Product Description

Margaret and Patrick have been married just a few months when they set off on what they hope will be a great adventure-a year living in Kenya. Margaret quickly realizes there is a great deal she doesn't know about the complex mores of her new home, and about her own husband.

A British couple invites the newlyweds to join on a climbing expedition to Mount Kenya, and they eagerly agree. But during their harrowing ascent, a horrific accident occurs. In the aftermath of the tragedy, Margaret struggles to understand what happened on the mountain and how these events have transformed her and her marriage, perhaps forever.

A Change in Altitude illuminates the inner landscape of a couple, the irrevocable impact of tragedy, and the elusive nature of forgiveness. With stunning language and striking emotional intensity, Anita Shreve transports us to the exotic panoramas of Africa and into the core of our most intimate relationships.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1555 in Books
• Published on: 2009-09-22
• Released on: 2009-09-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780316020701
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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From Publishers Weekly
Shreve (Testimony), who worked in Kenya as a journalist early in her career, returns to that country in her slow latest, the story of a photojournalist and her doctor husband, whose temporary relocation abroad goes sour. The year-long research trip is an opportunity for Patrick, but leaves Margaret floundering in colonialist culture shock, feeling like an actor in a play someone British had written for a previous generation. When a climbing trip to Mt. Kenya goes fatally wrong, Margaret's role in the tragedy drives a quiet wedge between the couple. Compounding those stressors are multiple robberies and adulterous temptations, as well as Margaret's freelance work for a controversial newspaper. Written in a strangely emotionless third person, the novel is stuffed with travelogues and vignettes of privileged expatriate life, including the chestnut of Margaret feeling very guilty about being given a rug she admires. While some of these moments aren't bad, the scant dramatic tension and direct-to-video plot make this a slog. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The Washington Post
From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com Reviewed by Valerie Sayers Anita Shreve is a best-selling novelist in large part because of the economical way she builds suspense. In the very first line of "A Change in Altitude," a young white doctor who has arrived in Nairobi to conduct research, announces, "We're climbing Mount Kenya." In those four words to his wife, he suggests the story's central questions: Why is Patrick telling Margaret, with her scant climbing experience, rather than asking her? Can the young American couple rise to the physical and psychological challenge? And what will this climb allow them to discover about Kenya and about themselves? The novel, set in the 1970s, is told from Margaret's angle and, because she is a photographer, that perspective is often visual and sharply focused. It's clear from the beginning that she's especially sensitive to those who claim authority, and that includes all five of her climbing partners: She and Patrick, accompanied by a guide and porters, take on Mount Kenya with two European couples well accustomed to wielding the authority of post-Mau Mau white colonials. Patrick and Margaret's landlord, Arthur, is the one who has suggested the climb, and Margaret has certainly noticed the proprietary attention he pays her. Arthur's athletic wife, Diana, has noticed, too. Shreve moves relentlessly from plot point to plot point, and Arthur's frank interest, Diana's jealousy and Margaret's inability to keep up with the other climbers create plenty of momentum to keep readers panting alongside. Mount Kenya's debilitating altitude sickness, with the ongoing possibility of delusional behavior, renders the atmosphere fraught with tension. Shreve's prose is workaday here and the dialogue is occasionally stiff, but she knows how to keep a reader engaged. Sometimes, Margaret's interior monologue does a good job of explaining a bit of action: "After she had stumbled a couple of times, she noticed that the cook, whose name she didn't know (whose name she didn't know!), stood near her in case she fell badly." More often, however, Margaret's thoughts are separated from the action and tend to state her dilemmas baldly. In the middle of the night, she wakes in their mountain shelter to find rats crawling over her, and allows Arthur to comfort her by taking her hand. The passage describing the morning after seems designed to reassure those readers who are a little slow on the uptake: "She wondered who else had seen her hand in Arthur's, and if that explained the angry voices outside." Margaret and Patrick are thwarted in their attempt to reach the summit when the jealous Diana breaks away from the group as they cross a treacherous glacier. The ensuing accident haunts Margaret for the rest of the novel. As she sorts through her own guilt and resentment at being blamed, she finds herself sexually attracted to Rafiq, a young journalist of Pakistani and Welsh descent. Rafiq's brown skin (but not too brown) embodies Kenya's exotic appeal, and Margaret's reflection that there is "something inscrutable" about this man is obtuse, to say the least. She is, however, attracted to him for other reasons, too, chief among them his political and moral sensibility. The sexual threats to Patrick and Margaret's marriage are played out against a series of yet more ominous threats: Thieves steal their car, furniture and research notes; Margaret overhears a conversation about a mass grave that hides massacred protesters; Arthur and Diana's servant is viciously raped. The landscapes Margaret is drawn to photograph are spectacular, but fire ants, buffaloes, leopards and snakes all surprise her (the leopard and snake, appearing in tandem, are perhaps two natural threats too many). She decides to concentrate, ultimately, on photographing the people of Kenya, and her decision to take a newspaper job provides some of the novel's richest material. She leads Rafiq to former servants so that he can write about the harsh privations they endure as urban migrant workers separated from their villages and families. And when Patrick takes Margaret along to a psychiatric hospital where "many of the women suffered from hallucinations and delusions, while others could not control their bodies," her desire to photograph them is fueled by her shock and outrage at their treatment -- and perhaps by concern over her own dependent condition. By the end, Margaret's personal crisis crowds out the novel's consideration of the political crises in East Africa or, for that matter, the moral challenges facing white visitors like herself. Shreve packs an impressive amount of sympathetic and intelligent detail into this narrative, but ultimately the novel is more interested in Margaret's gooey self-discovery and the resolution of her romantic dilemma. But Shreve's introduction to recent Kenyan history, however romanticized, may lead readers, like Margaret, to learn more about the country's rich ethnic cultures and ongoing political struggles.
Copyright 2009, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

Review
PRAISE FOR A CHANGE IN ALTITUDE:

"Visual and sharply focused....Shreve knows how to keep a reader engaged." (Washington Post Valerie Sayers )

"No one is better at gently, but thoroughly probing the interior life of her characters than Anita Shreve....A Change in Altitude reflects many of Shreve's familiar themes: loss and grief, the relationship between a man and woman, and how one moment can change a life forever. Shreve weaves a strong mix of exotic Africa and interesting characters, producing a potent story that will keep readers thinking about them long after the last page of the novel." (Newsday Mary Foster )

"Shreve takes readers from Nairobi's lush suburbs to its fetid slums, from the drawing-room world of the white gentry to that of its black servants....A Change in Altitude rises a few thousand feet above typical women's fiction." (USA Today Olivia Barker )

"Prepare to cancel all your appointments as you race through this dramatic saga....Enthralling. The mountains Margaret must climb-literally, and figuratively-are difficult ones. Readers will be eager to learn if she successfully scales the peak." (Bookpage Eliza Borné )

"A winner. Once again, Shreve's fans can approach her book with the confident anticipation that she will provide yet another satisfying experience. A Change in Altitude is an unusual kind of page-turner, part whodunit, part adventure story....Readers will vicariously enjoy all facets of this adventure in Africa from the safety of their own armchair." (Free-Lance Star Diane Makovsky )

Customer Reviews

"Now you are just all right."


Shreve consistently delivers well-conceived novels, drawing from her understanding of character and the all too human flaws that inhabit each of us. The canvas for this novel is Africa in the late 1970s, Patrick a doctor, Margaret wielding her camera, taking in the variety of the country. Patrick absorbed in his research, Margaret is left to her own resources, by chance- and a broken-down vehicle- stumbling on an English expatriate couple, Arthur and Diana, who offer the newlyweds a charming cottage on their property. When the more sophisticated Brits announce a planned trek up Mt. Kenya, Margaret experiences some trepidation, but is soothed by Patrick's confidence. Tragically, the adventure ends in a shocking accident that changes all their lives.

Mischance, conflict, the emotional shifts of relationships: this is familiar territory for this author, who builds the first part of the novel with a sense of expectation and a frisson of danger. The signs are ominous, any number of problems poised to derail such a mission, serious physical issues that result from the changes in altitude while climbing the mountain. Unfortunately, it is the unknown that proves the undoing of the climbers, the small emotional disturbances that remain etched in the mind, the doubts and resentments that can't be dislodged by time.

Struggling to keep their marriage intact after the accident, Patrick and Margaret withdraw from conflict, each seeking resolution through time and concentrated effort. But the doubt has been planted, a subtle shift in the foundations of the marriage. Margaret throws herself into her photography, redefining her identity in this time and place, her work a source of income, validation and pride. But everything since the accident registers as anticlimactic, the great drama followed by a series of aftershocks. While Margaret explores Africa in all its beauty and complexity, her marriage continues to totter. How Margaret deals with her marriage, her place in the world and her perceived part in a tragedy drives this story, whether it is possible to survive such blows or if grievous faults are impossible to mend, even with the best of resolutions. A young married woman caught in a faraway place and sideswiped by fate, Margaret absorbs the beauty and depth of the continent, her lesson: "All losses are the same loss. Each has encompassed the others." Luan Gaines/2009.

Expected more from Ms. Shreve
One thing she usually does so well is to get us involved and caring about the characters early on. That didn't happen for me in this one. Her last novel Testimony reeled me in from the get-go, as some of her others have also done, but with this one I just couldn't find myself caring one way or the other whether they made it up the mountain or not (and later on whether their marriage survived or not).

Granted, reading about Africa, especially the Nairobi area is not one of my favorite settings. The thievery, the poverty, filth, disrespect of women and violence toward them and children, just all of it is depressing. Also the main gist of the novel, a young recently married couple trying to stay connected in strange circumstances, is not the most enthralling subject matter either. I stayed with it anyway, so I could lend my "Vine Voice" to the pre-release for this review, but it didn't get very interesting until about the end of Part Two - which is about 2/3 of the way through. The ending was a little odd too, it just kind of stopped... the main protagonist, Margaret, seemed to resolve a couple of issues within herself, but it left some loose ends.

As of this writing, the other reviews are 5 stars, so I am in the minority with my so-so review. Let me say however, that many will enjoy this. She can write well about relationships, and that is what this is really about, not the climbing of Mt. Kenya, or even Africa and her culture. Her description of Africa does show us the various facets of the country, not just the unattractive sides, but the beauty of it as well (I still have no desire to visit there, however). The second half is better than the first, but it is not something I will remember for very long, reading as much as I do, whereas with Fortune's Rocks, The Last Time They Met, or Testimony, I don't think I will ever forget.

Very disappointed, expected much more
I have read only 1 other book by Ms. Shreve. And I am disappointed with this one in comparison to the other.

I liked the setting - Africa - in the 1970s (I believe). It was interesting to read about the dynamics between the local tribes and the British/American residents.

Margaret, follows her husband, Patrick, to Africa from New England. Patrick is a doctor studying disease. Margaret is a photographer. Early on in the story, Margaret and Patrick join a British couple on a climb of Mt. Kenya. The climb ends in disaster and since this event, Margaret and Patrick lose ground on their marriage. The story continues with Patrick and Margaret's strife. At one point, they think their marriage is better and then it is not.

Overall, I had absolutely no compassion nor feeling toward Margaret. I found her to be quite annoying. She constantly dwells on the tragedy and lets it affect her marriage to Patrick. Instead of trying to resolve the conflicts, they both just plod along hoping things to get better. Patrick, to me, was awful! A quite 2-dimensional character seeming to have been inserted into the story to only add grief and irritation to Margaret. The marriage was also lacking substance. The ending? HORRIBLE! I couldn't believe that we would go through all that trouble to read the story only to be left with an ending that didn't resolve anything and seemed too abrupt. (I don't want to give any spoilers).