Confinement

I bought this book on a whim and am so glad I did. I absolutely loved it. This was one of the most beautifully written books I have ever read. Arthur Henning is a character that I think will stay with me for a long time. His loneliness is overwhelming. I believe his love for Aggie represents to him all that he once had before the war and her child represents all that he lost since. I thought the way Brown kept going back to the Dr. Ornstein character was quite compelling. That was what seemed to be the single most life altering moment for Arthur. The loss of his wife and daughter, Toby leaving, his unrequited love for Aggie - these were almost inevitable for Arthur based on what happened to Dr. Ornstein. Brown's ability to go from the present to the past all in the same paragraph was excellent and did not detract from the story in any way. Her portrayal of the Duvall's and Mrs. MacCauley were excellent, although I would have liked to know more about what made the Duvall's the way they were. Still, this is a wonderful book that I highly recommend. I look forward to reading Ms. Browns other books.

'confinement' is one of the best books i have read in many years. usually i shy away from refugee stories because they become horribly sentimental, but this is just a nice story about a displaced german tailor. the writing style is good, the characters are well developed, and the ending is complete and satisfying. it shows clearly how persons with solid character persevere. buy this and get a copy for a good friend.dgs

THIS IS AN INCREDIBLE BOOK. That's all I have to say. It has changed my life.

Longing, loss and suffering are the themes of Confinement, a gorgeously written and emotionally charged novel by Carrie Brown. I couldn't put this book down. This is a beautiful story, which brims over with passion and symbolism, as Brown melodiously recounts the complex and tortured life of Arthur Henning, a rather cloistered and resolute Jewish man - a refugee from Nazi Austria - who, together with his young son Toby, starts a new life as a chauffeur in America at a country estate, the home of the Duvall family. As his life in America settles, he watches Toby grow up along side the Duvalls' daughter Aggie. When Aggie falls pregnant, Mr. Duvall orders Arthur to drive her to Breakabeen, a home for unwed mothers. Arthur is shocked at the way her parents treat Aggie and when he learns of their decision to put the baby up for adoption he wants to save Agatha. Consequently, he begins to fall in love with her. The confinement of the title is the confinement of the soul, as Arthur, a lonely man who is hiding from his past, seems unable to reclaim his life. His relationship with Aggie, however, releases him from his emotional slumber. For Arthur, Aggie is also a victim of persecution and confinement. Someone has taken advantage of her - her kindness, her humour and the decency that stood in her character. And his desire for her "becomes a boulder" which he cannot see around. Twenty years of his life in America seems to him a "sorry, shabby thing" and although he has been forced to reinvent himself, his sudden attraction to Aggie makes him question the type of man he has become. His first winter in America is a private epilogue to the war, "a final, quite chapter in which nothing has happened and every loss will be felt over again." He remembers his wife Anna, and their baby, killed in the London blitz. And he is haunted by images of his friend, pianist and surgeon Dr Ornstein, sitting in his coffee shop just before he was brutally assaulted by the SS. He's obsessed by these ghostly images from the past, living a cloistered life in the United States, while also lamenting his Jewish faith, which "drifts life a river without banks to guide it", forever extinguished in the face of war. Brown is a gifted stylist, whose prose is meticulously whittled and surefooted. Her powers of description are formidable - Arthur wants his own past to be erased, "to shiver and break up like water fleeing through his fingers." Confinement is narrated in a generous, patient, and intelligent voice, and the author almost presents the subject matter from the perspective of an insider, clear eyed and without sentimentality. This is a fine novel, about a man who feels he has lost everything, and who stands empty handed, but who, in the end achieves redemption. Mike Leonard March 04

Like most of Carrie Brown's work, this one radiates with beauty -- the beauty of language and of a great story. Where she has outdone herself is in the emotional effect of the novel. I frankly wasn't prepared to love this book, and indeed felt a little impatient in the first 1/2 chapter or so. But Brown masterfully interweaves not only the characters' lives and circumstances, but also all the different kinds and consequences of love and sacrifice. It's this trait that sets it apart.There are no cheap thrills or manufactured emotions here... nothing contrived. Brown respects her readers, and it shows. Rather, this novel and its characters step quietly into the reader's life, as if they'd been waiting for our attention all along. They spin their wonderful story, and ask only for us to watch and listen. Believe me, it's enough.