The Vision of Emma Blau

Burgdorf Cycle #3

by Ursula Hegi

If you knew that you would experience significant love just once in your life, would you want these years at the beginning, or at the end? This is the luminous epic of a bicultural family filled with passion and aspirations, tragedy and redemption.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Book Club, Literary Fiction, Germany, Historical, Novels

432 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Ursula Hegi is a German-born American writer. She is currently an instructor in the MFA program at Stony Brook Southampton.
She was born Ursula Koch in 1946 in Düsseldorf, Germany, a city that was heavily bombed during World War II. Her perception growing up was that the war was avoided as a topic of discussion despite its evidence everywhere, and The Holocaust was a particularly taboo topic. This had a strong effect on her later writing and her feelings about her German identity.
She left West Germany in 1964, at the age of 18. She moved to the United States in 1965, where she married (becoming Ursula Hegi) in 1967 and became a naturalized citizen the same year. In 1979, she graduated from the University of New Hampshire with both a bachelor's and master's degree. She was divorced in 1984. The same year, she was hired at Eastern Washington University, in Cheney, Washington, near Spokane, Washington, where she became an Associate Professor and taught creative writing and contemporary literature.
Hegi's first books were set in the United States. She set her third, Floating in My Mother's Palm, in the fictional German town of "Burgdorf," using her writing to explore her conflicted feelings about her German heritage. She used the setting for three more books, including her best selling novel Stones from the River, which was chosen for Oprah's Book Club in 1997. Hegi appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show on April 8, and her publisher reprinted 1.5 million hardcover copies and 500,000 paperbacks. She subsequently moved from Spokane to New York City.
Hegi's many awards include an NEA Fellowship and five PEN Syndicated Fiction Awards. She won a book award from the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (PNBA) in 1991 for Floating in My Mother's Palm. She has also had two New York Times Notable Book mentions. She has written many book reviews for The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post.

Reviews

[Shelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ursula Hegi is magnificent! The way she captures the emotions and inner motivations that lead to the consequences and reactions of the characters is so realistic it transforms the reader. We learn about each character through their own narrative, in their own time, as this story spans generations of a German-American family from 1909 until very nearly the present. I was most taken with the amazing transition from descriptive narrative and dialogue into the unspoken thoughts of the character, revealing their innermost secret selves in sequences of painful beauty. The most profound response this book evoked for me was that not only our actions and words but also our thoughts have consequences in life. You can hold so tight to what you think is right, that you can't see its destructive force. And there are wrongs that can never be erased or forgotten, even if they are forgiven. And being a parent is scary hard!

[JG (Introverted Reader) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stefan Blau runs away from his home in Germany when he is a young man. He's always dreamed of living in America. He eventually finds himself in New Hampshire, building a beautiful apartment building, running a restaurant, and doing his best to provide for his family.

Honestly, this book might have suffered from too many interruptions. My review is definitely suffering from allowing too much time to go by between finishing the book and reviewing it.

I mostly enjoyed this, my problem was that I felt a little too distanced from the characters. An immigrant acclimating to America, German-Americans living through WWII, love, loss, family, strange neighbors--any of these should have made a book that I loved. The third-person narration felt so very distant from the action though that I just couldn't click with anyone. Also, this family is just desperately unhappy. The narration changes from Stefan to Helene to Robert to Emma and not one of them is happy. I just can't take that.

The meaning of the title just dawned on me. I was understanding it as "Emma Blau's Vision," and it has a little to do with that, but mostly it's about "Stefan's Vision of Emma." If that had clicked earlier, I might have gotten a little more out of this. I kept waiting for Emma to show up and she didn't make her appearance until page 268. That's a lot of waiting.

Once Emma did appear, she was actually my least favorite character. She's so very pushy and clingy, I felt a little smothered just reading about her. As an adult, she makes horrible choices in her life and doesn't really understand why she's unhappy. She's terrified of change and fights it however she can. She's one character in a line that takes care of the inheritance of the apartment house in a less-than-optimal way.

I honestly feel like there was a deeper meaning to this book that I just didn't understand. Without that, I just feel lost writing this review, so I'm just going to stop here.

[Bonnie G · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was really taken by this book. The Wasserburg apartment building is the central character, very clever device, I think. Within it many characters are drawn in clever ways. I especially liked the depiction of how Germans in America felt during the wars, as all my relatives must have gone through some of the same feelings. Suspected for being "one of them." I also liked the description of the bond between Emma and her grandfather. Although it became obsessive, it was a deep link that we all feel to some of our predecessors.

[Tifnie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ohhh...the dregs of reading this book.

At first I thought I lost my "zest" for reading when in reality I lost my appetite for reading this book. Many times over I would have to glance at the cover to re-read the author's name - not sure if Ursula Hegi was a woman. She has a very masculine prespective.

Well, let's see, The Vision of Emma Blau isn't entirely about Miss Emma but rather her lineage. Her Grandpa, Stefen Blau, ran away from Germany to America at a ripe, young age and stared a new life, eventually making a name for himself as a chef. Over time and many wives later, he builds an apartment building that is very grand to an otherwise small and lackluster town. After plenty of imperfections and much more drama, Emma Blau enters the scene. Certainly at one point a welcome relief from an otherwise unscrupulous cast, she soon proves that she is noneother than a Blau.

I do have to ask myself, did I really just finish this book? Yes, by gosh, I did. And this one is going in the Goodwill pile.

[Trudy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was definitely worth reading, though not as engrossing as Stones from the River. Hegi is a wonderful storyteller; her writing is rich and emotional.

This is a multi-generational saga. German immigrant, Stefan Blau, builds an upscale (for its day) apartment building on the shores of a New Hampshire lake. The Wasserburg building becomes a central character, its relevance to the family and the community is transformed through the generations. The relationship of some of the family with the building shows the effects of being obsessed by physical possessions, which tore the family apart. The challenges faced by immigrants and their ancestors is a central theme in the book, which is just as relevant to immigrants today.

[Kathryn Bashaar · Rating 4 out of 5]

I used to love multi-generational family sagas, and I still occasionally pick one up. This book traced the history of a German-American family from grandfather Stefan's arrival in America in 1894 - alone at age 13 - through his granddaughter Emma's desperate determination to maintain the his grand, aging apartment building in the 1980s. The building has a lot of symbolism in the story. There's always a shadow hanging over it. Stefan never paid back the loan his in-laws made to him to build it. Its inheritance, first by his youngest son Robert and then by Robert's childish, frivolous wife Yvonne, is suspect and resented by the rest of the family. Just as he hoped to build a fine, sturdy building, Stefan had hoped to found a fine, sturdy family, but tragedies and misunderstandings prevent that, as they so often will with human beings. As the grand building ages and deteriorates, the family's fortunes also decline.
Like my reviews? Check out my blog at http://www.kathrynbashaar.com/blog/

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

In questo romanzo ho ritrovato la scrittura dell'autrice, che già mi aveva affascinato in "Come pietre sul fiume", una scrittura che spesso da prosa si fa poesia. Sebbene il libro sia abbastanza corposo, la storia è abbastanza scorrevole e la trama molto avvincente. Si parla delle persone che decidono di dare una svolta alla propria vita per iniziarne un'altra altrove, delle ambizioni , delle aspettative e delle delusioni, dello scontro tra due culture diverse, delle difficoltà di inserimento in una nuova nazione e di come una guerra possa farti sentire straniero in una terra in cui credevi di esserti assimilato. Una saga con una carrellata di personaggi molto credibili ed umani : fra questi indimenticabile Emma, molto legata al nonno e, attraverso la sua visione, alla casa a lungo sognata e poi costruita, quella casa simbolo della famiglia, delle radici e dell'amore che dovrebbe legare e tenere unite le generazioni, tramandandone i valori. Un romanzo che tocca le corde dell'anima e che commuove in più punti ; una lettura che resta dentro, assieme ai suoi personaggi.

[Biogeek · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ursula Hegi's three generation family saga starts brilliantly and ends well, but in the middle, it becomes cumbersome and tiring. In movie trilogies, the second episode often seems like it is only there to connect the first and the third. I felt the same way about the middle generation in this story of the family started by a German immigrant at the turn of the 20th century. Like the apartment block he envisions, builds, protects and loves, his family also begins to develop fractures and cracks as the 20th century draws on. Somewhere in the book, Hegi manages to throw in repressed homosexuality, adultery, bulimia and marriage to a Catholic priest.

[Sharon Huether · Rating 5 out of 5]

Immigrants comming to America from Germany.
They had hope, visions of success and keeping the family close. This book expounds on every facet of their lives and the lives of the three generations that lived together in one house.
It was a beautifully written story.

[Cynthia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great beginning to this multi-generational story. Blah, blah, blah... weak begets and uninteresting characters. Too much nothing in middle... do they pad a story to sell a thicker book? Poor Stefen, the first and the last. I guess Emma's vision was lost on me.

[Infosifter · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved the two earlier books in the Burgdorf cycle which take place in Burgdorf, Germany, but I didn't like this American story nearly as much.

It starts with the story of Stefan, a boy who runs away from his small German town to follow his dreams in America, which he imagines to be filled with skyscrapers and Buffalo. His personal life is beset with tragedy, so he compensates by throwing himself into the restaurant and luxury apartment building he builds. The apartment building is Stefan's pride and joy, but it is also a source of guilt which becomes a burden to his family for generations to come. The family believes the building is cursed because of a loan Stefan refused to repay. This is just one example of what I find frustrating about the book; it is filled with magical thinking, visions, and other mystical oddness. Honestly, I think superstition is a greater burden on these characters than the entropy-ridden building they are allowing to drag them down could ever be!

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

Multi-generational tale of the rise and fall of family and hotel on a lake in New Hampshire. This is third volume in the Burgdorf Series.
Patriarch of the family immigrated to USA around turn of 20th Century. He ran away at age 13 from Burgdorf Germany, and makes his fortune through luck and hard work.
The novel does include episodes and people from Burgdorf, but the main action occurs in USA.
As the years pass, the once splendid hotel becomes more and more rundown, and we observe the family begin to lose their previous status and closeness—-both nearly disappeared by fourth generation.
Much to think about in terms of the immigrant experience as well as the effects of the passage of years on our possessions, our neighbors, and ourselves.

[Alia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like the way the author flowed from the perspective of one character to another, creating a feeling of not one person as the main character but of the house, the family itself as the main character. It was well done and I often found myself thinking about the characters long after I'd put the book down.

[Susan Schlank · Rating 4 out of 5]

This family saga captivated me and kept me engaged the entire time. The characters were so interesting and diverse. I was only disappointed with the last page that just didn’t feel complete for me.

[Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5

I've always been suspicious of the downward trend in average rating the course of Hegi's Burgdorf's series takes. Holocaust and dwarfism are both very sensationalized and commonly abused to the point of kitsch and tragedy porn tropes these days, and my five stars doesn't matter when considering how long ago I read the work. Nonetheless, I must be honest, and as a Stones from the River reread isn't in my plans as of now, I concern myself with this work here, and how it was so much better than my memories of Floating in My Mother's Palm up until it wasn't, and the story became one of those nitpickingly odious family drams most white US lit can't seem to avoid becoming. For a while, though, the narratives were beautiful, the people were interiorized without having a trope as a monolithic cornerstone, and the German language, which I still love to sound out to myself, was wrapped up in a keen meditation on success, failure, the bridges of love and hate and money that brings so much possibility on the crest of so much penultimate doom. The last part of the narrative nearly collapsed under the weight of lazy characterization and monotone bitterness against a backdrop of the malaise of apolitical privilege, but it all fortunately ended before it did so. Not the best way for a book to go, but it was a worthwhile ride for the most part.

I first started becoming a fan of historical fiction right around the time I began to gain an appreciation for past times and distant ventures through the powers of my high school library and assigned reading in English. The beginning of this book reminded me of the best of this early times, the writing achieving a quasi-mystical sort of timelessness that comes with horse drawn carriages in the streets and steam ships taking on 13 year old boys if they're broad enough in the chest. For a time, the characters were well drawn despite some of the brevity of their times, and the movement of the ages and all its tribulations was acknowledged enough to reassure me that I wouldn't be trapped too much in a sham of nostalgia most commonly brought upon by white washing bigots. 400 pages, though, is a long way to go on such an aura, and the further one got into modern times the harder it was to be engaged by the white people soap opera with sprinkles of Native American mysticism (no actual Native Americans tho), one single queer couple, and Jewish pain. To be fair, there was also a franker exploration of female eroticism than I expected, and so I rode out the story and was glad it ended before the fat phobia and the feminized socioeconomic stereotypes became too much. House of Usher this is not, but I understand what must ultimately happen to an immigrant community under the debilitating indoctrination of the specific US version of the Anglo nuclear family enough to mourn the house when the family was sundered.

If I ever come across the fourth book in this series, I may pick it up out of incentive for potent bibliography entry number four, in addition to genuine interest in the topic Hegi will be covering, the horrors of indoctrination particularly relevant in this indoctrinating of horror times. The author's been following for some time now, and it's always worth seeing which trajectories of these persistent names survive the sands of time and which outlive their welcome. This work certainly wavered, but I feel being back in Germany under politically informative times will be more effectively engaging than a decaying capitalistic monstrosity torn apart by a complete and utter lack acknowledgement of the real world. That, however, is for the future. In the meantime, I have other authors to catch up with.

[Il cassetto dei libri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stefan, capostipite dei Blau sul suolo americano, ha avuto la visione del suo futuro proiettato in una dimensione onirica nella quale una bimbetta gioca volteggiando in un cortile sulle sponde di un lago. Là, ha deciso, costruirà la sua immensa Wasserburg a sei piani.
L'andamento parabolico nel susseguirsi generazionale è fattore comune di molte saghe familiari: un personaggio scelto per iniziare a dar voce alla "casata"; poi la fase ascendente, in un crescendo di voci e intrecci, fino al culmine della brulicante vita della famiglia, costellata dalle varie personalità che, ognuna a suo modo, pongono un tassello all'albero genealogico. Infine rimane solo il lento ed inesorabile declino, a volte con un barlume di speranza a lieto fine, ma comunque spesso malinconico, così come malinconici sono i ricordi del tempo che fu, un passato che serba la fine di un'epoca. Ci sono libri ai quali questa trama calza a pennello, personaggi singolari e memorabili, ma qui la trama è un po' lasca e va a finire che scivola via dalla memoria del lettore (il quale ha in testa ben altre famiglie indimenticabili della letteratura!), lasciando un'immagine un po' anonima e sbiadita della famiglia, simile a quella visione nebulosa avuta da Stefan...
Taluni, nonna Helene, suo figlio Robert, Emma, tentano di uscire dalla crisalide creativa dell'autrice, di marcare il personaggio a loro affidato, mostrandoci un po' più il loro intimo.. sono però piccole parentesi in questo gruppo disomogeneo, da cui fondamentalmente uno dopo l'altro si isolano, ciascuno con la sua tragedia interiore.
Libro comunque ben scritto, ma non alla portata di -Come pietre nel fiume-, dove lo straordinario personaggi di Trudi, che ritroviamo marginalmente anche qui, irrompeva con una forza di tutt'altro livello rispetto a queste personalità delineate un po' a metà.

[Skye · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel like I've been giving too many 4 star ratings lately. If I could have given 3 1/2 I would have. Take that as you will.
I'm a giant sucker for epic, multigenerational family stories, so in that vein, this was perfect. But I felt that some eras were much better fleshed out than others; for instance, I never really got to know Emma, despite her being the title character, Yvonne was a bit 2-dimensional, and I felt that Greta's personality read a little flat; more could have been done with her "gift". The ending was satisfying, but I found myself wondering about a few loose ends and unresolved issues.
All in all, lovely, compelling, at times heartbreaking, and highly readable. Just not a life changing experience.

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I tend to love character driven stories like The Vision of Emma Blau that span multiple generations. Combined with Ursula Hegi's terrific writing and insights, this made for a great read. The Vision of Emma Blau is a spinoff of Stones from the River, detailing the parallel story that starts with Stephen Blau running away from Bergdorf to find his way in America. He finally settles in New Hampshire and the story follows his family for several generations. I knocked a star only because I liked Stones from the River better; it focused on a smaller cast of characters that I felt I knew better than the larger cast of The Vision of Emma Blau. Nevertheless I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was particularly excited to run across this novel at my library, the novel billed as the companion piece to “Stones From the River”. I was disappointed; the Wassurburg’s story didn’t hold my interest nearly so well as did Trudi’s. While much of the novel. Is about Trudi’s Aunt Helene, there are only brief references to Trudi’s.

I realize that this wasn’t Trudi’s story, but I was disappointed that the characters in “The Vision...” simply didn’t appeal to me, and I was unable to care about any of them. Perhaps this was because the Wassurburg, Stefan Blau’s fine apartment building, was more the central character than any of the people that lived within her walls.

[Carolyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book seriously made me feel annoyed. It covers close to 100 years in a multi-generational family, you only scratch the surface with several characters, there are plot lines that are unanswered (did Stefan ever tell Oliver the truth about their father?, where did Yvonne go on her weeks/months away?, what about Greta's healing powers?), things that get rehashed too many times (yes, we understand, Robert has an eating disorder - I don't need need another example). And Emma Blau (hence the title), she doesn't enter the story until p. 260 ish and she ends up being kind of a pathetic character. I just did not like this book.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Years ago I read Stones from the River, by the same author, and now I want to reread it. This book explores the way that a passion for work and for a thing (in this instance, an apartment building) can destroy a family, but it ends with the possibility of redemption for Emma Blau, and that redemption happens in a very real and satisfying way, so you leave the story with a feeling of hope--always nice in this world. The family is German, living in the US, so it also says a lot about what it meant to be German during and after the war.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ursula Hegi, author of Stones From The River which I read a few years ago and thought then of what an imagination to write a story of a dwarf girl living in a small village in Germany. Now to take some of those same characters and bring them to America at the turn of the century and to live the experiences of being a German immigrant especially as they were looked down upon during both WWI and WWII. Hegi is a detailed writer, thoughtful and entertaining.

[Maryanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

While decades and centuries pass, needs, desires, aspirations, and failings remain the same. While the similarities are recognizable, human knowledge based on scientific research has advanced our ability to "perhaps" face failings and fragility in ourself and others realistically and with compassion.

[Ayelet Waldman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stones From the River, by the same author, is one of my favorite books of all time. It's brilliant. This one...not so much. I just had a hard time finding a plot in it all.

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved Stones from the River - this one didn't capture me as much. I remain interested in the experiences of everyday German citizens before , during and after WWII, so will read more of her books.

[Joslyn Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review published: https://chronicbibliophilia.wordpress...

“Had he known how the Wasserburg would seduce and corrupt him and his family, Stefan Blau would have taken the train back to New York that day, but to detect rot is often impossible in its early stages: it starts beneath lush surfaces, spreading its sweet-nasty pulp, tainting memories and convictions. It entangles. Justifies. But what Stefan saw that summer afternoon was only the splendor of the Wasserburg as it would be the day he would finish its construction.”

“The Vision of Emma Blau” is the story of German immigrant Stefan Blau, his family, and the family’s legacy (and curse) – a mammoth apartment building, named the Wasserburg, in Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire. Stefan comes to America as a 13 year old boy, all on his own. As he scrapes and dreams his way into adulthood, he opens first a restaurant and eventually the Wasserburg, an apartment building of his own design, straight out of his dreams. Stefan’s first two wives die during and shortly after giving birth to his children, a fact which shakes the already stolid Stefan and pushes him further along his path of pragmatism and cold remove.

“Once, in the bleak morning hours, after Stefan had paced through the house, he entered the rooms of his children, and when he found them both asleep as of course they would be at that time, it struck him as such incredible faith – sleeping here like that – faith in him, that he was overwhelmed by the sum of their future needs. He felt as though he were the only person awake in the town, perhaps even in the world, and he suddenly knew that his next wife would be here entirely for his children’s sake – not his; that he would not kill another woman with his seed.”

It seems Stefan invests not only his time and energy into the Wasserburg; it is now the only object of his love and affection. Ursula Hegi creates a family portrait composed of characters with one prominent family trait – the habit of pining for the unattainable, of loving an ideal at the expense of reality. This is a story filled with wanting characters, people who are never content and who love most that which can never love them back.

“Drawing her coat closer around herself, Emma shivered as she recalled how not being with Justin had often given her more pleasure than having him with her. In her longing for him, she had felt lovely and high-breasted. But as soon as he’d arrived, she’d felt rushed, trying to fill their one afternoon with all she wanted to have with him – while he was unhurried as though they had unlimited time together. Already disappointed, though he hadn’t left yet, she dreaded his departure; but as soon as she was alone once again, she began looking forward to their next meeting when the possibility of anything would be hers. Except it never became more than a possibility.”

The broad span of this saga means that, in addition to other monumental moments in history, it covers both the First and the Second World Wars, a time when being notably of German descent in America was particularly difficult. The author, Ursula Hegi, is herself a German-born American, giving her point of view biographical credentials, and though the immigrant-aspect of this story is in many ways specifically about the experience of Germans in America, the biases and prejudices faced by the immigrant characters ring true for many of today’s immigrants. Their sense of displacement, disdain, and dysphoria are likely the same for so many displaced persons.

“It made her feel different, made her think how – although everyone carried some difference just by the separation of skin from others – that became magnified when you were an immigrant, when there were more details to set you apart. Language, for one. And then of course the experience of having grown up a certain way. Here is America she felt more German than she had back home. Because here she stood out.”

“‘Did you know that you have an accent’
‘Of course. People in America tell me – ‘
‘No, here. In German.’
She was stunned.
‘Not much of an accent,’ he hastened to tell her. ‘It’s like a different melody almost that runs beneath the language.’
‘A different melody. . . . That means I have an accent in both languages now.’
‘Does it bother you?’
Slowly, she nodded. ‘It marks me. Instead of feeling connected to both countries, I belong to neither one.'”

Ursula Hegi is a superb writer. Her stories are often quiet, her characters achingly subdued. “The Vision of Emma Blau”, while not as powerful as her “Stones From the River”, is another fine piece of writing from an author who brings confidence, grace, and poetry in equal measure. She is an author well worth exploring, and “The Vision of Emma Blau” does not disappoint.

“The morning of his funeral she awoke with red imprints of her fingernails on her palms from clutching her sorrow inside her fists all night. . . . Once she opened her fists, her sorrow was everywhere, in her father’s eyes, in the drinking water, in her Oma’s steps on the floor above her.”

[Kerry & naomi · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Vision of Emma Blau tells the story of a family, and a building, in Ursula Hegi’s dulcet prose that leads the reader on, until she wakes with a start and recognizes the earthiness and the harsh realities—the real story of the lucid words.

In some ways, The Vision of Emma Blau is related to Stones from the River, Hegi’s story of Trudi Montag, the dwarf of Burgdorf, Germany. Vision chronicles the lives of Trudi’s relatives, her aunt Helene and Helene’s husband Stefan Blau.

The Plot

Stefan Blau leaves Germany as little more than a child, working his way to the United States in the 1890s. He learns how to cook from a Hungarian chef and becomes an entrepreneur. He opens his own restaurant in Winnepesaukee, New Hampshire, and there, rowing across the lake, he has a vision of a little blonde girl dancing wildly in front of an apartment building. Stefan first sets out to build his Wasserburg, a large luxury apartment building, thinking that his vision of the little girl will be fulfilled in his daughter.

Stefan first marries a rich banker’s daughter, Elizabeth, who dies in childbirth. Stefan remarries, Sara, the daughter of a middle class baker, as plans go forward for his Wasserburg, to care for his infant daughter Greta. They have a daughter Agnes, then a son, Tobias, when Sara too succumbs to the dangers of childbirth. Resolving never to kill another woman with his children, Stefan returns to Germany to marry Helene Montag, the woman who had loved him before he left, the woman he learned to know much better through several years’ correspondence. Helene marries Stefan knowing that he is marrying her to provide a mother to his children, yet still feels consumed by her own passion for him.

The plot moves along, chronicling the building of the Wasserburg and the trials and triumphs of the Blau family, their experience as German-Americans during two World Wars against their homeland, their lives, their loves, their deaths, their obsessions.

Discussion

Obsession: that’s what lies at the heart of The Vision of Emma Blau. Stefan’s obsession with the Wasserburg, an obsession he passes along to his granddaughter Emma; Helene’s obsession with Stefan; Greta’s obsession with a priest; Tobias’s obsession with making matchstick animals; Robert’s obsession with food; Caleb’s obsession with film; Yvonne’s obsession with clothes. Generation after generation of Blaus never quite seem to be able to break free of their obsessions. (Or maybe they do, but I’m not spoiling the ending by saying either way.)

Yet those obsessions are so mesmerizing. I had hopes and dreams for these characters, wanting them to either break free of their obsessions or make successes of them—justify their obsessions somehow. All of the obsessions also seem to center around one question: If you knew that you could experience a significant love once in your life, would you want these years at the beginning or at the end? The answer is different for each character in this novel.

Elements of Style

After reading the first few pages of Hegi’s book, I expected the title to refer to a sense of clairvoyance in Emma Blau. Visions of the future seemed to run in the Blau family, a gift stronger in some characters than others. Later on, after I had finished the book, I realized that another “vision of Emma Blau” was Stefan’s vision of her dancing wildly in front of the Wasserburg, his impetus for setting all their lives and obsessions in motion. And yet, Emma’s vision, toward the end of the book, can be construed as an epiphany, a possible step toward redemption. I like the double meaning and play in the title: Emma’s visions of others, others’ visions of Emma.

Hegi’s writing sucks me in, every time. I am at once lost in the glorious descriptions and then hit with the sudden realization that Hegi has smoothly shifted to the ugliness of life. The prose itself is not jarring, only my reaction to it, a reaction that makes me think more about what I’m reading instead of mindlessly absorbing details of plot development for transcription into my next review.

Overall

Unfortunately, I do not possess Hegi’s talent for dulcet prose and epic story-telling, not even in enough degree to do this book justice in a review. Those who have read Stones from the River will find the same rhythms in The Vision of Emma Blau. Those who have not will discover a new music well-worth reading.

[Eddy64 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stefan a tredici anni è fuggito da un villaggio della Germania per venire in America, il paese delle grandi opportunità dove tutti si sentono uguali, e seguire un sogno. Inizio novecento è arrivato nel New Hampshire, sulle rive di un lago dal nome impossibile, dove vuole aprire un ristorante e costruire la Wasserburg, un grande palazzo moderno di sei piani, dotato di ogni confort e sicurezza. Il romanzo è così la storia della famiglia di Stephan, del palazzo e degli inquilini che ci abitano, ferma e granitica la prima come il secondo, in grado di resistere alle vicissitudini della vita come alle intemperie climatiche. Passano i decenni, due guerre che certo non suscitano molte simpatie ai Blau, ma Stefan è ancora lì, con la moglie Helene e i tre figli (e poi i nipoti) come la Wasserburg, imponente e sfavillante, simbolo della famiglia e della comunità che l’ha accolta. Poi a partire dagli anni 50 il lento declino e i primi scricchiolii nella famiglia come nella casa. Sarà la nipote Emma, oggetto di una visione del nonno quarant’anni prima, a raccoglierne l’eredità e l’intento di preservarne gli antichi fasti. La visione purtroppo si trasforma in ossessione, quella delle cento manutenzioni e dei soldi che sembrano non bastare mai, dei conti e delle rinunce dietro a una promessa che rischia di diventare una condanna. Una saga che racconta tanto con il passo lento e massiccio delle scarpe comode ordinate in Germania ma anche lieve ed etereo delle notti trascorse ad osservare le stelle; sogni e visioni da inseguire per anni con fermezza e costanza, amori ed amicizie che nascono da un incontro, uno sguardo e destinate a durare negli anni. Una famiglia molto legata alle proprie tradizioni che finisce per accettare senza battere ciglio l’apparente diversità di relazioni e situazioni che desterebbero più di un pettegolezzo (e non preciso oltre per non spoilerare…)Quattrocento e passa pagine dense e pacate, la narrazione sembra immobile invece passano gli anni e i decenni e i Blau e la Wasserburg sono ancora lì, invecchiati, cambiati, fragili ma ancora al loro posto. E il lettore, passo dopo passo, arriva alla fine con loro, dopo aver seguito i tanti rivoli tipici di ogni saga familiare, senza perdersi, perché siamo sempre più o meno rimasti sulle rive del lago. Tre stelle e mezzo granitiche…

[Anne Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book takes us to America, New Hampshire to be exact, where Stefan Blau ended up when he ran away from his home in Burgdorf, Germany when he was thirteen in 1894. He had big dreams, and made them reality when he built The Wasserburg, an apartment building, and also owned a successful restaurant. Elizabeth Flynn, his first wife, had a daughter, Greta. When Elizabeth died, Stefan married Sara Penn. She had Agnes, who died, and Tobias. Sara died, and Stefan went back to his home town where he asked his long time friend, Helene Montag, to marry him and come to America. Helene always loved Stefan, keeping in touch through the years by writing him letters, and went to America to help raise his children. It was a struggle, of course, with the language and living in a new place. It was also disappointing when Stefan didn't return the love Helene wanted from him. But Helene did have a son, Robert, who made Helene happy. Growing up in The Wasserburg was adventurous with the many tenants who would become life long friends. Greta grows up to fall in love, and eventually marry, a priest. Tobias, never fitting in with his family, only finds the love he craves from Danny Wilson, who helps maintain the building. Robert constantly struggles with his weight, eating disorder, and eventually tries to keep happy his wife Yvonne, and children Caleb and Emma. As time goes on, the building shows its age, and Emma is determined to keep tenants, make repairs, and get her mother to give her the deed. Emma has an illegitimate son, Stefan, with the town's doctor, and struggles each day to maintain the building her beloved grandfather loved and thinking how nice it would be to have a family. But from what I gather, it may be too much for Emma, and the dream of just starting over in a new town without The Wasserburg is too tempting. Could she have set the place on fire, the one thing her grandfather was always afraid of?

[Pam J · Rating 3 out of 5]

So relieved to be finished with this book so I can start something else.
I think I picked this up at a Book Swap shelf at work, and was drawn to it because I the author seemed familiar. It sat on my shelf for who knows how long, and I went to it when I needed a new book right now. While readable, it's very plodding, and I found few of the characters likable or believable. Even the apartment house, The Wasserburg, was hard to accept as such a large building didn't seem to make sense in a NH tourist town. The ending left me bewildered, as other reviewers have mentioned, it left so many stories untold. And when Emma wrestles with 3 options (on the last 3 pages!), her thought-process is incredulous.
After putting it down, I found a review I'd written in my book journal of a book I'd read years before by the same author, Stones from the River. I realized then I'd had many similar reactions to that book, though I'd forgotten about it. Not a good sign.