A teenage girl’s coming-of-age in the Midwest in the 1940s about which Tillie Olsen wrote, “Wondrous, a true American classic . . . the timeless magic which is art.”
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Amazon.com Review
The Dead of the House was the first and only novel to be published by the late Hannah Green. Originally issued in 1972, it won lavish praise from critics and readers alike. Yet the novel, which took the author almost 20 years to write, went out of print for almost another two decades, until it was reissued in 1996. Today its virtues are no less evident. Green's lyricism transforms the fairly mundane fabric of her childhood--spent in Ohio and on the Lake Michigan shore--into exquisite, elaborately-worked prose.
From Publishers Weekly
Beautiful, almost melodious in tone, The Dead of the House is a rare specimen of nearly perfect writing. Told from the perspective of a young girl growing up in the 1930s and '40s, one can feel the mellow Ohio summer, smell the musty family history books and know the degree of love felt by the members of the family. Green tells the story in three parts. Part one, "In My Grandfather's House," is largely Grandpa Nye's stories of childhood, youth, marriage and death. He recalls swimming so much it seemed to him they never dressed. He shows his grandchildren the rough tattoo carved by a penknife. "Other afternoons, taking one of his favorite canes, Grandpa Nye would go out the back door and down and slowly up over the stile into his woods where he walked among the giant oaks, his feet shuffling through the leaves, his old hand reaching to touch the bark of a tree, the voice of his wandering mind occasionally speaking. 'Oh, my dear boys,' he said, 'My sons.'" The second part, "Summer Afternoon, Summer Afternoon," is largely Vanessa's story. She is typically adolescent: she worries about her looks, is jealous of her prettier sister and daydreams about a boy kissing her. During the annual summer vacation on the shores of Lake Michigan, Vanessa learns of the death of her first love, a boy from this summer place, and some of the magic dissolves into reality. The last section, "And Here Tecumseh Fell," is the story of the girls returning home to reminisce with their family and wait for Grandpa Nye's death. Green is known for being a perfectionist in her writing, and this long-out-of-print work is absolute proof. The characterizations are flawless, the descriptions excellent and the overall effect sublime.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Information & addendum to other amazon.com reviews,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Dead of the House (Paperback)
The Dead of the House is all your other reviewers have said-- and more. It is, as the original publishers (Doubleday) said, about life and the land, time passing, blood ties, character traits that endure. Wallace Stegner, a master, wrote of it,in part: "This is a warm, loving, profoundly felt, and moving evocation of a family...whenever I want to remind myself of how it felt to be young, I am going back to read the section entitled 'Summer Afternoon, Summer Afternoon.'This is evocation at the level of magic." First published by Doubleday in 1972 (4 portions were published in The New Yorker) it was brought back in a handsome paperback edition by Turtle Point more recently. The "two autobiographical novels" referred to above were in the writing more than 20 years, until the author's death. A new book, The Little Saint, will appear in 2000 via Random House. It is the story of life in a French village, Conques, which Hannah and her husband Jack Wesley, the artist, stayed in over and over, and the "golden spark" at its center, the remains of a 12 year old girl who, refusing to renounce her faith, was beheaded and , centuries later, canonized. It is in part the story of how an American writer from Ohio, a Protestant, a "stranger to saints," Hannah Green, became enchanted by the legend and presence of Ste. Foy, who left this world - perhaps - in the year 303.
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A well written coming-of-age story,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Dead of the House (Paperback)
When I learned of Hannah Green's recent death, I decided to explore
what was considered her best work, _The Dead of the House_. I was
not disappointed. What I discovered was a superbly crafted and intimate
story of a young girl/woman's coming-of-age. The special
relationship that the main character has with her fascinating
grandfather (who is a naturalist, explorer, writer, historian, public speaker
and vintner) was particularly touching and meaningful.
I have never read another book like this one. One is truly drawn
into this girl's most private thoughts and hopes and fears.
While at times I thought that the book was a sober one, nonetheless,
I found it to be a delight overall. It is clear that Hannah
Green devoted a great deal of herself to this work.
16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
lyrical writing -- an unusual book,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Dead of the House (Paperback)
I bought _The Dead of the House_ in 1973 because I'd read excerpts from it in _The New Yorker_. Of course, the experience of taking it off the shelf (and noting that I paid $5.95 for it) was like holding a version of myself twenty-vice years ago. The book has a curious structure -- long passages of it are presented as the grandfather reading from the family history he wrote. I wish the "coming-of-age" aspect of it had been given more emphasis. The narrator's relationship with the doomed Dirk does recall a simpler, more innocent but at the same time more sinister era in the annals of young love. The sketch in _Contemporary Authors_ indicated that Ms. Green was at work on two more autobiographical novels, both of which had titles but neither of which evidently, was ever published. Readers who liked this book might enjoy _Hula_ by Lisa Shea -- same theme, same style, but dark dark dark
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