I will also do a video review here at my channel: http://www.youtube.com/magicofbooks"The Little House" by Philippa Gregory tells the story of two very different women. There's Ruth, a young, career-driven woman, new to motherhood. Then there's Elizabeth, Ruth's mother-in-law, who is the epitome of a perfect housewife. The two women clash in their opinions on how a child is to be raised and Ruth's sanity is put to the test as she feels more and more threatened by the interference of her mother-in-law. "The Little House" is a riveting psychological thriller about isolation, traditional conventions, and deals with the depths of what every woman fears.Wow! A stunning novel. This is the type of novel that, in the hands of another author, could have turned out to be slow and boring. Philippa Gregory's narrative is suspenseful and well put together. This novel deals primarily with domestic issues involving the way a home should be run and the way a child should be raised. Gregory picks no sides. We see the way Ruth does things and we see the way Elizabeth does things. Neither way is looked upon as being better or the right way. The ways in which these two different women clash are the highlight and focus in this novel.Pick up this book if you have any interest in the following:1. Women's issues, such as child-rearing and the running of a household.2. Modern women vs. traditional women. Career-driven vs. homemaking.3. Mental heath, postpartum depression, and the stigma put on mental illness.If you think any of the above sounds interesting, pick this book up. This might even be a great book for book clubs. There's so much to discuss.I've referenced this book as being a psychological thriller. Ruth's sanity is put to the test after she has her son, Thomas, and her in-laws interfere in the way she runs her home and raises her child. Her husband, Patrick, is of absolutely no help. Patrick is a spoiled momma's boy who gets everything his way and he is never contradicted by his parents. It doesn't help matters that Ruth initially doesn't have strong maternal instincts. That's where mental illness is placed in the story and no ones bothers to understand Ruth's feelings and Ruth's needs. Instead, a stigma is placed on Ruth as being an incapable mother and that she has to get psychological help. Ruth is looked at as being "unnatural" because of her mental illness. The psychological thriller aspect of the novel comes into play as the reader has to read between the lines of what's actually going on. Is Ruth incapable as a mother? Is Ruth overly paranoid? Is Elizabeth purposely being manipulative to get rid of Ruth so she has her son and grandson all to herself? Or does Elizabeth truly want to help? It's these scenes that provide for some of the most dramatic parts of the novel.Overall, a fantastic read. Such a page turner, too. I had a hard time putting it down every night. This book deals with so many great issues and certainly had me thinking and dissecting every event long after I read the final page.
Synopsis from Barnes and Noble Ruth and her husband, Patrick, live in Bristol, where she works as a correspondent for a mediocre radio station and he is an up-and-coming TV news reporter. Their marriage is not ideal, but the warmth offered by Patrick and his parents is a welcome change for Ruth, who was orphaned at the age of seven. Every Sunday Ruth and Patrick visit his parents at their eighteenth-century manor farmhouse - afternoons loved by Patrick and tolerated by Ruth. Then "the little house" at the end of her in-laws' lane comes up for sale. When Ruth discovers that she is pregnant, she is persuaded by Patrick and his parents to abandon her career and move from their city apartment to the quaint home in the country - everything Patrick's mother has always wanted. Ruth is lonely, uncomfortable, and bitter. Her husband does not understand, and she is living under the watchful eye of a domineering mother-in-law. Even her own pregnancy seems like a burden. As circumstances threaten to overwhelm her, Ruth struggles to set her life straight with a precarious mix of good humor and outrage, composure and desperation. The result is an engrossing, tragicomic tale of dysfunction - with an utterly surprising, ironic, and intriguing conclusion. I have and have read a lot of Phillipa Gregory's novels and I did not realize she had non historical novels. So received this book from the local library prepared to not really like it, not sure why. As I started reading it I was pulled into the story. This story is a psychological thriller. It tells the story of how a mothers love can be all consuming and that as the wife Ruth is feeling that anything she does is not good enough as far as the mother-in-law is concerned. She is reluctant to move from the city to the little cottage that is right next to where the in-laws live. Ruth becomes pregnant and when she is home any slight little thing that she does or does not do is turned upside down by Elizabeth and made to look like she can not take care of the child. Her husband of course tries to understand Ruth but leans more towards what Elizabeth says to the point that Ruth feels totally inept as a mother and wife. As time goes on Ruth takes control of the situation and that is when the story really gets good.... A worthwhile read, I highly recomend it... 5 stars!!!
What do You think about The Little House (1998)?
Utterly dreadful. Allegedly a "psychological thriller," it seemed to lack both psychology and thrills. A vulnerable woman allows herself to be manipulated by both her husband and his parents (mainly her mother-in-law), and moved into a house nearby whilst she is pregnant. After a traumatic birth, she becomes depressed and the in-laws assume responsibility for childcare. They are unwilling to relinquish control, and manipulate her husband into siding with them against his wife.The whole story is told in a very matter-of-fact and uninvolving manner, with dramatic incidents recounted with no more excitement than a shopping list. The pace is slow (until the last ten pages and the "shocking denouement" which occurs with greater haste than the rest of the story) and characterisation is by numbers. There are a number of flaws in the plot (especially the husband's behaviour and the wife's placidity) and the repetitive phrasing in some areas grates. If I never see the words "the little house" in print again, it will be too soon: it seems to occur on every other page in this book.
—Meo
Wow, where to start with this one?An amazing psychological thriller with so many twists and turns its hard to keep up.Ruth is married to Patrick a success at basically everything, good job, good home, good wife, everything in his life is perfect until that is, for Ruth things take a turn for the worse, after being made redundant at the local radio station where she works, finding out the "in laws" want to sell the couples' flat they gave them on their marriage AND finding out she is also pregnant leaves her stunned and as if her world is collapsing around her ears.They plan to move into the "Little house" Patrick's father is buying virtually on the family home estate after the previous owner dies.But things don't work out that way when Patrick's mother, the scheming Elizabeth now feels that as Patrick is back in the fold she can control not only his but Ruth's life too.A power struggle ensues that descends to unspeakable atrocities where Ruth has to fight the family for everything she has in the world. A controlling tyrant of a mother in law, a father in law that will back Elizabeth in anything she decides to do and a husband that is still at heart their little boy and the apple of their eye are the arrayed forces Ruth has to battle in the war to win back Patrick, her sanity, her son and even her life. Can she win with so much opposition and turn the tables on the Lady Macbeth incarnation that is Elizabeth?Absolutely amazing, this gripped me from the first page and I finished it in around 24 hours, what more endorsement can I give? Definitely worth reading and I am sure will be passed around my family too.
—Ria
Though the jacket says that this book is "tragicomic," implying that there are funny parts, it is actually pretty devastating to read. Ruth, the main character, deals with so much sadness, from tragedies in her past to the manipulating mental abuse she suffers at the hands of her husband and in-laws. Her husband is a selfish, stupid, arrogant, spoiled sorry excuse for a human, and her in-laws are only slightly better. Though the ending is kind of funny and triumphant in a creepy way, I think that it's terribly sad to think of a real person going through these kinds of experiences and having no way out. Realistically, most people would (hopefully) not deal with their problems the way Ruth did but, as the reader, you feel a compassion for her and you understand that she truly had no other way out without losing her child. I think Gregory did an amazing job of creating complex characters whose faults you can clearly see, but whose side you may be able to understand as well (except for Ruth's husband; I saw nothing redeeming about him at all and I imagine that's how Gregory intended it). Ultimately, I came away from this book with an unsettled, sad feeling and an overwhelming compassion for the strains and trials endured by new mothers.
—Elizabeth
