A wayward wife, an Oedipally obsessed e-mail snoop, a pint-sized Civil War reenactor (oops, make that living historian), and a cheerfully oblivious cuckold comprise the Shaws of Chicago, the decidedly quirky characters of Jane Hamilton's fourth novel, Disobedience. An unlikely family to fall prey to the vagaries of modern life, the Shaws are consumed with clog dancing, early music, and the War Between the States. But they do possess a computer, and when 17-year-old Henry stumbles into his mother's e-mail account and epistolary evidence of her affair with a Ukrainian violinist, he becomes consumed with this glimpse into her life as a woman, not simply a mother. To picture my mother a lover, I had at first to break her in my mind's eye, hold her over my knee, like a stick, bust her in two. When that was done, when I had changed her like that, I could see her in a different way. I could put her through the motions like a jointed puppet, all dancy in the limbs, loose, nothing to hold her up but me. While his mother (whom he refers to variously as Mrs. Shaw, Beth, and her e-mail sobriquet, Liza38), dallies with her pen pal, whom she calls "the companion of my body, the guest of my heart," Henry experiences his own sexual awakening; his 13-year-old sister, Elvira, retreats into gender-bending historical fantasy; and their father remains determinedly absorbed in pedagogical responsibilities.

Ironically (and not completely convincingly) narrated by an adult Henry, Disobedience has a rollicking tone somewhat at odds with the somber prospects that loom for this family. A very worldly teenager in some ways, despite the hippie wholesomeness of his family, Henry tells his tale in abundant, almost flowery prose, imagining his mother's private life with elegiac fervor. As in her earlier A Map of the World, Jane Hamilton writes with affection and insight about the darker side of apparently ordinary Midwestern folks. --Victoria Jenkins

From Publishers Weekly
Credit Hamilton with courage, virtuosity and a remarkable ability to reflect inner lives. Her first novel, The Book of Ruth, was the unsparing story of a girl trapped in woeful circumstances; the protagonist of her second, The Map of the World, was a woman responsible for a child's death; the narrator of The Short History of a Prince was a gay man. Here she again explores family bonds and tensions, the demands of sexuality and the ethics of betrayal (not an oxymoron)Dthis time from the point of view of a teenager who discovers that his mother is having an affair. Henry Shaw is a high school senior when he intercepts e-mail messages between his mother, Beth, a musician and specialist in ancient music, and violin maker Richard Pollico. As he secretly eavesdrops on the liaison between "Liza38" and "Rpol," Henry's emotions, ranging from horror to fear of abandonment to rage to deep sadness, take on a new dimension when he himself falls in love with a girl he meets in summer camp. Meanwhile, his generally bemused and patient father, Kevin, a high school history teacher, seems unaware of Beth's infidelity, since he spends much of his time coaching Henry's rebellious sister, Elvira, 13, who is obsessed with her desire to join a Civil War reenactment disguised as a boy. A mirror image of A Short History's protagonist, Walter, at the same age, Elvira displays an unhappiness with her gender that causes stress in the Shaw's marriage. As she has amply demonstrated before, Hamilton knows the nuances of domestic relationships and the landscape of teenage uncertainty. Henry's voice is exactly right: he's a thoughtful, intelligent boy whose hormones are sending him confusing messages, and whose tendency is to mock both parents with typical teen sardonic humor. Henry's funny quips are actually quite sad, because they mask his sorrow at the severing of his close bond with his mother, and his discomfort at secretly being aware of her illicit passion. Beth's joyous reaction to physical love and her anguish at how her behavior, if revealed, might affect her family, are likewise rendered with compassion. In a miracle of empathy, Hamilton manages to grant psychological validity to all the members of this ordinary-seeming but emotionally distracted family, and to strike the reader's heart with her tender evocation of both human fallibility and our ability to recover from heartbreaking choices. Author tour. (Oct.) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
The saga of a child discovering a parent's illicit love affair by accidentally reading his/her e-mail is nothing new, in either life or fiction, but this tale of past (the entire Shaw family is obsessed with history and Civil War passions) meets present still manages refreshing, almost laugh-out-loud comic twists. Hamilton (A Map of the World), whose novels have twice been selected by Oprah's Book Club, has come up with another charmer. Actor/reader Robert Sean Leonard, as the adolescent boy who retrospectively narrates the entire story, sounds so natural and convincing it is hard to remember this was written by a woman (though tapes of Hamilton reading the novel are also available). Very highly recommended, with one caveat: listeners might prefer not to hear the final side of tape four, since the ending is seriously marred by that need for summation that has ruined the conclusion of so many novels.DRochelle Ratner, formerly with "Soho Weekly News," New York Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Disobedience takes forms great and small in Hamilton's new family drama. The Shaws have just left Vermont for Chicago. Kevin is an affable and optimistic high-school teacher. Beth is an accomplished pianist. Henry, Hamilton's complicated narrator, is a mild-mannered and lonely high school senior. And Elvira, his tomboy little sister (and the novel's most charismatic character), is a hard-core Civil War reenactor who disguises herself as a boy while on the field and wishes she was one. Henry has inadvertently opened his mother's e-mail and discovered that she's having an affair with a violin player who lives in a log cabin just over the Wisconsin border. This knowledge frightens, angers, and intrigues him since he is in the throes of his first passionate relationship. As Henry ponders the mysteries of love, sex, marriage, and duty, Hamilton subtly questions the very notion of disobedience. Should one disobey the heart's desires to protect others? Is any one person in the wrong when relationships run aground? Hamilton's characters are magnetic, their predicaments are unexpected and wholly absorbing, and her finely crafted prose is vivid and suspenseful, yet this novel runs like a car with a shimmy, and the problem is Henry. He narrates with just the sort of sarcasm a bright and sensitive teenager would employ, yet he's writing from an unspecified future date and, therefore, interjects his older self's more knowledgeable perspective in such a way as to blur rather than sharpen his persona. But perhaps this glitch only serves to highlight the truth implicit in this wise and funny tale: we must "come of age" many times over the course of a life, and it never gets any easier. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
Praise for The Book of Ruth:

"Ms. Hamilton gives Ruth a humble dignity and allows her hope-but it's not a heavenly hope. It's a common one, caked with mud and held with gritted teeth. And it's probably the only kind that's worth reading about."
-New York Times Book Review

Praise for A Map of the World:

"It takes a writer of rare power and discipline to carry off an achievement like A Map of the World. Hamilton proves here that she is one of our best." -Newsweek

"Stunning prose and unforgettable characters...an enthralling tale of guilt, betrayal, and the terrifying ways our lives can spin out of control."
-Entertainment Weekly (A+)

Praise for The Short History of a Prince:

"With intelligence and empathy-and drawing on rich veins of irony-Hamilton tells the story of  Walter's search to define his talents...at once surprising and redemptive."
-New York Times Book Review

"Hamilton's third novel and arguably her best, for it matches its range of emotion with a technical precision both masterful and haunting...Hamilton has eased time and memory throughout her novel with the expert
abandon of a dancer in full pirouette."
-Boston Globe


From the Hardcover edition.

Review
Praise for The Book of Ruth:

"Ms. Hamilton gives Ruth a humble dignity and allows her hope-but it's not a heavenly hope. It's a common one, caked with mud and held with gritted teeth. And it's probably the only kind that's worth reading about."
-New York Times Book Review

Praise for A Map of the World:

"It takes a writer of rare power and discipline to carry off an achievement like A Map of the World. Hamilton proves here that she is one of our best." -Newsweek

"Stunning prose and unforgettable characters...an enthralling tale of guilt, betrayal, and the terrifying ways our lives can spin out of control."
-Entertainment Weekly (A+)

Praise for The Short History of a Prince:

"With intelligence and empathy-and drawing on rich veins of irony-Hamilton tells the story of  Walter's search to define his talents...at once surprising and redemptive."
-New York Times Book Review

"Hamilton's third novel and arguably her best, for it matches its range of emotion with a technical precision both masterful and haunting...Hamilton has eased time and memory throughout her novel with the expert
abandon of a dancer in full pirouette."
-Boston Globe


From the Hardcover edition.

Book Description
Four Cassettes, 6 hours
Read by

Henry Shaw, a high-school senior, is as comfortable with his family as any seventten-year-old can be. His father, Kevin, teaches history with a decidedly socialist tinge at the Chicago private school Henry and his sister attend. His mother, Beth, who plays the piano in a group specializing in antique music, is a loving, attentive wife and parent. Henry even accepts the offbeat behavior of his thirteen-year-old sister, Elvira, who is obsessed with Civil War reenactments and insists on dressing in handmade Union uniforms at all times.

When he stumbles on his mother's e-mail account, however, Henry realizes that everything is not quite as it seems. There, under the name Liza38, a name which Henry innocently established for her, is undeniable evidence that his mother is having an affair with one Richard Polloco, a violin maker with a very appealing way with words and a romantic spirit, that in Henry's estimation, his own father woefully lacks.

Henry's observations, set down ten years after that fateful year, are much more than the "old story" of adultery his mother deemed her affair to be. With her inimitable grace and compassion, Jane Hamilton has created in DISOBEDIENCE a novel of gentle humor and rich insights into the nature of love and the deep, mysterious bonds that hold families together.


From the Inside Flap
Four Cassettes, 6 hours
Read by Robert Sean Leonard

Henry Shaw, a high-school senior, is as comfortable with his family as any seventten-year-old can be. His father, Kevin, teaches history with a decidedly socialist tinge at the Chicago private school Henry and his sister attend. His mother, Beth, who plays the piano in a group specializing in antique music, is a loving, attentive wife and parent. Henry even accepts the offbeat behavior of his thirteen-year-old sister, Elvira, who is obsessed with Civil War reenactments and insists on dressing in handmade Union uniforms at all times.

When he stumbles on his mother's e-mail account, however, Henry realizes that everything is not quite as it seems. There, under the name Liza38, a name which Henry innocently established for her, is undeniable evidence that his mother is having an affair with one Richard Polloco, a violin maker with a very appealing way with words and a romantic spirit, that in Henry's estimation, his own father woefully lacks.

Henry's observations, set down ten years after that fateful year, are much more than the "old story" of adultery his mother deemed her affair to be. With her inimitable grace and compassion, Jane Hamilton has created in DISOBEDIENCE a novel of gentle humor and rich insights into the nature of love and the deep, mysterious bonds that hold families together.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Henry Shaw, a high school student, is about as comfortable with his family as any seventeen-year-old can be. His father, Kevin, teaches history with a decidedly socialist tinge at the Chicago private school Henry and his sister attend. His mother, Beth, who plays the piano in a group specializing in antique music, is a loving, attentive wife and parent. Henry even accepts the offbeat behavior of his thirteen-year-old sister, Elvira, who is obsessed with Civil War reenactments and insists on dressing in handmade Union uniforms at inopportune times." "When he stumbles on his mother's e-mail account, however, Henry realizes that all is not as it seems. There, under the name Liza38, a name that Henry innocently established for her, is undeniable evidence that his mother is having an affair with one Richard Polloco, a violin maker and unlikely paramour who nonetheless has a very appealing way with words and a romantic spirit that, in Henry's estimation, his own father woefully lacks." "Against his better judgment, Henry charts the progress of his mother's infatuation, her feelings of euphoria, of guilt, and of profound, touching confusion. His knowledge of Beth's secret life colors his own tentative explorations of love and sex with the ephemeral Lily, and casts a new light on the arguments - usually focused on Elvira - in which his parents regularly indulge. Over the course of his final year of high school, Henry observes each member of the family, trying to anticipate when they will find out about the infidelity and what the knowledge will mean to each of them." "Henry's observations, set down ten years after that fateful year, are much more than the "old story" of adultery his motherdeemed her affair to be.

SYNOPSIS

From Jane Hamilton, author of the beloved New York Times bestsellers A Map of the World and The Book of Ruth, comes a warmly humorous, poignant novel about a young man, his mother's e-mail, and the often surprising path of infidelity.

FROM THE CRITICS

Book Magazine

At seventeen, Henry Shaw, the self-declared "heavyweight champion of depressed teenagehood," thinks he knows everything about his family. At twenty-seven, after uncovering evidence of his mother's ongoing adultery, he realizes he doesn't. Henry's narrative traces his mother's secret life in the Midwest with a Ukrainian violin maker living in Wisconsin, whom she met at a wedding. While Henry spies on his mother's romance, his father, a socialist high school history teacher and his thirteen-year-old sister, Elvira, a "hardcore Civil War re-enactor," endure their own crises. Hamilton deftly weaves Elvira's passion for the Civil War with another tale of duplicity and "ambiguous loyalty." This is a profound examination of a family in the throes of deception, and a devastating study of enduring love and hard-fought loyalty. —Robert Allen Papinchak

Publishers Weekly

Credit Hamilton with courage, virtuosity and a remarkable ability to reflect inner lives. Her first novel, The Book of Ruth, was the unsparing story of a girl trapped in woeful circumstances; the protagonist of her second, The Map of the World, was a woman responsible for a child's death; the narrator of The Short History of a Prince was a gay man. Here she again explores family bonds and tensions, the demands of sexuality and the ethics of betrayal (not an oxymoron)--this time from the point of view of a teenager who discovers that his mother is having an affair. Henry Shaw is a high school senior when he intercepts e-mail messages between his mother, Beth, a musician and specialist in ancient music, and violin maker Richard Pollico. As he secretly eavesdrops on the liaison between "Liza38" and "Rpol," Henry's emotions, ranging from horror to fear of abandonment to rage to deep sadness, take on a new dimension when he himself falls in love with a girl he meets in summer camp. Meanwhile, his generally bemused and patient father, Kevin, a high school history teacher, seems unaware of Beth's infidelity, since he spends much of his time coaching Henry's rebellious sister, Elvira, 13, who is obsessed with her desire to join a Civil War reenactment disguised as a boy. A mirror image of A Short History's protagonist, Walter, at the same age, Elvira displays an unhappiness with her gender that causes stress in the Shaw's marriage. As she has amply demonstrated before, Hamilton knows the nuances of domestic relationships and the landscape of teenage uncertainty. Henry's voice is exactly right: he's a thoughtful, intelligent boy whose hormones are sending him confusing messages, and whose tendency is to mock both parents with typical teen sardonic humor. Henry's funny quips are actually quite sad, because they mask his sorrow at the severing of his close bond with his mother, and his discomfort at secretly being aware of her illicit passion. Beth's joyous reaction to physical love and her anguish at how her behavior, if revealed, might affect her family, are likewise rendered with compassion. In a miracle of empathy, Hamilton manages to grant psychological validity to all the members of this ordinary-seeming but emotionally distracted family, and to strike the reader's heart with her tender evocation of both human fallibility and our ability to recover from heartbreaking choices. Author tour. (Oct.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

KLIATT

To quote KLIATT's May 2001 review of the Bantam Doubleday Dell audiobook of this title: Henry Shaw, nearly 17, discloses the fascinating details about his unusual family—his musical mother, socialist father, and younger sister, Elvira, who is obsessed with the Civil War. All this is in context with his discovery (inadvertently via e-mail) of his mother's affair with a violinmaker, and Henry's own sexual awakening. Although Henry attempts to distance himself from his mother by referring to her as "Mrs. Shaw," his deep and lasting connection to her is undeniable. The dénouement occurs when Elvira, who has been disguising herself as a boy in Civil War reenactments, is discovered, and both parents work in tandem to protect her...this coming-of-age story will truly capture the listener...Highly recommended for mature listeners. KLIATT Codes: SA—Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2000, Random House, Anchor, 276p., $13.00. Ages 16 to adult. Reviewer: Bette D. Ammon; Director, Missoula P.L., Missoula, MT , September 2001 (Vol. 35 No. 5)

Library Journal

The saga of a child discovering a parent's illicit love affair by accidentally reading his/her e-mail is nothing new, in either life or fiction, but this tale of past (the entire Shaw family is obsessed with history and Civil War passions) meets present still manages refreshing, almost laugh-out-loud comic twists. Hamilton (A Map of the World), whose novels have twice been selected by Oprah's Book Club, has come up with another charmer. Actor/reader Robert Sean Leonard, as the adolescent boy who retrospectively narrates the entire story, sounds so natural and convincing it is hard to remember this was written by a woman (though tapes of Hamilton reading the novel are also available). Very highly recommended, with one caveat: listeners might prefer not to hear the final side of tape four, since the ending is seriously marred by that need for summation that has ruined the conclusion of so many novels.--Rochelle Ratner, formerly with "Soho Weekly News," New York Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Simeon J. Maslin - New York Times