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Oxygen
Hardcover
Published September 6, 2001
About the author
Andrew Miller
286 books14 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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November 4, 2025
Death in waiting, by increments or taken unaware.
What an excellent and thought provoking writer Miller is. In this book, set at the very tail end of the twentieth century, the focus is on a particular family, and its dynamics. Primarily, we follow two adult brothers, and their life journey, as they are drawn back to the West Country home of their dying mother.
Alice Valentine is inching painfully towards her end, alternately wanting to go, but still, her fierce appreciation of the experience of being here, the vitality of her spirit, keeps her present
The older of the brothers, Larry, was very much a golden boy, gifted and successful, popular and admired. Hugely athletic, in his youth he achieved some fame as a professional tennis player. Not at the pinnacle, but certainly successful enough. He left for the States quite early, marrying Stateside, and has a daughter. The dynamics in his family are teetering, and expressing themselves in the mental/emotional health of his daughter, Ella, who is a curious kleptomaniac, and also an asthmatic. Larry became a huge success as a TV actor, in a hospital soap, and this provided a stellar lifestyle. Unfortunately, it also led to a life of excess. Unbeknownst to his wife, or, indeed to anyone else in his family, he is now scraping the barrels of earning a living, and has moved to dubious exploits
Alex, the younger brother, never the favoured one, introspective and academic became a translator. He has had a history of some mental instability, he is one of those people of many gifts, but these are not so valued in a world driven by obvious displays of what success means.
Currently, he is translating a play written by a successful Hungarian playwright, Laszlo. The subject matter concerns a group of miners, trapped underground, and also rescuers above ground, and the relationships between the doomed, below ground, and those desperately racing against time. Death stalks here too, and the play expresses the tensions visually in its staging. However, Laszlo, though now living in material comfort and success in France, has his own demons, spooling back to his belonging to a radical group in Hungary, decades before, during the 1956 uprising
I loved the different worlds which come together in this.
This was Miller’s third book, it is less weird, less unusual in subject matter than the first book of his I read, Ingenious Pain. I have read several of his books, and he is not someone who just writes ONE book, slightly changed, over and over, each book has been very different, but all have taken me completely into their worlds, and been satisfyingly immersive. The narrative drive maintained, the writing clear the characters and their worlds, deep
Library copy
What an excellent and thought provoking writer Miller is. In this book, set at the very tail end of the twentieth century, the focus is on a particular family, and its dynamics. Primarily, we follow two adult brothers, and their life journey, as they are drawn back to the West Country home of their dying mother.
Alice Valentine is inching painfully towards her end, alternately wanting to go, but still, her fierce appreciation of the experience of being here, the vitality of her spirit, keeps her present
The older of the brothers, Larry, was very much a golden boy, gifted and successful, popular and admired. Hugely athletic, in his youth he achieved some fame as a professional tennis player. Not at the pinnacle, but certainly successful enough. He left for the States quite early, marrying Stateside, and has a daughter. The dynamics in his family are teetering, and expressing themselves in the mental/emotional health of his daughter, Ella, who is a curious kleptomaniac, and also an asthmatic. Larry became a huge success as a TV actor, in a hospital soap, and this provided a stellar lifestyle. Unfortunately, it also led to a life of excess. Unbeknownst to his wife, or, indeed to anyone else in his family, he is now scraping the barrels of earning a living, and has moved to dubious exploits
Alex, the younger brother, never the favoured one, introspective and academic became a translator. He has had a history of some mental instability, he is one of those people of many gifts, but these are not so valued in a world driven by obvious displays of what success means.
Currently, he is translating a play written by a successful Hungarian playwright, Laszlo. The subject matter concerns a group of miners, trapped underground, and also rescuers above ground, and the relationships between the doomed, below ground, and those desperately racing against time. Death stalks here too, and the play expresses the tensions visually in its staging. However, Laszlo, though now living in material comfort and success in France, has his own demons, spooling back to his belonging to a radical group in Hungary, decades before, during the 1956 uprising
I loved the different worlds which come together in this.
This was Miller’s third book, it is less weird, less unusual in subject matter than the first book of his I read, Ingenious Pain. I have read several of his books, and he is not someone who just writes ONE book, slightly changed, over and over, each book has been very different, but all have taken me completely into their worlds, and been satisfyingly immersive. The narrative drive maintained, the writing clear the characters and their worlds, deep
Library copy
Displaying 1 of 1 review