Amnesty [Paperback]

Louise A. Blum (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1996

When her father dies, Maura Jaegar emerges from seclusion in rural Pennsylvania and returns to her small hometown, where she must come to terms with her brother's death in Vietnam, her troubled childhood, and her mother's disapproval of her homosexuality. IP.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This uneven first novel, about a young woman prompted by the death of her father to excavate a miserable childhood, fails to achieve its potential but is distinguished by a stylistic fierceness that commands attention. Maura Jaeger, 30, is a lonely lesbian teaching English at a rural Pennsylvania college when she's summoned home to bury her father, whom she hasn't seen for almost 13 years. Maura's memories of his cruelty spin the narrative back to 1968, when her eldest brother, Zach, dodged the draft, bringing disfavor on the family. As the story moves slowly forward to 1988, impressive highlights include the return of Maura's other war-weary brother, Colin, from Vietnam, where he'd gone to fight in a futile attempt to win his parents' approval, and poignant, sharply observed scenes of Maura's budding sexuality and her attempts at salvation through writing. The narrative is marred by Maura's overly self-conscious alienation, however, and by the lack of depth of most of the characters. The funeral scene, in which Maura, Colin and Mrs. Jaeger see Zach for the first time in 20 years, fizzles because of the flat portrayals. After setting up a classic family confrontation through a wealth of background and impassioned writing, Blum winds up showing us not much more than emotionally wounded people whom time has done little to change or heal.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

These two first novels illustrate how tricky and delicate it is to go home again out of family obligation and concern and to hang onto your self-respect once you get there?especially when you've been estranged from your parents for a long while not for what you've done but for who you are. This is exactly the situation that Dixie faces in Getting to the Point. Dixie's grandmother is dying, so she goes home to help care for her over the summer. But her father, Ed, an insecure, self-righteous bigot, has never forgiven Dixie for ending her marriage and living as a lesbian. As a result, he alternates between hostility and coldness during Dixie's visit. In this climate, no healing or reconciliation will ever take place. But Dixie begins to speak up for herself, supported by her mother, her grandmother, and her lover, Sarah. Unfortunately, though Stores is good at creating tension between characters through dialog and plot line, her writing isn't very polished, and her characters are often stereotypes or caricatures. Still, the issues she raises about healing old wounds are important. In Amnesty, Maura goes home to bury her father. Like Dixie, she is ambivalent about returning since her parents threw her out of the house 13 years earlier for having had a relationship with a high school girlfriend. Shifting back and forth from the late 1960s up to the late 1980s, this book describes Maura's brother's exile to Canada to avoid the draft during the Vietnam War as well as her own exile several years later. In both cases, her father, a lonely, bitter man who has retreated into alcohol, disapproved of and rejected his children. Maura can't reconcile with him now, but she may be able to make peace with her mother and brothers. Or can she? Blum's writing is polished and strong. She makes the sadness and emptiness of her characters so real that readers are pulled right into the story as it unfolds. This is the first novel for both writers, although Blum has been published before in three anthologies. Recommended for general readers.?Lisa Nussbaum, Euclid P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 206 pages
• Publisher: Alyson Books; First Edition edition (September 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1555833810
• ISBN-13: 978-1555833817
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,265,173 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written, a snapshot of one woman's life, August 1, 1999

By A Customer

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This review is from: Amnesty (Hardcover)

This book is beautifully written. Amnesty tells the life story of Maura Jaeger, from her own perspective. You actually see the world through Maura's eyes. While this may seem like a limited fiew for a book, random thoughts, snapshot memories, arguments, whole days, journal entries combine to allow the reader a chance to climb inside Maura's thoughts and see things from her perspective. Louise A. Blum did an excellent job of expressing the difference between being alone and experiencing loneliness. Maura Jaeger sees time spent alone as a time of power and inner peace. It is also a way for her to reflect, and at times, is her way to let the wild animal of her inner self pace and collect energy. Yet when actual loneliness swallows her, she feels a total loss of her power; life has swept her into its current and she is carried to an unknown and presumably unhappy future. Like the paper families that Maura constructs as a child, only to burn them or set them adrift in a river; the lonely Maura has no control over her future. She floats aimlessly through these lonely times, and all her dreams and hopes are destroyed before she can help herself. It's when she moves from loneliness to being alone that Maura Jaeger finds the strength to stop being alone. Then she has the power to reach out and take charge of her life. Maura's inability to communicate with those she loves, her fear of connecting, and her desire to find a place of acceptance in the world, will strike a chord with many. I had mixed feelings on whether the ending was happy or sad. Maybe it's where you are in your life when you read it that makes the difference. In any case, this is a beautiful, memorable book and I've recommended it to many!

4.0 out of 5 stars A must read!, December 7, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Amnesty (Paperback)

One of the best lesbian novels I have read in a while. Touching and at times amusing. Expect the Unexpected.

4.0 out of 5 stars very real and touching, November 10, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Salt Lake City, Utah) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Amnesty (Paperback)

This book was very touching and I found myself able to relate to it well. The characters are all very real and touching. I loved the part where she transferd to a public school after going all her life to a private one and her coment that the kids seemed more alike in the public school even though they didn't wear uniforms.