Customer Reviews

The Dead of the House

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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.

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.

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