“It was my mother’s practice to let a tangle work itself out,” attests the admirably square narrator of Jane Hamilton’s novel When Madeline Was Young. In what is billed as a rich and loving story about a nontraditional family, the book follows three generations of the modern-day Maciver clan, scions to a 19th-century Chicago fur-trading estate. Their connections to American centers of power, their divided political persuasions that would parallel a nation at war, and their proximity to the front lines of urban racial tension in post-war America provides ample material with which the skilled and evocative Hamilton contextualizes her characters; but in the end, it is the tangle of one marriage that captures the imagination and, cathartically, allows everything else to work itself out.During the Second World War while working at a Wisconsin munitions factory, Aaron Maciver marries the beautiful young Madeline Shiller. While not enjoying the status of the Macivers, the Shillers were not without means, having travelled to Italy in 1937 in honor of Madeline’s high school graduation. But shortly after the marriage, the 25-year old Madeline was permanently disabled with a severe brain injury, the result of a cycling accident, and her parents quickly cut themselves from the picture. Julia Beeson, the novel’s central protagonist, soon enters the Maciver saga, caring for the injured Madeline first as her nurse, and then later as the second wife of Aaron Maciver. Over the course of the next five decades, it would be the relationship between Madeline and Julia that would define the entire Maciver family.Despite suggestions that the young Aaron and Julia move Madeline into a long-term care facility, they resist, insisting that her home is with them and always will be. And while the attention that Madeline, with the mental capacity of a six-year old, requires is sometimes shockingly overwhelming, the Macivers still manage to successfully raise two children of their own, Mac and Louise. It’s Mac who narrates the story, knowing Madeline as a sister, and very early on as someone deserving of his fiercest protection, even escorting her back to Italy many years later. Yet at the center of his recollections and reflections is the triumvirate of affection between Aaron, Julia, and Madeline, a relationship so intense and laden with loving patience that it almost defies logic to call the arrangement ‘nontraditional’. And if the portrait of Aaron Maciver is somewhat thin, Hamilton by far makes up for it, allowing Mac to pay homage to the learned, stoic, and convicted Julia, a character that leads by example and unabashedly speaks out about the injustices of war, unaccountable leaders, and racial inequality.In one brilliantly written scene, two African-American teenagers from the inner-city come to stay with the Maciver family in their white-bread suburb west of Chicago. Despite Julia’s never-ending attempts to impart her children with her own liberal-minded ideals, the tension between the teenage Mac and his clearly uncomfortable guests is as thick as the sultry summer evenings they are being forced to share. When a fight breaks out and a neighborhood boy is left with a bloodied face and broken nose, rumors immediately circulate that one of the visitors must be responsible. Instead, it was Mac’s own cousin, the indomitable Buddy, that had done the damage in an effort to protect Madeline’s honor. Rather than allowing the rumors to stand, it is Cousin Buddy that makes the rounds, door to door, informing each neighbor that, in fact, it was he who was responsible for the violence.In some ways, it is exactly that kind of benevolence that defines the story as a whole and make it such a compelling read. The characters that Hamilton has created exude the kind of wholesomeness that is so often the trope of novels portraying the Midwestern family. What makes this book unique, however, is the absence of underlying dysfunction, especially the psycho-quandaries that so often afflict fictional baby boomers. At its heart, this is a story about patience. Its heroism is one of mundane durability, its insight one that transcends even the spiritual. In a touching scene as the novel closes, Aaron Maciver sits in the fading light, sipping wine, idly tracing his finger across the back of his partner of 60 years, a standing testament to exactly the way in which tangles work themselves out.(c) Jeffrey L. Otto October 13, 2009
My first book by Jane Hamilton and I liked it. At the start, she used this shocking premise: The narrator's eldest sister Madeline is actually the first wife of the narrator's father. Madeline had a bicycle accident few months after she got married to his father and when she got healed, she ended up having the mind of a 7-year old child.So, I thought the story would be as melodramatic as Jodi Piccoult's novels that normally employ rare medical conditions to create a convoluted family drama coupled with deeply emotional characters to create soaking-wet-hanky moments for her female fans. No! Maybe that's the reason why Jane Hamilton's novels are not as popular as Jodi Piccoult's but this definitely does not mean inferior. In fact, Jane Hamilton has the sensitivity of Alice McDermott (in her After This) as this novel and that Pulitzer-finalist novel both tackle American family drama with Vietnam War as a backdrop as they depict ordinary Heartland USA drama. Jane Hamilton's characters are not as wickedly strange as Anne Tyler's too. However, Hamilton's are just like you and I (even if I am not an American) and it is not hard to relate to any of them. Madeline, despite being part of this book's title, is not the main protagonist. The POV is that of the narrator, Mac the eldest child of Aaron (Madeline's husband prior to her accident) and Julia. Julia is a nurse who takes care of Madeline after the accident and while Aaron and Julia were looking at the birds outside the hospital, they fall in love and decided to get married after Aaron divorce paper (with Madeline) was approved. Not sure if you could relate to any of them at this point but sure you do with the next.Since the POV is that of the Mac's, the story jumps from that major premise of a beautiful Madeline with a 7-y/o child's brain as Hamilton skillfully diverts her tale to Mac and his relationship to his cousin Buddy from Mac's life as a boy who realizes the family "secret" to his old age and how the people around him, from Madeline, his parents and his cousin Buddy, played a role in his transformation from boy to a middle-age man. The thoughts that played in his mind, even when he is thinking of how to tell his girlfriend about the secret, are carefully crafted as if Hamilton is transcribing the innermost thoughts of a man. His relationship with his cousin Buddy brought back memories of my own cousins. I have many weird cousins mostly from the paternal side: a drug-addict teenager male cousin who left home promising my auntie that he would come back someday once he gets rich; a rebellious sexually-liberated teenager female cousin who brought home a boyfriend and let him sleep on her bed that made my auntie cry outside the door; a grown up male cousin who is now hiding from the police because he and his wife assaulted their neighbors over some money quarrels and an intellectually-challenged male cousin who when he was a college student, got his daily allowance from my auntie but spent months and months inside the moviehouse in Novaliches. My favorite cousin is also from my father's side of the family. We used to fight when we were young boys yet we also had many memories together. One of those was when I was in Grade 5 and we had our summer break in Baguio City (the city in the Philippines constructed on top of the mountain by the Americans), we, together with my brother, walked from our house to Loakan Airport that was situated near the Kennon Road. From dusk to dawn all of us little boys walked from Trancoville St. (near the boundary of Baguio City and La Trinidad) to the airport walking the dangerous sidewalk-less length of the winding Kennon Road with only sticks, jokes, stories with us. I remember we were car-crazy boys then. We looked at each of the passing cars and we used to point which ones we liked and dreamed of having one day.Now I have a Toyota. My brother in San Diego has three cars. My cousin has none as he is living most of his life in ships afloat the oceans all around the world. You see, he is a marine engineer. He only sees cars at the ports they disembark at along their ship routes and when he comes back home to visit his family.If a book can trigger you to think of your yesterdays, it must be good. Hamilton is a brilliant storyteller and I will not think twice reading her other books when opportunities come my way.
What do You think about When Madeline Was Young (2006)?
I put this book down 3 times because I didn't want to waste my time reading it. I ended up finishing it because I got sick and couldn't sleep one night. That is the only reason I finished it. Technically, I would rate it in-between hated it and it was ok. Honestly, if this were the first book I read by this author, I would not pick up another of her books.The problem started with the point of view. I kept having to remind myself that it was a male point of view. Even after knowing the character's name, I still kept having to remind myself it was a male point of view. I don't know why this happened, but when I analyze it I think it was because the narrator's voice got lost in the story. I had to reacquaint myself everytime Mac "reappeared".The story's concept was an interesting one; however, the story jumped from person to person so much that not a single by-line interested me. I wish I would have learned more about one character (the mom) and a lot less about a couple of others. Huh, now that I am really thinking about the book. I would recommend that you don't waste your time.
—Tracy
Hmmmm...The reviews aren't spectacular but I'm going to give it a try. If I don't like it, I won't have a problem not finishing it......A couple weeks later I finished the book. It was decent enough to keep me going although admittedly, there were a few spots where I scanned instead of read. The narrator is Mac (son of Aaron), and I understood it was him most of the time. The story line is a little implausible and yet, I can see how something like it could happen.The inside cover summarizes it: "When Aaron Maciver's beautiful young wife, Madeline, suffers brain damage in a bike accident, she is left with the intellectural powers of a six-year-old. In the years that follow. Aaron and his second wife care for Madeline with deep tenderness and devotion as they raise two children of their own."The story bogs down mostly in the extra-long descriptions about people, their thoughts and circumstances. These kinds of passages in books are normally enjoyable, but the author really works them over and over. While this book might not be successful as others of Hamilton's, I have great respect for the writing and work that goes into this. It also illustrates that successful writing is difficult - even by excellent writers.
—Kay
4.5 actually -- liked this book a lot. Wonderful story, beautifully told. Madeline, newly married, suffers brain injury in a bike accident and remains forever at a mental age of about seven. She then lives out her life with her (former) husband, his new wife, their children, their extended family. Narrator is the son of the family -- now an adult about our age, in our times -- recounting the story of his family. He has a wonderful voice -- droll, sometimes excruciatingly funny, very caring. Book spans the civil rights era, the Vietnam War era, the Reagan era, almost up to the present -- issues which are important in this family. Madeline is not the main character particularly -- just one of the family. "Why would we put her in a group home? We ARE her group home!" Wonderful characters -- the mother, Cousin Buddy, Mikey O'Day. And some Oberlin appearances too -- Tappan Square on the night of Kent State.Was engrossed from the first page. Great family story.
—Pamela
