When Madeline Was Young: A Novel [Hardcover]

Jane Hamilton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 19, 2006

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

An unusual ménage poses moral questions in this fifth novel (after Disobedience) from Hamilton, winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award for The Book of Ruth. Aaron and Julia Maciver are living in a 1950s Chicago suburb with their two children—and with Aaron's first wife, Madeline. Aaron has insisted on caring for Madeline after she suffered a brain injury soon after their wedding, leaving her with the mental capacity of a seven-year-old. Refusing to consider this arrangement inconvenient, Julia treats the often-demanding Madeline like a beloved daughter, even letting her snuggle in bed with Aaron and herself when Madeline becomes distraught at night. Decades later, the Macivers' son, Mac, now a middle-aged family practitioner with a wife and teenage daughters, prepares to attend the funeral of his estranged cousin's son, killed in Iraq, and muses about the meaning, and the emotional costs, of the liberal values of his parents. Hamilton brings characteristic empathy to the complex issues at the core of this patiently built novel, but the narrative doesn't take any clear direction. Though Mac suggests there are "gothic possibilities" in his parents' story (partly inspired, Hamilton says, by Elizabeth Spencer's The Light in the Piazza), the Macivers' passions remain tepid and unresolved, and Julia remains an enigma to her son. (Sept. 19)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine

PEN/Hemingway award winner Jane Hamilton (for The Book of Ruth) delivers further proof of her stunning talent in her latest novel. The book is a subtle, provocative exploration of atypical family dynamics set against the backdrop of the tumultuous second half of the 20th century. Though the central plot element (which is partially drawn from Elizabeth Spencer's novella, The Light in the Piazza) is tragic, critics note that instead of becoming mired in grief, Hamilton is interested in the nature of sympathy and the powerful metaphor of a vibrant, happy life stopped in its tracks. It is another brave step in the upward trajectory of this talented writer's career.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday; 1ST edition (September 19, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385516711
• ISBN-13: 978-0385516716
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,316,037 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Lost in Translation, October 11, 2006

By 

Haley Parnham (NJ) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: When Madeline Was Young: A Novel (Hardcover)

As I read this book, When Madeline Was Young, I felt as though I was lost, wandering through a forest, searching for something - a beautiful butterfly, a perfect flower, a mystical cottage. But there's nothing there. It's just a forest full of a confusing tangle of leaves and vines and nothing mystical at all. And that's how this book is written. It is a tangle of thoughts and words, spread from the first page to the last. Nothing special at all.

I've read all of Jane Hamilton's books. I loved The Book of Ruth. Adored A Map of the World. They were both wonderful and I will always have positive comments for them, but I doubt I will ever buy another book by Ms. Hamilton. It's not that I want a "formula" book. But I do want to read something that I can relate to and I don't relate to this at all.

I don't like Mac, the narrator. His mother is just plain strange and not endearing or believable at all. I can't stand Buddy, his cousin. The rest of the characters I barely know and, quite frankly, don't want to get to know. Perhaps I've changed since her first book came out. Perhaps the author has. But whatever the differences, my love of Jane Hamilton's books has ended. Sadly.

19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars What?, October 30, 2006

By 

Reader (Seattle) - See all my reviews

This review is from: When Madeline Was Young: A Novel (Hardcover)

The writing was very disjointed in my opinion. I had to read and re-read many sentences to figure out what the author was trying to say. It was a struggle to read. No likeable characters. I made it to the part where it was introduced that Madeline slept with the ex-husband and current wife. Give me a break! I moved on immediately. Too many good books waiting for me to waste time on this absurd tale.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not Enough "There" There., February 27, 2007

By 

Paprikash (East Coast) - See all my reviews

This review is from: When Madeline Was Young: A Novel (Hardcover)

What Gertrude Stein said about Oakland -- there's not enough "there" there -- is true for "When Madeline Was Young." There's just not enough to grab onto in this book, which I very much wanted to like. I'm a big fan of Jane Hamilton, but this book just doesn't have enough plot points, or enough characterization. It's a novella, not a novel, an intriguing idea without any real development, just a series of incidents set in different decades. For a terrific read about the effect of a mentally disabled sibling on a family, I strongly suggest Sue Miller's "Family Pictures."