spiritual drink in a parched landscape." --The Washington Post"A study in grace and compassion." --The Boston Globe"Hamilton's new novel is not to be forgotten." --USA Today

From the Publisher:

A tragic accident and its lasting impact upon two generations of a big American family, by the Orange Prize shortlisted author of The Short History of a Prince

About this edition

• Publisher: Doubleday
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0385516711
• ISBN 13: 9780385516716
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 273