No comments about The Vision of Emma Blau.

5 comments about The Vision of Emma Blau.

1. She is fast becoming one of my favorite authors. This book is filled with so many emotions and events my mind is still going over everything. Def a book that stays with you for awhile. I wanted to comfort the characters and felt as if I was myself living at the Wasserburg. I do agree that the characters had a sad tone to them, but none the less, made for a book I couldn't put down!



2. I listened to this book on tapes. Beautifully written and read by the author.



3. Was this book about anything? If so, I missed it. I only saw an attempt at a counterpart to "Stones" that didn't come off.
   Instead I feel battered by the message of, "Gosh, it's hard being German," which worked in the earlier book and fell flat in this one. Hard being German in this country in WWII? Maybe. But not as hard as it was, say in WWI. Not as hard as it was being German in Germany in WWII. Or as hard as being Jewish in either country. Or black.
   It's not just an annoying message; it's unbearably trite, and I finished the book because I couldn't believe it wouldn't get better, while promising myself I never had to read another one.



4. With dreams of adventure and fortune in his mind's eye, 13-year-old Stefan Blau ran away from his German home, setting sail for a new life in America.
   
   He arrived with nothing - but thanks to hard work and a bit of luck, Stefan became a successful New Hampshire restaurant owner before his twenties were through. Full of vision and confidence, Stefan dares to build the Wasserburg - German for "water fortress" - a large, modern waterfront apartment building unlike anything area residents have ever seen before.
   
   Over the coming decades, the Wasserburg becomes the center of Stefan's - and many residents' -lives. There's old Miss Garland, a retired spinster who weaves stories about a tragically killed young fiance until she herself scarcely remembers the truth; and the Braddocks, with their young retarded daughter Fanny. Outrageous Pearl Bloom, who shocked the community by marrying her husband after a courtship of hours, forms a lifelong friendship with Helene, Stefan's quiet, German-born third wife, an awkward woman who never thought she'd marry. As the building expands, Stefan hires the Wilsons as live-in caretakers. With them comes their nephew Danny, who will one day be important to young Tobias Blau in a way few might imagine.
   
   As the decades pass, readers experience the changing world through the eyes of the Blaus, their family and friends. In the beginning of the book, America is at the cusp of the 20th century, full of hope and exciting new inventions. Two world wars later - one of which causes incredible discomfort for the German-American Blaus among their neighbors - it's evident how much the Blaus and the world have changed, and not necessarily for the better.
   
   Hegi's book, Stones by the River, ties in nicely with this book, and characters and scenes overlap in each, especially during the World War II years.
   
   Since I first read this book several years ago, I have reread it at least a half dozen times. With every reading, I continue to notice new details and levels of meaning that escaped me before. Hegi's characters and the world they inhabit are just as intense and realistic as any you could hope to meet in person.



5. Hegi's remarkable family saga is about nothing less than the American Dream, and in this novel that dream is represented by the Wasserburg, a "flamboyant" and "conspicuous," six-storied, 36-apartment building overshadowing a small New Hampshire town, "its reflection biting into the lake further than anything [the townspeople] had built." In spite of its out-of-place opulence, the building "elevated the town's reputation among neighboring communities," as well as the reputation of its owner and builder, Stefan Blau, for whom the Wasserburg stands as a symbol of his arrival, achievement, and acceptance in his new homeland.
   
   As multilayered and extravagant as Hegi's novel, Stefan's dream-house has room for a colorful assortment of residents, and much of the novel's warmth, humor, and pathos come from their sideshow exploits. His children, however, occupy the center stage--and they are mostly a disappointment to him; none of them fulfill the "vision" he has for an heir to his estate, and they all bear the brunt of his unapproachable temper. "He was not well suited to be a father. And here he was with three children, but without the skill or habit of asking forgiveness." Secretive Tobias holds a longstanding, petulant grudge against his father, an inherited stubbornness instigated by a childhood prank, and he swears that he won't even attend Stefan's funeral. Robert has a secret of his own, an eating disorder that his girth can't hide. And, Greta, "the only child who'd made him feel a worthy father," inherits three million dollars from the mother of Stefan's second wife and ultimately lets him down by setting up an ascetic existence in the smallest apartment of the building, where she nurses a covert love for a priest from Boston.
   
   It is Stefan's granddaughter, Emma, who finally finds a way to his love and who promises to be the fulfillment of his dream. Although their lives intersect for only a small portion of Emma's childhood, Stefan's love for the Wasserburg leaves an indestructible impression. But dreams and visions change with the times, and the building that was a luxurious testimonial to an immigrant's ambition and success early in the twentieth century has become a dated, run-down boondoggle by the end of it. It takes Emma far too long to learn what her grandfather never did: that friends and family, not buildings, are the stuff of dreams.

5 comments about Sacred Time: A Novel.

1. What should a family do when its fabric has been irreparably torn by an unintended tragic accident? Should its members seek to forget and minimize the trauma caused by sudden loss? How can those who suffer from guilt face those who have rage boiling beneath an appearance of acceptance? Ursula Hegi tackles these issues in her compelling and important novel, "Sacred Time," a work which tracks one family's journey through fifty years of suppressed mourning, recrimination and remorse.
   
   Hegi is at her best when she focuses on Anthony Amedeo, who is at the epicenter of tremors unleashed by a fatal accident which he innocently abetted during his Bronx childhood. "Marked and isolated" by his involvement in the accident, suffused with "dread and fear," Anthony's life has been marked by his conscious repudiation of wants. He has concluded that his childhood desire -- for his own space, his own toys, his own personality -- has caused his family to fracture. Confiding to his estranged wife as an adult, Anthony's characterization of himself as "the devil" encapsulates his self-hatred, his suspicion that life offers little to hope for and much to be afraid of.
   
   The loss of his cousin is "one huge ripple -- a tidal wave, rather" that "seized" all the members of his family and "flung" them into a territory where there is "no common focus, only conflicting angles of vision, colliding and aligning" in a "chaotic mosaic." Marraiges crumble; silences replace language, and the children affected by the tragedy struggle to regain their bearings. Anthony's cousin Belinda is haunted by the absence of her twin sister, and it is with great difficulty that she emerges as an intact adult.
   
   Hegi is masterful in her recreation of the Bronx during the McCarthy scare of the early 1950s. Her use of dialogue advances a crisp narrative, and she seems to have a genuinely compassionate sensitivity for the life of a child whose dreams are altered first by family circumstances and then by tragedy. Anthony's mother, Leonora, is by far the most complicated and satisfying of the adult characters of the novel.
   
   Less convincing is the author's treatment of Anthony's aunt Floria. Over one-third of the novel explores her psychological metamorphosis, and much of that simply doesn't work. Floria's extended stay in Italy devolves into maudlin melodrama; her death is depicted in a quasi-Joycean stream of consciousness that is contrived and predictable. Hegi doesn't seem to realize that the greatest strength of "Sacred Time" is its treatment of serious emotional questions through a powerful narrative. When she overwrites or gets bogged down in psychobabble, her novel becomes mundane.
   
   Early in the novel, the child Anthony rejoices at the stories told by his family. His mother and aunt compete to retell, embellish and recreate "one thread of a story and spin it along." With "passion," family members listen, then "leap into a story and spin it along." "Sacred Time" succeeds because it advances Anthony's odyssey through the thread of a story, a thread which finds itself in the lives of the entire Amedeo family. That thread of hidden fear, unspoken grief and unforgiven remorse, when stitched properly, makes this a novel worth reading and remembering.



2. I found this book on an awards list and listened to it on CD. It was difficult to finish because I just didn't care about any of the characters. The only redeeming part of the book is the charming narrative with which it opens, told from the viewpoint of a little boy growing up in a close-knit Italian-American family. But the narratives of the adults, which follow, are predictable and fall hopelessly flat. There are the obligatory infidelities and a lesbian dalliance, and there is even some completely gratuitous George Bush bashing! There is much better contemporary fiction out there.



3. Sacred Time" follows two lines of one Italian-American family during the last half of the 20th century as its members try to integrate and move on from a shared and tragic event.
   
   I found this story less inspiring than Hegi's "Stones from a River", too preoccupied with loss, guilt, longing and death. But Hegi goes as deeply into the particulars of her settings and locales as she does when she's exploring the minds and hearts of her characters, or what it's like to feel tired and sweaty, or how we sometimes see in strangers reflections of something in ourselves. This impeccable depth of detail makes this book really good.
   
   Told from the perspectives of several family members, the story opens onto urban childhoods amid popular commercial artefacts of the 1950's - Studebakers, Woolworth's jewelry packaging, Howdy Doody, Dragnet, and Davy Crockett. There's even one of those dime store pictures of Jesus that gave him too good (surely she means too orange?) a tan.
   
   This charming coming-of-age tale suddenly shifts, catapulting the reader, along with the family, into a tragedy that affects each member forever. Hegi is able to maintin a consistently calm and lyrical tone however harrowing are the emotions she's so tenderly handling. It is this ability that inspired me rather than the story's content.
   
   While I enjoyed its vivid characterisations, the book was overall so dark and sad that I'm now yearning for something lighthearted, such as a drive along Liguria's coast (Liguria provided one setting for Floria, a character I really felt for), or some pretty martini, or a night out swing-dancing to really happy music.



4. Anthony, seven years old, is fairly content. His father has a good catering business and his mother and grandparents dote on him. He even likes his cousins, eight-year-old Belinda and Bianca, in small doses. Now Christmas is coming, though, and his uncle is in jail again, so his aunt and cousins have moved in with his family. Anthony is crowded out of his space. He has to share his room with his cousins, and his aunt's sewing materials are taking up much of the apartment's living room. Anthony also picks up on his mother's irritation at having to take in their relatives, which adds to his overall stress. One day while Anthony and Bianca are alone in a room, she falls out of the sixth-floor window to her death.
   
   This tragedy affects the entire family. Anthony is guilty about his part in Bianca's death, and weighted down by his family's unspoken belief that he pushed her. Belinda is guilty of picking a fight with her twin just before her death, and she stands as a permanent reminder of what the family has lost. The twins' father is guilty of having been in prison when his daughter died, unable to even attend the funeral. Anthony's parents and aunt all feel as though they should have been able to do something to avert this tragedy.
   
   The writing in this story was beautiful, and it was interesting to read events from different points of view. However, it was sad to read about a family that was broken and even over the course of decades, was unable to fix itself. It seems that if Anthony had been encouraged to tell his story, perhaps he, at least, could have been able to heal. Instead, his cousin's death haunted him and ended up affecting the family he started as well as the family in which he grew up.



5. I love all of Ms. Hegi's books and this one was no exception! We start out with a young boy and his point of view. He has an Italian family and they are very amusing. He is an only child, but he has two cousins whom are twins. They are girls though. The girls and his Aunt Floria have no where to go. So they end up living with Anthony and his family. What happens will mark everyone for the rest of their lives, each in their own way.
   
   I love different writing styles and didn't find it all upsetting for this one to jump ahead. Ms Hegi writes so well you didn't even notice. I got enough of a glimpse of everyone I just wish it didn't have to end. I wish I would have gotten this book sooner is my ONLY regret!

5 comments about Stones From the River.

1. This book took me on the journey through a woman's life who just happens to be a zwerg (dwarf). She was an amazing character who experiences an extraordinary life in a small town in Germany. I often can't get through a book because of authors who have phony styles and try too hard. This book, however, is so REAL. It is beautifully written and anyone who disagrees has bad taste (in my not so humble opinion). I couldn't put the book down and at every moment wanted to immerse my mind in the intricate story of Trudi Montag. I stayed up until 4 in the morning 2 nights in a row, unable to stop reading.
   
   The journey this story took me on is not to be missed. I am so grateful that I experienced it!



2. This was my book club's choice last month, and probably not a book I would have picked up on my own. But I enjoyed it. It was a little hard to read with a lot of German words stuck here and here, and a lot of characters to keep track of. But you were rooting for Trudi throughout the book. Got an understanding for what a small person goes through on a regular basis. It also painted a great picture of Nazi occupied Germany, and not only what Jews went through but how good German people did what they needed to, to survive and keep their families alive. I sometimes wondered what was going on in those towns outside the concentration camps and why they didnt ask what was going on..have a pretty good picture now why.



3. Some books disappoint on a second reading, but not this one. When it came time for my book club to read this book I was very excited, because I remembered that I really liked it the first time I read it. And I was not disappointed. I think I liked this book at least as much the second time around as the first.
   
   This is a story with two contrasting themes. One is difference. Told mostly from the perspective of Trudi, a dwarf, who feels how different she is from the members of her community on a daily basis. And she sees how difference in others is persecuted under the Nazis.
   
   The other theme of this book is community. One thing I really liked about this book is how we come to know so many members of Trudi's community throughout their lives. We understand as well as Trudi does why certain members of the community do certain things, because we have known them almost as long as she has. Hegi does a wonderful job of bringing the whole community to life.
   
   And she is more than equal to the task of describing what the advent of Nazism does to this small German community. She does not shy away from the people who enthusiastically embrace Hitler and his party, but she does portray in a more sympathetic way those who at least question Hitler's policies.
   
   Rather than making a judgment call, though, based on how her characters respond to the Third Reich, Hegi seems more interested in demonstrating the range of responses that existed in a small town, and how those differing responses change the character of the town itself.



4. I had to read and annotate this book for AP language/composition. It was the worst book I have ever read in my entire life.



5. This is one of the most original and deeply "human" epics I've ever read. A must read.