Not long after their mother’s funeral, Richard invites his
sister Angela and her family to vacation with him and his family in the English
countryside. This doesn’t seem terribly interesting at first, but you
must take into consideration that Richard and Angela have barely spoken nor
seen each other in fifteen years. Angela’s
children don’t know their Uncle Richard, his second wife Louisa or his
step-daughter. This may make for an
awkward holiday in and of itself… but the close quarters in the wide open space
of the countryside exposes the insecurities and personal demons that each
person is battling.
My first experience with Mark Haddon was with his well-known
novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in
the Night Time. I instantly loved
that book and its main character, and expected the same here. That didn’t quite happen. It took me much longer to get into this one, and now
that I’m finished - I’m still not quite sure how I feel about it. Haddon adopts a very unusual voice, a very
simple narration that disguises the complex themes he is discussing here. It takes some getting used to; one character
may hold the focus for a paragraph or two, and then the focus shifts without
warning. There were times that I wasn’t
sure who was speaking (or thinking) for an entire page, and then I’d have to go
back and read it again once I’d figured it out.
Then there would be passages from a book a character was reading or
lyrics from a song one was listening to… just to keep you on your toes. It
took me far longer than I’d like to admit before I could clearly distinguish
between characters within a few sentences.
It doesn’t help that there are eight characters either.
Once I was able to get past that though, this is really one
very thorough examination of a dysfunctional family. Each person is dealing with their own
problems, unable to fully communicate with their family members. We are then more accurately looking at a family of individuals. The
weeks’ vacation then is much more for each of them, and becomes more of a week
of either self-discovery or of discovering each other as the case may be. The reader really gets to know the
character as the character is realizing him or herself. The manner in which this happens, and the
issues at hand, would make this book a hit with book clubs and discussion
groups. I’m not saying that this is a
book that everyone will love, but that it has plenty to talk about (you know,
when you’re not worried about divulging spoilers!).
*****
The Red House
by Mark Haddon
Knopf Doubleday, 2012
272 pages
Source: Publisher for honest review
*****
Links for Purchase:
Shop Your Indie Bookstore!
-----
4 comments:
I'm really going to try to work this in this summer. I dipped into my galley and enjoyed it enough to keep it around!
I think this is one you'd really enjoy Marie!
This one sounds a lot closer to A Spot of Bother, which I liked but didn't love as much as Curious Incident. I'll have to check it out!
I think it must be hard for authors who write brilliant books to follow them up with anything that comes close to being as well loved. I think that could be why Harper Lee never wrote anything again!
Post a Comment