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Breath and Shadows
Breath and Shadows is about three pairs of people who live in widely separated periods of time -- the late 1700s, late 1800s, and late 1900s. These people, as gradually becomes clear, are three generations of the same family, none of which has any knowledge of the other two. But there exists down through these far-flung generations a meshwork of cause and effect that reverberates all the way into the present.The interrelatedness of these three pairs of people, the twining of their destinies, is the core of the book.
Though the novel takes place in three different centuries, it is rooted in such timeless attributes as social mores, class and money, as well as in historical events such as the battle at Leipzig, where Napoleon was crushed, and the ruins of Berlin in 1945.
These events are woven through the private lives of the characters, among whom are a lonely and young officer, a sculptress trying to find truth in the stone she works with, a man terrified of flying who forces himself to fly constantly, a woman who embodies the ineffable bond between an animal and a human being, and others responding to their world, their natures and their needs. It is a novel about the attempt of human beings to know the past, to know one another and to know themselves. It is about love, loss, sexual passion, human perception and the possibility that the search for goodness may be an act of insanity.
Though the novel takes place in three different centuries, it is rooted in such timeless attributes as social mores, class and money, as well as in historical events such as the battle at Leipzig, where Napoleon was crushed, and the ruins of Berlin in 1945.
These events are woven through the private lives of the characters, among whom are a lonely and young officer, a sculptress trying to find truth in the stone she works with, a man terrified of flying who forces himself to fly constantly, a woman who embodies the ineffable bond between an animal and a human being, and others responding to their world, their natures and their needs. It is a novel about the attempt of human beings to know the past, to know one another and to know themselves. It is about love, loss, sexual passion, human perception and the possibility that the search for goodness may be an act of insanity.
311 pages, Hardcover
First published April 7, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
August 14, 2014
Breath and Shadows
is the second of Ella Leffland’s books I’ve read (having read and reviewed
Rumors of Peace
just a couple of weeks ago), and I have to say that I find her command of the language — not to mention her characterization and setting — virtually without peer. If
Rumors of Peace
was a consummate coming-of-age story,
Breath and Shadows
is a consummate multi-generational family story. I frankly can’t say enough good things about either of them.
Just as I ranked Rumors of Peace right up there with Carson MacCullers’s Member of the Wedding, I’d now have to give Breath and Shadows (given its structural organization) equivalent ranking with Michael Cunningham’s The Hours.
And having just read and reviewed Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Notes from (the) Underground, I can unabashedly state that Ella Leffland’s Thorkild (“Hr. Counselor”) is equally as heinous as the principal (unnamed) character of Dostoyevsky’s novella. What makes Ms. Leffland’s Thorkild doubly interesting, however, is the complete conversion of his character (to that of a doting father) during the hallucinatory stages of his late-life insanity.
A bit of a non sequitur, but a trenchant observation nevertheless from Philip (who, ironically, owns a large business in photographic equipment): “(t)he clicking of cameras wherever you went, as if people thought that by recording every moment of their lives they verified their existence, when in fact they’d been handed a substitute for looking inward and remembering. A frenzy of mechanical duplication. An endless production and consuming of images. A crime against authenticity. A mindless, flooding fraudulence of bits and pieces” (p. 222).
Although this rumination is entirely in keeping with Philip’s mental state at the time he develops it, I suspect the germ of it is also Ella Leffland’s — and I couldn’t agree more as I watch people in droves click, click, click their cell phones like so many mindless sycophants recording the myriad non-events that pepper their empty lives.
And the thoughts of another of her characters, Paula, as Paula considers a painting in a small Swiss church on Christmas Eve are, if not necessarily also Ms. Leffland’s, really quite amusing: “(h)er thoughts wandered. She looked at a painting of the Annunciation on the wall beside her, dimly lit by one of the small candles. It was not very good, a humble little country cousin of Van Eyck’s masterpiece. She tried to see beauty in it, even though she did not believe in the Annunciation, and even though she herself would have been furious if, as an unsuspecting young girl going about her daily tasks, she had suddenly had a divine pregnancy thrust upon her. The nerve. The gall. It should be called the Presumption” (p. 231).
One of the particular strengths Ms. Leffland exhibits in this novel, given the time lapse of a century between each of the three generations, is a consistency and accuracy of thought, speech and action with the time at which her characters lived. As a reader, you can be easily transported across centuries by the deftness of Ms. Leffland’s pen, and nothing she describes or puts into the mouths of her characters ever sounds anachronistic.
I suspect Ms. Leffland is a cat lover. Why do I think this? The following is just one of many examples: “Olaf has lain down on the carpet of moss. From the rocky little spring there issues a limpid murmur. Overhead the beech trees rustle with the passage of birds, whose calls filter down through the greenness. He stretches his knobby spine and tucks his paws under his chest, and for a while he sleeps. Then his pale green eyes open, and he lies there waiting. His good, his uncrumpled ear flicks from time to time. He waits for a sound, a scent, a touch” (p. 303).
The conclusion of these three stories is, well, Scandinavian — and appropriately so to a body of earth that sees no sun rise above the horizon for six months out of the year.
Bravo, Ms. Leffland! Brava Lella.
RRB
08/13/14
Brooklyn, NY
Just as I ranked Rumors of Peace right up there with Carson MacCullers’s Member of the Wedding, I’d now have to give Breath and Shadows (given its structural organization) equivalent ranking with Michael Cunningham’s The Hours.
And having just read and reviewed Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Notes from (the) Underground, I can unabashedly state that Ella Leffland’s Thorkild (“Hr. Counselor”) is equally as heinous as the principal (unnamed) character of Dostoyevsky’s novella. What makes Ms. Leffland’s Thorkild doubly interesting, however, is the complete conversion of his character (to that of a doting father) during the hallucinatory stages of his late-life insanity.
A bit of a non sequitur, but a trenchant observation nevertheless from Philip (who, ironically, owns a large business in photographic equipment): “(t)he clicking of cameras wherever you went, as if people thought that by recording every moment of their lives they verified their existence, when in fact they’d been handed a substitute for looking inward and remembering. A frenzy of mechanical duplication. An endless production and consuming of images. A crime against authenticity. A mindless, flooding fraudulence of bits and pieces” (p. 222).
Although this rumination is entirely in keeping with Philip’s mental state at the time he develops it, I suspect the germ of it is also Ella Leffland’s — and I couldn’t agree more as I watch people in droves click, click, click their cell phones like so many mindless sycophants recording the myriad non-events that pepper their empty lives.
And the thoughts of another of her characters, Paula, as Paula considers a painting in a small Swiss church on Christmas Eve are, if not necessarily also Ms. Leffland’s, really quite amusing: “(h)er thoughts wandered. She looked at a painting of the Annunciation on the wall beside her, dimly lit by one of the small candles. It was not very good, a humble little country cousin of Van Eyck’s masterpiece. She tried to see beauty in it, even though she did not believe in the Annunciation, and even though she herself would have been furious if, as an unsuspecting young girl going about her daily tasks, she had suddenly had a divine pregnancy thrust upon her. The nerve. The gall. It should be called the Presumption” (p. 231).
One of the particular strengths Ms. Leffland exhibits in this novel, given the time lapse of a century between each of the three generations, is a consistency and accuracy of thought, speech and action with the time at which her characters lived. As a reader, you can be easily transported across centuries by the deftness of Ms. Leffland’s pen, and nothing she describes or puts into the mouths of her characters ever sounds anachronistic.
I suspect Ms. Leffland is a cat lover. Why do I think this? The following is just one of many examples: “Olaf has lain down on the carpet of moss. From the rocky little spring there issues a limpid murmur. Overhead the beech trees rustle with the passage of birds, whose calls filter down through the greenness. He stretches his knobby spine and tucks his paws under his chest, and for a while he sleeps. Then his pale green eyes open, and he lies there waiting. His good, his uncrumpled ear flicks from time to time. He waits for a sound, a scent, a touch” (p. 303).
The conclusion of these three stories is, well, Scandinavian — and appropriately so to a body of earth that sees no sun rise above the horizon for six months out of the year.
Bravo, Ms. Leffland! Brava Lella.
RRB
08/13/14
Brooklyn, NY
September 6, 2020
Leffland is a gorgeous writer. Her novel subtly (and with no small degree of initial confusion) pulls the reader forward and backward in time through three generations of the Rosted family. The sparse family tree at the book's front is representative of how little each generation knows of the others. We, the readers, eventually become privy to far more about generational connectivity and the long-reaching aftermath of decisions than are any of the characters in Breath and Shadows. Perhaps it is this omniscience that drives the story; perhaps it is the slow building of sympathy for the characters; or perhaps it is simply the classical quality of Leffland's writing style. The overall effect, however accomplished, is the desire to absorb as much about these people as Leffland is willing to share. Lovely book. Highly recommended.
January 7, 2018
This is my second time reading Breath and Shadows. This is an amazingly well-written and crafted novel about three generations of a Danish family stretching from the 1700s to the 1970s. It focuses on the themes of mental illness and family dynamics and is set against the social and political history of Denmark. The chapters are written as four different narratives, three of which deal with the separate generations. The fourth narrative beautifully describes the evolution of a cave over centuries in Germany and serves to tie the entire novel together.
May 23, 2016
I wept -- wept on the subway -- at the climactic scene. The characters are like real people, haunting, lovable, unknowable. The language rarely calls attention to itself, only tells the story and evokes the questions the story leaves you asking.
January 16, 2018
Leffland begins her book with a quote by Sophocles, “Man is but breath and shadows.” So already we are driven into Plato’s cave. Her prologue begins with this cave image. From there this image is infused between chapters.
To begin with, cave bears, in utter darkness are settling in the millennial strata of the cave seeking sleep and safety.
And then we are introduced in the first chapter to the 3rd generation of a privileged Danish family. Leffland moves through 4 generations of this family on the primordial stage set with giant bears in a cave. There we see the shafts of time through the heaving, the crushing, the movement and changing of the earth’s very belly, then its surface.
Glaciers come, glaciers go, stalactites explode, and caves implode. Families produce profound beauties, brilliant accomplishments, freaks, insanity and always chasms of mystery.
Individuals become interpreted to others or each other by the limited perceptions of knaves, fools, cruelty and intense love.
Shards of truth emerge from eternal ages of muddied understanding.
Disparities between privileged classes and those with nothing are slogged through as confused people slog through difficult days. And somehow, by the vast movement of earth and time and glimpses of light, we begin to understand some of it – by and by.
To begin with, cave bears, in utter darkness are settling in the millennial strata of the cave seeking sleep and safety.
And then we are introduced in the first chapter to the 3rd generation of a privileged Danish family. Leffland moves through 4 generations of this family on the primordial stage set with giant bears in a cave. There we see the shafts of time through the heaving, the crushing, the movement and changing of the earth’s very belly, then its surface.
Glaciers come, glaciers go, stalactites explode, and caves implode. Families produce profound beauties, brilliant accomplishments, freaks, insanity and always chasms of mystery.
Individuals become interpreted to others or each other by the limited perceptions of knaves, fools, cruelty and intense love.
Shards of truth emerge from eternal ages of muddied understanding.
Disparities between privileged classes and those with nothing are slogged through as confused people slog through difficult days. And somehow, by the vast movement of earth and time and glimpses of light, we begin to understand some of it – by and by.
October 8, 2024
I read this book a long time ago and tried in vain to remember the title of this moving novel. Today I read that the author died, and I found the title of this book. This book focused on 3 different generations of one Danish family. I remembered most the story of a cantankerous father who grieved for the genial son with "wheat-colored hair." The son was the only person who truly accepted and loved him.
August 12, 2011
This multi-layered saga of Danish family madness has keen descriptions of various cold weather landscapes, bad weather, plus a meadow and some beaches. I think these geographical pictures inform our awareness of where the characters draw their moods and inspirations. The characters are compelling but somewhat remote. Told through flashbacks and flashforwards three generations of a family are followed through happy times, sad times and grotesque times. I am glad to be introduced to this author who I have never read before. Scandanavian literataure is sort of the latest rage, so we who have just discovered this genre, are introduced to new words and new Christian names, which gives us a head start on deeper appreciation of this body of work.
July 18, 2008
This book takes place mostly in Denmark and because I am part Scandinavian I seek out books from that area of the world most of which seem to be dark police procedurals mysteries. This book goes back several general generations in the same family showing how certain traits echo through families. The historical parts I found much more interesting than the current generation who I found rather boring.
May 27, 2013
I loved the Danish setting and references to the towns and weather and even the Evanston connection but the book itself didn't do much for me. It was just a complicated soap opera of different generations with a lot of baggage. I could have condensed the good parts and made it a short story and been done with this one.
December 11, 2009
A brother and sister in the present attempt to find out about their ancestors who lived during the Middle Ages. A really good story. This author definitely doesn't write the same book twice. I like her style.
July 23, 2008
BORING!!! Three stories of generations of one family in the 1700, 1800, 1900s. Family members are bipolar/mental illness. Story goes absolutely nowhere.
October 17, 2008
This is one of my favorite books of all time! Multi-generational saga, really moving and beautiful.
August 4, 2009
You follow three generations of the same family at the same time. Didn't feel like much of a story, just their everyday life without much excitement.
August 20, 2009
This book gave me chills. I loved the way the author allowed you inside the minds of the characters.
October 1, 2011
I read so many book and forget even more, seldom can remember storyline, but those that have a profound impact stay and this is one.
October 29, 2011
A little hard to track relationships, but very vividly and beautifully written.
November 11, 2014
kind of hated it but at the same time loved it.
August 26, 2015
What an odd book....
February 1, 2016
NY Times most notable of 1999
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews