Oxygen

Starred review from January 21, 2002
Three characters on the cusp of crisis and one on the brink of death inhabit Miller's moving new novel, in which each grapples with despair and discovers that love can confer purifying strength. Widowed school administrator Alice Valentine is dying at her home in England's West Country. She's dependent on an oxygen tank and on her younger son, Alec, who has left his London apartment to care for her. Depressed and feeling unable to cope, the unstable Alec has coincidentally received an assignment that could make his career: to translate a play called Oxygène, written in French by Hungarian exile László Lázár. Alice's older son, Larry, had always been the successful brother, early on as a tennis star and later as a TV actor. But Larry's been out of a job for some time, and drink and drugs have eroded his moral judgment, alienated his wife and possibly affected his six-year-old daughter. When the family convenes at Alice's bedside for what will be her last birthday, each member is submerged in private struggles. Meanwhile, in Paris, László is surrounded by friends and grateful for the devotion of his lover, Kurt, but he remains guilt-ridden because of his failure to avert a tragedy during the Hungarian uprising in 1956. Contacted by Albanian exiles conspiring to fight the Serbs in Kosovo, László has a chance to redeem himself on a dangerous mission. With brilliant dexterity, Miller intertwines the strands of his plot and leads each character to epiphanies, capped by a breathtaking denouement. Miller's first novel, Ingenious Pain, won several important literary prizes, including the IMPAC. It's no wonder that Oxygen
was a Booker Prize finalist. Written in elegant, resonant prose, this book breathes with compassion and honesty, and with the rare quality called hope.(Apr.)Forecast:Apt comparisons to Michael Cunningham's
The Hours may add impetus to sales bound to be initiated by good reviews and a seven-city author tour.

May 1, 2002
This Booker Prize nominee from Miller (Casanova in Love) presents a group of characters trying to get a hit of the title element. A family gathers in England at the deathbed of matriarch Alice Valentine, now literally dependent on her oxygen tank. As Alice tries to come to terms with bodily failure, her older son, Larry, former tennis and Hollywood TV star, tries to cope with drugs, alcohol, a failing marriage, a klepto daughter, and a questionable career move toward pornography. Her younger son, Alec, tries to break free of depression and failure and pegs his hopes on a commission he has received to translate a play called Oxygene. Meanwhile, the play's Paris-based Hungarian author undertakes a semidangerous mission back to his homeland to atone for his failure during the 1956 uprising; once home, he undertakes an even more dangerous personal mission. The result of all this complicated plotting is insightful, sometimes painful, and always elegantly symmetrical. Highly recommended. Robert E. Brown, Onondaga Cty. P.L., Syracuse, NY

Copyright 2002 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2002
The author of " Ingenious Pain" (1997) and " Casanova in Love" (1998) tells of Alec Valentine, a translator who leaves his bland life in London to care for his dying mother in the West Country. His golden-boy brother, Larry, is a former tennis champion and now an actor in California whose career and marriage are heading south. When Larry joins his brother in England as their mother lies dying, both of their seemingly failing lives come into focus as their mother's impending death forces them to grapple with their own inadequacies. Interspersed in this family tale is the story of playwright Laszlo Lazar, a Hungarian exile living in Paris, whose play Alec is translating. Despite apparently having the perfect life, Laszlo is also battling demons from his past. All eventually find redemption in this beautifully written and vividly engaging novel, as Alec and Larry reconcile their relationships, their careers, and find solace in their mother's death, while Laszlo is given another chance to fight injustice and make a difference.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)