What do You think about The Great House (2000)?
I hate books that I finish and then have to go to the Internet to have them explained to me. The good news is that I am in good company--nobody seems to be able to explain this book. Given that, maybe I can relax a bit. The dust jacket says that the stories in this book are told by narrators who all have a connection with the same hulking desk. When I read that I imagined a work similar to People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks, but the desk here doesn't take the central role that the Haggadah does in that one. Instead the desk is almost a side note, or maybe a subtle, oboe counter line, to the intimate melody that each of the narrators plays as they tell their stories. The writing is beautiful--similes and metaphors par excellence, but after awhile all the narrators start to sound alike, none has their own voice, and it seems to be more about the writing than about the stories. I found several reading group guides with lists of questions--very few of which I could answer--and I think that that is what the author was after, a story with no real ending, no neat lines, a story that you can fill in the details as you will,. I don't have time for that. So why do I keep trying to figure out the answers?
—LoveMuffin
Mooi geschreven. Maar een boek heeft meer nodig dan mooie taal alleen om te blijven bekoren. Op het moment dat er een derde ik-persoon op het toneel verscheen, heb ik afgehaakt. Het bureau zou de rode draad doorheen het boek moeten zijn. Maar meer dan opduiken in elk apart verhaal deed het mijns inziens niet. Het had de krachtlijm tussen de afzonderlijke verhalen kunnen vormen, maar bleek uiteindelijk niet meer dan een te veel verdunde behangerslijm.
—greenidwolf
Overwrought.
—bala
2.5
—Julieta