Disobedience
by Hamilton, Jane
- Used
- Hardcover
- Signed
- first
- Condition
- Fine in Near Fine dust jacket
- ISBN 10
- 038550117X
- ISBN 13
- 9780385501170
- Seller
-
Wheatfield, New York, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Synopsis
A young man awaits the consequences of his mother's extramarital affair with a violin-maker, information he discovers when he accidentally stumbles across her e-mailbox. From Jane Hamilton, author of the beloved New York Times bestsellers A Map of the World and The Book of Ruth, comes a warmly humorous, poignant novel about a young man, his mother's e-mail, and the often surprising path of infidelity. Henry Shaw, a high school senior, is about as comfortable with his family as any seventeen-year-old can be. His father, Kevin, teaches history with a decidedly socialist tinge at the Chicago private school Henry and his sister attend. His mother, Beth, who plays the piano in a group specializing in antique music, is a loving, attentive wife and parent. Henry even accepts the offbeat behavior of his thirteen-year-old sister, Elvira, who is obsessed with Civil War reenactments and insists on dressing in handmade Union uniforms at inopportune times. When he stumbles on his mother's e-mail account, however, Henry realizes that all is not as it seems. There, under the name Liza38, a name that Henry innocently established for her, is undeniable evidence that his mother is having an affair with one Richard Polloco, a violin maker and unlikely paramour who nonetheless has a very appealing way with words and a romantic spirit that, in Henry's estimation, his own father woefully lacks. Against his better judgment, Henry charts the progress of his mother's infatuation, her feelings of euphoria, of guilt, and of profound, touching confusion. His knowledge of Beth's secret life colors his own tentative explorations of love and sex with the ephemeral Lily, and casts a new light on the arguments-usually focused on Elvira-in which his parents regularly indulge. Over the course of his final year of high school, Henry observes each member of the family, trying to anticipate when they will find out about the infidelity and what the knowledge will mean to each of them. Henry's observations, set down ten years after that fateful year, are much more than the "old story" of adultery his mother deemed her affair to be. With her inimitable grace and compassion, Jane Hamilton has created a novel full of gentle humor and rich insights into the nature of love and the deep, mysterious bonds that hold families together.
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Details
- Bookseller
- A Good Read (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 21646
- Title
- Disobedience
- Author
- Hamilton, Jane
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Fine in Near Fine dust jacket
- Edition
- First Edition
- ISBN 10
- 038550117X
- ISBN 13
- 9780385501170
- Publisher
- Doubleday
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 2000
- Keywords
- 038550117x
Terms of Sale
A Good Read
Refunds issued for all items returned within 30 days undamaged. Returns resulting from the item received by the buyer being different from the one described in the Biblio listing will result in a refund of the book value and all related shipping costs upon return of the item. Books returned for any other reason within 30 days will result in a refund of the book value only.
About the Seller
A Good Read
About A Good Read
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...