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Book Review
Nov. 9th, 2014 09:08 pmThe Hundred-Year House
by Rebecca Makkai
This unusual, clever novel is all about the pull of an old house and the family secrets it hides. But Makkai avoids descending into melodrama and syrupy sentimentality by using a cool narrative device. The Hundred-Year House starts in 1999 and works backwards through 1955 and 1929. Each generation discovers some of the house's secrets, but not all, so that incomplete and faulty conclusions are filled in with the next segment. One last mystery is left unanswered, for the reader to fill in. Also, the family mysteries and secrets are not quite the soap-opera style stuff one might expect and are thus a lot more interesting.
My only real criticism of the book is that almost none of the main characters are truly likeable or terribly sympathetic. Especially in the 1999 segment, which is the longest and most detailed. The central characters are Zee and Doug, a pair of very flawed academics. Zee is ambitious and kind of self-centered to the point of occasional ruthlessness. Doug is much less ambitious, to the point of being vague and almost apathetic. And they are a terrible couple -they neither appreciate nor understand each other on any important level, and are hopelessly unable to communicate properly.The 1955 segment is dominated by Grace, a very spoiled young woman who is so over-privileged and stubborn that she cannot see where her own best interests lie. I did like the artists' colony residents of the 1929 segment, but that may be because that was the shortest part of the book and thus had the least fleshed-out characters.
by Rebecca Makkai
This unusual, clever novel is all about the pull of an old house and the family secrets it hides. But Makkai avoids descending into melodrama and syrupy sentimentality by using a cool narrative device. The Hundred-Year House starts in 1999 and works backwards through 1955 and 1929. Each generation discovers some of the house's secrets, but not all, so that incomplete and faulty conclusions are filled in with the next segment. One last mystery is left unanswered, for the reader to fill in. Also, the family mysteries and secrets are not quite the soap-opera style stuff one might expect and are thus a lot more interesting.
My only real criticism of the book is that almost none of the main characters are truly likeable or terribly sympathetic. Especially in the 1999 segment, which is the longest and most detailed. The central characters are Zee and Doug, a pair of very flawed academics. Zee is ambitious and kind of self-centered to the point of occasional ruthlessness. Doug is much less ambitious, to the point of being vague and almost apathetic. And they are a terrible couple -they neither appreciate nor understand each other on any important level, and are hopelessly unable to communicate properly.The 1955 segment is dominated by Grace, a very spoiled young woman who is so over-privileged and stubborn that she cannot see where her own best interests lie. I did like the artists' colony residents of the 1929 segment, but that may be because that was the shortest part of the book and thus had the least fleshed-out characters.
