Awake

by Elizabeth Graver

Book Overview

A mother seeks freedom for her young son-and rediscovers her own need for it in the process-in this powerful novel about family, identity, and love Once a painter, a traveler, a lover of light, Anna... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0156030020
• ISBN13: 9780156030021
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Harvest Books
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

WOW

The story of Max with XP, the light sensitivity disease notwithstanding, Elizabeth Graver captured with such precise detail what is in the mind of the woman losing her identity in the day-to-day struggle of family life, it boggled my mind and I'm sure there are many women out there who related as well as I did. The spiril down when you haven't come first for so long, you don't recognize yourself in the mirror because you never take the time to look into it. Add to that the fact that it was so beautifully written, when I finished it, I wanted to start the book all over again. I found myself reading passages over. I will lend this book to a friend, but I'll be selective because it's a book with a message. Let's not pass judgement.

Awake,the story of an awakening

This is the story of Anna, and her husband Ian,who had a "normal life" with their oldest son Adam.But a few years pass and they have a second son,Max,handicapped by a condition called XP,due to a recessive gene,from each parent.Max cannot be exposed to daylight.He may also, as he grows develop cancerous tumors and die young. Confronted with these problems,the structure of the family seems to be coming apart.Anna,the mother,has put away her talents to homeschool Max. The emotions concerning her son,his condition,her thoughts, are causing her to unravel.What she goes through is so deeply overwhelming,only another mother or father of a handicapped child can understand.It is called grief! Anna is desperate to connect with someone,due to isolation. When she approaches a best friend,a doctor who just gave birth to one month old twins,there is no understanding. This problem is so big and chronic,people don't want to hear about it. The previous year,the family had attended a special camp for XP children and their families.At the camp,Anna comes alive,there are others,just like Max,and she is becoming attracted to the owner,leader(a widower)who has a daughter with the XP gene. It is hard to tear yourself from this book to read what comes next?The writing is superb and the story must unfold.

AWAKE captures the slow unravelling

I thought the author really captured the slow, inner, oft-disguised unravelling of a mother whose child has a disability. The isolation and the loneliness is there, set against the richness of a fascinating environment at the XP kids' camp. Plus the relationship aspects were gripping. I really enjoyed it and I hope her work continues to appear. Christy

Graver's best book yet

A big fan of Elizabeth Graver's, I've read everything she's written that I've been able to get my hands on. While I've enjoyed all of her work, AWAKE shows the way in which Graver keeps getting better. A story about a woman struggling to find happiness and wholeness of self in midlife, AWAKE beautifully captures the inner workings of the protagonist, Anna's, mind. But it's not just Anna that the reader gets to know, as Graver also brings to life Anna's family members (Ian, her husband, and her two boys), as well as friends and lovers from the past and present. The story kept me reading (you want to know where Anna's "awakening" will lead her), but so too did the prose itself. The sentences are REMARKABLE - so dense and flawlessly written, I found myself going back over some of them just to savor the words. Get this book! You won't regret it.

A Wonderful, Moving Novel

I read this novel in one sitting and was totally amazed by Elizabeth Graver's ability to capture the inner life of her narrator. The book starts out looking like it's going to be about raising a child with a serious illness, but it turns out to be about the mother--how much she both loves her family and yearns for parts of her old, pre-mother self; how she struggles with questions of identity and motherhood and love and marriage. The book is set at a camp where all activities take place at night (the sick son can't be in the dark), and the imagery is gorgeous. I've read Graver's other two novels and loved those, too, but I this one feels like her most mature and ambitious. And it's a GREAT read.