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Servants of the Map: Stories by [Andrea Barrett]

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Andrea Barrett

Servants of the Map: Stories Kindle Edition

by Andrea Barrett (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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"Luminous....Each [story] is rich and independent and beautiful and should draw Barrett many new admirers."—Publishers Weekly, starred review

Ranging across two centuries, and from the western Himalaya to an Adirondack village, these wonderfully imagined stories and novellas travel the territories of yearning and awakening, of loss and unexpected discovery. A mapper of the highest mountain peaks realizes his true obsession. A young woman afire with scientific curiosity must come to terms with a romantic fantasy. Brothers and sisters, torn apart at an early age, are beset by dreams of reunion. Throughout, Barrett's most characteristic theme—the happenings in that borderland between science and desire—unfolds in the diverse lives of unforgettable human beings. Although each richly layered tale stands independently, readers of Ship Fever (National Book Award winner) and Barrett's extraordinary novel The Voyage of the Narwhal, will discover subtle links both among these new stories and to characters in the earlier works.

Print length

274 pages
Language

English
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On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company
Publication date

February 17, 2003
File size

915 KB
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Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

All six of the intricate and closely related tales in Barrett's latest collection depict intriguing moments of tension between scientific endeavor and human nature, dating from the early 19th century to the present. In the mesmerizing title story (selected for both Best American Short Stories 2001 and Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards 2001), young Max Vigne seeks the adventure of a lifetime as part of an 1863 expedition to map the Himalayas but instead finds personal anguish and unexpected self-knowledge. "The Cure," set in 1905, finds Max's daughter Elizabeth reflecting on the strange paths that led her to becoming a healer in the Adirondack wilderness. "The Mysteries of Ubiquitin" portrays an up-and-coming female biochemist distracted by a chance to live out her childhood dream of romance. This book more than matches Barrett's earlier story collection, Ship Fever, which won the National Book Award. Highly recommended for most fiction collections.
- Starr E. Smith, Fairfax Cty. P.L., VA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Travelers, naturalists, nurses, botanists, surveyors a multitude of seekers and healers populate this luminous new collection of two novellas and four stories by National Book Award-winner Barrett (Ship Fever; The Voyage of the Narwhal). Tracking her wandering protagonists from the banks of the Schuylkill in Pennsylvania in 1810 to the Himalayas in the 1860s and on to New York's Finger Lakes in the late 20th century, Barrett elegantly portrays the transitory nature of life and love. Selected for Best American Short Stories (2001) and The O. Henry Awards (2001), the title novella follows young British surveyor Max Vigne on a long, arduous mapping expedition as he writes letters home to a cherished wife that become a chronicle of the distance that is growing between them. Partings and reunions of loved ones recur in these stories. In "Theories of Rain," a young orphan studying the mysteries of precipitation and passion yearns for the brother she was separated from as a child; in the novella "The Cure," a nurse at a village in the Adirondacks finds the brother she lost years ago and yet struggles to communicate with him. In the contemporary "The Forest," Barrett creates a lovely comedy of the inevitable gap of perspectives between an illustrious Polish scientist who has grown nostalgic with age and a young woman who yearns to break free of the past. The mark of Barrett's artistry is her ability to illuminate loneliness and isolation, but also to capture the improbably forged bonds between her disparate characters. Familiar figures appear and reappear in more than one story, and many readers will be able to make connections between these tales and Barrett's earlier works. Yet each is rich and independent and beautiful and should draw Barrett many new admirers. Author tour. (Feb. 1) Forecast: An elegant sepia-toned jacket and Barrett's rapidly growing reputation as one of the finest writers at work today will assure a substantial audience for this radiant collection.

--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Amazon.com Review

No one limns the opposing pull of inner and outer worlds more eloquently than Andrea Barrett. Her naturalists, explorers, scientists, and healers are driven to work and above all to know; they categorize, theorize, and collect the phenomena of the natural world with an urgency that feels like physical need. But they are motivated equally by desire and loneliness, and the theme of domestic life runs like a countermelody through each of the six lovely, deeply memorable stories in Servants of the Map. The narrator of the title story, a cartographer in the Grand Trigonometrical Survey of India, is a timid, home- and family-loving man, but the Himalayas strike him with the force of a revelation. The heroine of the lyrical "Theories of Rain" is a creature of strong feelings and appetites, driven to ask questions about the world around her in the same spirit as she longs for a neighbor and mourns the brother separated from her in childhood. Her scientific curiosity is scarcely different from her desire: "Through that channel of longing, the world enters me."

Fans of Barrett's earlier books (the sublime Ship Fever and Voyage of the Narwhal) will delight in tracing the stories and characters that wind in and out of these three books, producing the sense of something lovely, ongoing, and whole. In the final story, Elizabeth finds consolation in her work caring for tubercular patients--"as if, in the order and precarious harmony of this house and those it shelters she might, for all that gets lost in this life, at last have found a cure." The same might be said of science, and of Barrett's art. --Mary Park

--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

About the Author

Andrea Barrett lives in Rochester, New York. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From Booklist

MacArthur fellow Barrett writes with great empathy about naturalists, scientists, explorers, and healers, the heroes of her National Book Award-winning story collection, Ship Fever (1996), her magnificent novel, The Voyage of the Narwhal (1998), and now this equally spellbinding set of stories, which are knit unobtrusively to each other and her earlier books. In these complex yet ravishing tales of scientific pursuits stoked by loneliness and desire, Barrett ponders the spiritual toll associated with exile from home and loved ones, and conflicts between the passion for learning and the demands of love and family life. In the brilliantly subtle title story, Max, a shy English surveyor with a passion for botany, toughs it out in the dangerous and glorious Himalayas as part of the remarkable Grand Trigonometrical Survey of India, bitterly missing his wife and children even as he realizes that this is the life for him. In the gently poetic "Theories of Rain," a bright yet isolated young woman longs for sensual love and knowledge of the universe, while in two beautifully rendered stories set in the present, a molecular biologist named Rose finds that her work proves more reliable than human connections. Barrett's characters are deep and self-possessed, and their stories, so intelligently and delectably told, both romanticize and validate the quest for understanding life that drives scientists and artists alike. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Review

[O]ne more example of the originality and wit Barrett demonstrates throughout a most distinguished collection of stories. -- New York Times Book Review, Barry Unsworth --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Review

'Servants of the Map confirms how deserving Barrett is to be ranked with Alice Munro and the other great North American storytellers of the moment! It is the precision of her words, and the intelligence with which she creates bonds between characters from an age so different from our own, that makes reading her such a joy.' Economist 'Andrea Barrett has a talent for reaching to the essence of experience! The passage in which Lavinia speaks of what makes her happy is as poignant and intense as anything I can remember reading for a long time, as radiantly illuminating, in its way, as the famous passage in Wuthering Heights when Catherine describes her idea of perfect weather.' Barry Unsworth 'Gorgeous, illuminating, entrancing fiction! The scientific themes that made Barrett's novel The Voyage of the Narwhal and her NBA-winning collection Ship Fever two of the most unusual literary successes of their decade again predominate in this superb new gathering of four stories and two novellas.' (Starred) Kirkus Reviews --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From The New Yorker

The six stories that make up this collection turn out to be connected, but you won't know exactly how until you read the last one—which comes together satisfyingly not only with its fellows but with the author's last two books, "Ship Fever" and "The Voyage of the Narwhal." The common thread here quickly becomes apparent: almost every protagonist is a would-be botanist or entomologist or geologist. In one story, a young husband on a years-long mapping expedition in the Himalayas yearns for recognition through the plant samples he gathers; in another, a little girl demonstrates her crush on her parents' friend by collecting bugs with him; in a third, a schoolteacher meets his future wife while searching for fossils. Like fossil-hunters, most of Barrett's characters are looking for a way to piece together fragments of the past; when, in the last story, a cherished belonging of one character shows up in the life of another, we feel rescued and redeemed.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00421BN5Y
Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company (February 17, 2003)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 17, 2003
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 915 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 274 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #883,126 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #265 in Historical Fiction Short Stories (Books)
- #1,014 in Literary Short Stories
- #4,758 in Historical Literary Fiction

Customer Reviews:
4.3 64 ratings

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Andrea Barrett

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Andrea Barrett was born in Boston, MA in 1954 and grew up on Cape Cod. She studied biology at Union College, in Schenectady, NY and started writing fiction in her twenties, after several brief stints in graduate school. She lived in Rochester, NY for many years, then in western Massachusetts, where she taught at Williams College. She and her husband, photographer Barry Goldstein, now live in the eastern Adirondacks. She's the author of six novels, most recently THE AIR WE BREATHE, and four collections of stories: SHIP FEVER, which received the 1996 National Book Award, SERVANTS OF THE MAP, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, ARCHANGEL, a finalist for The Story Prize, and, most recently NATURAL HISTORY. Visit her official website at www.andrea-barrett.com.

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4.3 out of 5

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Frances Haas

Interesting historical fiction to learn from

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 15, 2018

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The story begins with a quiet, young man who is to accompany a crew to Tibet to map the country, or more apt, the mountains His recent bride has made letters in advance, knowing the odds are not good for getting letters through. But he writes as he goes along, so she doesn't have a steady supply of his letters. All subsequent chapters derive from the first but are filled with different characters, all related in some way to the adventurer, who turns up at the end of the last story. It is very well done work, one to keep. . .

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Carol Sue

More good writing from Andrea Barrett

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 12, 2017

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This author is very good and I enjoyed this collection of stories. I have enjoyed her novels even more.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 17, 2019

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The first story was very engaging. The rest are not.

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BonHoliday

I loved the writing style and subjects

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 17, 2016

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I loved the writing style and subjects. If you are interested in the history of natural sciences you will love it.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 13, 2014

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Title story draws you into a man's mind, closely observed, fully appreciated, but from a distinctly female perspective. Infinite compassion, a surprise.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 1, 2017

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Arrived in timely manner, as described.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 31, 2013

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As described, arrived quickly, love the paperback format. I like historical fiction and this fits the bill. It is perfect.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 12, 2017

This collection of six stories kept my attention throughout, although I generally don’t like short stories at all. It helped that her characters had a scientific bent: a surveyor and amateur botanist, a retired physical chemist, a biochemistry post-doc, a fossil collector. I appreciated that the science was accurate, so far as I could tell, and simply a matter-of-fact element of who these people were.

Ms. Barrett’s settings range from Eastern Pennsylvania in 1810 to the Himalayas during Victoria’s reign to the modern East Coast. Connection is a theme of the story collection as a whole. Two young women dream of reuniting with long-lost brothers. Two sets of sisters struggle with their differences. Two girlhood crushes founder on the rocks of reality. Names and objects from one story pop up in another.

I still don’t know why I happened to buy this book at a library used book sale, but I’m very glad I did.

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