The Air We Breathe

The one consolation to being sick this last week, I thought, was that I had just been to the library and had two new books.

Unfortunately for me I picked the wrong one to start with.

I began The Air We Breathe by Andrea Barrett this week and struggled all the way through it. Although, not a long book it took me all week to read. Partly because I was sick and didn't really feel like reading, but mostly because I really didn't like her style of writing.

The story is set in 1916 in an isolated community in the Adirondacks where tubercular patients were being treated. There are two groups of care cottages one for the wealthy who have private cottages and one for charity patients, mainly immigrants, who were in a large public sanatorium. The book is all about the interaction between one rich patient and the poor patients, the use of x-ray in curing these patients, and the war starting up in Europe.

For me there just wasn't enough character development. I really didn't care about any of them and she wrote it from a weird point of view. It was like she was writing from the perspective of all the poor patients as one person but they some how knew what was going on every where else and in everyone else's minds. I just found that confusing.

After I read this book I found out this author's primary focus is on scientific history which makes sense from the page after page of science text book she included in the book.

Just not my thing. But I did start the second book on the last Tsar of Russia and am LOVING it right now. I will let you know!

Kristen