Confinement

by Carrie Brown

On a snowy night in the winter of 1946, Arthur Henning arrives at a New York banker's country estate. All he has with him are his young son, his sewing machine, and the painful history of the refugee--the home in Vienna he left behind, the wife and infant daughter who perished in Lonon's blitz, and the relatives and friends who disappeared into the abyss of the Holocaust. He has come to begin a new life and to forget.Once an expert tailor, now he is employed as a chauffeur. He drives Mr. Duvall to work in the city, Mrs. Duvall to her shopping, their daughter, Agatha, to school. The job gives Arthur solace. There's a cottage for him and his son, Toby, to live in, congeniality in the mansion's kitchen with the other servants, pleasure in watching Toby grow up alongside charming little Agatha. And so there he remains for nearly a decade, hidden, unable to confront his shattered faith, his fear, and the measure of everything he has lost.Hidden, that is, until life steps in to release Arthur from his seclusion. On orders from Mr. Duvall, he must drive Agatha to her own confinement in that peculiarly evil American institution of the 1950s, a home for unwed mothers. The Duvalls' plan to give the baby away shocks Arthur from his emotional slumber. The story of these two people--a man who has lost his past and a girl who is forced to give up her future--winds its way to a conclusion that is both inevitable and wholly unpredictable.Infused with her trademark haunting sensibility, Carrie Brown's fourth novel is a deeply moving tale of the small miracles and large revelations of love.

Genres: Fiction, Book Club, Novels

368 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Carrie Brown is the author of five novels – her most recent novel is The Rope Walk (Pantheon, 2007) – and a collection of short stories, The House on Belle Isle. Her other novels include Rose’s Garden, Lamb in Love, The Hatbox Baby and Confinement.

She has won many awards for her work, including a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, the Barnes and Noble Discover Award, the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize, and The Great Lakes Book Award. She has also twice won the Library of Virginia’s Fiction Award, and her novel The Rope Walk was chosen as the All Iowa Reads Selection by the Iowa Public Library. Her novels have appeared on the Best Books of the Year lists from The Christian Science Monitor and The Chicago Tribune.

A frequent book reviewer for newspapers including The Washington Post and The Boston Globe, her short fiction has also appeared in journals including One Story, The Oxford American, The Georgia Review, Glimmer Train, and Blackbird. She teaches Creative Writing at Sweet Briar College in Virginia. You can visit her summer reading blog http://bookclub.blog.sbc.edu/.

Reviews

[Sammy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, yeah, the book was good. But... I just had some issues with it. I thought the writing was lovely, and both Aggie and Arthur, who I saw as the books main protagonists, were both developed into nice, believeable characters.

Other than that... I didn't enjoy the book that much. I'm going to repeat, once again, that I have an issue with an unclear timeframe in a book. It's okay if you jump back and forth... but if you don't make it clear, I get pissed off. Also, length of time... if too much happens in such a short space of time, I just don't believe it and I'm gone. Like, with Arthur's visits to Aggie, he only went three times... yet it was written out to seem that he visited her practically every weekend until the baby was born. Yeah.

I thought that the issue of the persecution of the Jews was touched on nicely. Not so much as it happened, but more of a reflection on what happened in Arthur's life and how he remembers it and later reflects on it. Also how it affects him and his son.

I had a problem with the relationship between Aggie and Toby. You find out early on in the book that Toby is Aggie's baby's daddy, so I'm not giving anything away here. But we only maybe see them together once or twice when they're older, but loads of time together when they were younger... perhaps though that was Carrie Brown's intent. Arthur kept seeing these two as young children. Not the grown man and woman they were becoming... so maybe that's how we were supposed to see them as well. Who knows, all I know is I wanted to see their relationship a little more.

Just so you know, I read an Advanced Edition of the book, so I don't know how much has changed from this book to the released book. With the exception of a few spelling/grammar errors, I don't see much else changing though. Overall the book was okay. I'm tired, boo.

[Heather · Rating 1 out of 5]

No thank you. I received this book for Christmas; it is not one I would have picked up myself. For the most part I thought the book was interesting. It does bounce all over the place - past, present and back again.

The thing that just killed it for me though is the whole 'old guy being in love with the young girl'. He was 36 when he came to the family and she was 9, the same age as his son. So the kids grow up together and by the time she's a teenage this old guy is in love with her. YUCK. I'm 37 and my boys are 9 and so are their friends and it's just GROSS. I couldn't get over that. How do you fall in love with your kid's friends? Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Had that whole part been left out, I would have rated it higher. But it was there and it just ruined it for me.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

The premise of the book was great but the story was extremely slow and boring. From the write up I was expecting deeper emotional attachment to the characters. I found I didn't really care what happened to any of the characters and some of the important facts were barely mentioned.

Aggie and Toby's relationship was hardly brought up and it was a major part of the story line.

[Rebecca Meyers · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book. Nothing more, nothing less really. Particularly liked the main character and I do enjoy Carrie Brown as an author and have read some of her other books as well.

[Brenda Hicks · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book for its craft almost as much as I enjoyed the story. Love, passion, loss and heartbreak in all its forms written beautifully by Carrie Brown. It was written as people talk and think, jumbled together...one thought leading to another as you wind through Arthur's present and past quite literally in the space of one week. I so wish I could have sat in on Carrie's "long and fruitful conversations with Jennifer Brice about storytelling." Whatever their content, they got it right. This book is exactly how people remember. Things remind us of things. People we love, trauma we suffer haunt us like spectors. We remember odd things, tiny details that make no sense. And the things we remember color our present, pop up unannounced in our thoughts of now. This is the foundation behind the idea of life as a tapestry. The way you respond to life, the things you consciously and subconsciously choose for yourself are wrapped up in the events of yesterday. Thank you Ms. Brown for taking me on this mind trip. I loved it...every heartbreaking, sorrowful, chest thumping moment.

[Kelly Wagner · Rating 3 out of 5]

A couple years ago, I had a book of lists of books to try, on a bunch of subjects, in alphabetical order. As a means to try and read more stuff outside my usual range, I picked two of the topics, one from near the beginning of the book and one from near the end. This is one of the half dozen books from the "Adoption" category. This is the 3rd one I've gotten around to reading, and the third one I haven't been particularly enthused about. It's a story, really, about how people never really talk to each other, how people keep secrets, and how the rich are very different. I get really frustrated by people who never do say what they mean, never do work out their problems. I will keep trying to tackle the rest of the books I picked out, but mostly they are confirming that I like my genre fiction, my murder mysteries and science fiction, a lot better than "hauntingly beautiful" stories that are supposed to be tragic and then a "heartwarming" bit at the end. Ugh. Well enough written, but not for me.

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slowly this novel grabs you. Several issues entwined. WWII Austrian refugees, trusting that surely everyone knows what's right and just, interior turmoil tamped down to such a point that they don't know when to stand up for themselves or those they love. Familial relationships examined w several challenges. Appreciation for small things, lack of entitlement, and expression of love on so many levels. All these things woven into a story that's leaves a reader w much to contemplate. If there's a fault it lies w the main characters being too fair, too smart beyond their years, too loving.

[Geri · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book and while reading, I realized that Aggie gave up her baby the year before I had been adopted. I don't have a lot of info about my adoption, so it was interesting to hear where the girls went when they were waiting to give birth. My favorite line is and every birth was announced, regardless of whether the girl was keeping her baby. "There is no forgetting. Remember that."

[Ann]

A tender, quiet novel of love and loss. Beautiful and sad.
In the hands of Carrie Brown whose character carries the weight of the world on his shoulders the reader feels the weight too. If that makes sense.

[Marcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a haunting book that is well written. Well described relationships that were complex. It's a book that will stay with you for a while.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brown draws you into the feel of her setting in the first paragraph and creates wonderful, complex characters. This is the first of her books I’ve read. I’ll definitely read some others.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great story line but dragged out too long.

[Barb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this novel, it's different from what I usually read, I generally choose historical fiction and historical mysteries. While some of the period covered in this story is historical fiction, the time frame spans from 1939 to 1963, I don't generally consider the 1960s historical fiction.

This story revolves around the relationship between Arthur Hemming and Agatha Duvall. Arthur is an Austrian Jew hired through the Hebrew Aide Society by Lee Duvall, Agatha's father, as a chauffeur. In 1946 Arthur and his eight year old son Toby come to America from London where his wife and infant daughter were killed in a bombing attack on the city during the war.

The Duvalls are wealthy and dysfunctional, the father cool and unemotional, the mother a selfish alcoholic, their daughter Agatha is the same age as Arthur's son Toby. Agatha finds comfort and stability within the normalcy of the Hemming's family life.

When Agatha is seventeen years old Arthur is instructed to drive her to a home for unwed mothers, where Agatha will be giving her baby up for adoption. Arthur cannot understand the Duvall's decision to send their grandchild away. He struggles with their demands and makes choices for himself that risk his position as their employee.

I wish I had read this with my book club book because there are so many interesting issues to talk about. I'd like to discuss this book further without worrying about spoiling it for potential readers.

I will say I enjoyed the characters Agatha and Arthur and their relationship and I liked the author's resolution to the story. I did find one theme a little overly done and could have enjoyed less biblical references but at the same time they were appropriate in the context of the story. I think Carrie Brown is a talented author, the quality of her writing reminds me of Elizabeth Burg who does emotion so well. I'm looking forward to reading Brown's 'The Hatbox Baby'. I would recommend this to book clubs who know that none of their readers have given up a child for adoption. I think this would be a painful book to read for women who have endured anything similar to Agatha's experience.

[Marvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a touching book! A blurb on the back says of her earlier book, Lamb in Love, Brown "writes with a tremendous affection for her characters." That's certainly true again here. It would be easy to pass judgment on these characters for their faulty judgments & timidity; instead, we struggle right along with them as they face difficult choices. The main character is an Austrian Jew forced out of Vienna, along with his wife & son, by the Nazi invasion. His wife & new baby daughter die during the London bombings, & he & his son eventually find refuge on the estate of a wealthy couple outside New York City. He becomes something of a surrogate father to the couple's daughter, about the same age as his son. The daughter becomes pregnant at age 17 & is sent off to a house for unwed mothers & to give the baby up for adoption. Arthur is tormented by the choice but unable to summon the wisdom & courage to alter the course of events. Throughout the book, he is tormented, comforted, & advised by dreams & daytime visions of a fellow Jew he witnessed suffering a beating in Vienna as the Nazis arrived. The visions are occasionally accompanied by reflections on God, until, late in the book, after the Viennese doctor appears several times alongside his grandson, then disappears. "Where are you? Arthur asked the empty bus. Speak to me. But the doctor never answered, any more than God had ever answered." (334) "Arthur minded Dr. Ornstein's disappearance from his life more than God's. Of God he had never been certain anyway, but at least he knew Dr. Ornstein had been real, had lived once, had known what it meant to have a man's heart, to play his fingers over the keys of his beautiful piano, to touch the mysterious wounds of his patients." (323) A profoundly moving, rich novel of love & longing for what's just out of one's reach.

[Bill Glose · Rating 3 out of 5]

Arthur Henning is a Jew who left Austria for England at the outset of World War II. After losing his home to the Nazis, he then loses his wife and daughter in one of the raids during the Battle of Britain. When the war ends, he immigrates to America with his surviving son where he becomes the chauffeur of a rich businessman.

Even after Henning starts a new life in America, he continues to suffer throughout the story, enduring all his hardships with stoic grace. He is a man of dignity and honor who expects little out of life, and gets exactly what he expects. Having experienced so much loss already, he now lives confined by the fear of losing anything else. Too scared to do anything but follow orders, he stands by passively while those he loves are harmed along with him.

When Henning happens upon the grandson he allowed to be given up for adoption, he starts to question everything he’s done, or more to the point, NOT done. He ponders his life in a series of flashbacks while working up the courage to make amends to those who have paid for his inaction. The reader is kept in suspense, not knowing whether or not Henning will dare to take a risk until the final few paragraphs.

In this wonderfully crafted book, Brown achieves the most difficult task of getting the reader to care for an indecisive hero.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

The confinement in question is Agatha Duvall’s – a pregnant teenager, sent away by her father. But the story is Arthur Henning’s. Arthur is an Austrian Jew, who fled the Anschluss with his family, only to see his wife and newborn daughter die in the London blitz. Now in America, he works as a chauffeur for the Duvall family, and raises his son Toby in a cottage on the grounds of their estate. When the family sends Agatha away to a home for unwed mothers, it is Arthur who drives her there, and it is Arthur who continues to visit her and watch over her. Only later does he learn that the child she carries is also his son’s child. He finds out the identity of the adoptive family, and begins another vigil – a secret one- as he watches the boy grow up. Meanwhile, his own life, loves, and losses are exposed and explored.

[Mom2nine · Rating 4 out of 5]

"So many levels and layers to this story. The main character is a Jewish gentleman who has escaped Nazi Europe during WW2 and settled in the U.S. He is a tailor who is employed as a driver for a wealthy man. The book jumps from pre-war to present time in his mind and in the story. His decisions and choices are always shaded by the horrors that he witnessed and the realization that life and happiness holds no guarantees. would be a good book for discussion, as I found myself asking if that is how it really works for someone who has witnessed and been a part of violence, loss and pain.

[Patricia · Rating 2 out of 5]

How could I love one of this author's books (The Rope Walk) so much and not like any of her others? This started out well: Jewish immigrant and his son from Austria by way of England becomes a driver for a wealthy man in upstate New York. The flashbacks to pre-WWII Austria were interesting at first but the whole pace of the book was a bit plodding to me. I do have to give her props for writing about vastly different characters and settings in each of her novels.

[Dianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this poignant tale master storyteller Carrie Brown brings her readers another brilliantly written novel of love, loss and redemption. Engulfed in Brown’s prose, the reader journeys into the souls of her characters. Her stories are filled with artful beauty seen even in the tragedies of life. Carrie Brown is one of my favorite authors and this book speaks to the small miracles that can make life compellingly hopeful.

[Pammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Again, as with each novel of Ms Brown's, I devour them with such haste that I often must slow myself down to order to savor a specific paragraph or conversation. The author draws me in and gets me so involved that I fly across the pages, but I get aggravated with myself, not wanting to miss anything.
She's that good. This is my fourth novel by Brown and I'd be hard pressed to choose one over another!

[Stephanie Holt · Rating 1 out of 5]

I finished this book only because I started it, but I am glad I did, the ending was well worth it. There is a fixation in the book which really got on my nerves, I don't want to spoil it for anyone, so I won't say what it is. Suffice it to say I skipped over a lot of the parts this fixation was mentioned, and I don't feel like it took away from the ending in any way. I totally understood the use of it in the story line after it was mentioned about 5 times, and it was overused after that.

[Anji · Rating 3 out of 5]

So very undecided on this book. Loved the characters and the story line but had some serious issues with one of the relationships. So much so that I couldn't like the book as much as I wanted to. Would have rated it higher but my disgust got the best of me and I only rated it a three (like the majority of my books read). I would still recommend it though.

[Lisa Barber · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hard to really get into it. I most likely will not finish it.

[Eileen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting yet depressing. What I learned from this book is that you really need to leave the past in the past, no matter how traumatic it may have been. Don't be afraid to move on.

[Sarah Honenberger · Rating 5 out of 5]

These characters felt like friends.

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the very best books I've read! It gets better with each rereading.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would have given this book a higher rating if I hadn't have found one of the relationships in the book really creepy. Other than that I think it is a very well written emotional novel.

[Korri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting enough that I finished, but the end did not satisfy me at all.

[Jennifer]

strange, and depressing, but strangely mesmerising. didn't much like the end though; it left me a bit unsatisfied

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

a rich story that was very well written; strong main character and a bit of historical fiction to boot