Customer Reviews

The Giant's House: A Romance

5 star:		(43)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

M. Turpin

This amazing novel takes place in a New England tourist town where summers are unimportant: "In the dark privacy of winter Brewsterville's citizens were more likely to drink, weep, have affairs, tell off-color jokes, let themselves go." Similarly, the book's protagonist and narrator, Peggy Court, is a woman who lives silently, in the darkness of her own self-hatred. What makes this book captivating and upbeat is that Court finds her way out of her own darkness, and she does it by forging paths few others would imagine. "I wanted," the character says, "to out-Houdini Houdini, but in reverse. I wanted not to escape, but to enter, to insinuate myself into the smallest places in that house ... I wanted to get myself so caught they'd have to let me stay. Look, they'd say, how did she manage that? That space isn't big enough for anyone. Look at her: she's surely trapped."

McCracken is a rare combination: she writes like a poet, but has a gift for illustrious, fascinating characters. Her first-person narrator is so vivid and constant, that despite her obvious shortsightedness, you very quickly find yourself perceiving the universe unself-consciously through her eyes. Peggy Court is a woman so hollowed out by loneliness that even socks seem lucky to her because "Socks mate for life." She sees herself as unlovable, and describes herself as waiting for love "as though I were a pin sunk deep in a purse, waiting for a magnet to prove me metal." She is also a person oblivious to her rare ability to dismiss flaws in others and to value them despite their quirks: She warms to another woman because "I've always found a certain sullenness comforting," and says of her, "Even now I remember Mrs. Sweatt as the embodiment of every sad love song ever written; she believed every musical statement of what love did to you when it went wrong, how it was like a poison without an antidote, how you'd never breathe right again. Most people feel that way only when the music plays; all her days, Mrs. Sweatt's heat was tuned to some radio frequency crammed with tragedy."

None of the characters in this novel are important people - and none of them are ordinary. First of all, there's the giant, James Sweatt, who accepts his life-threatening condition with alternate offerings of resignation and anger, whose gigantism renders him frequently homebound, and who consequently is someone who "loved what you could get through the mail. Eventually he had dozens of degrees from correspondence schools and was a mail-order minister several times over." McCracken never lets her pen slip - she brings every character vividly to life. Even the lesser characters seem destined to stay with you permanently.

McCracken has a flair for rich dialogue, and this is nowhere more evident than in those passages where she allows the minor characters Leila (a chance encounter from a circus, the smallest woman in the world), and James's father, Mr. Sweat, to talk themselves into existence. A Giant's House is full of profound, seemingly casual reflections on the nature of love, and Mr. Sweat, who abandoned his son in childhood, and thus describes himself ruefully as " the opposite of an orphan," tells us about himself: "[P]eople become immune to love the way they become immune to any disease. Either they had it bad early in life, like chicken pox, and that's that; or they keep getting exposed to it in little doses and build up an immunity; or somehow they just don't catch it, something in `em is born resistant. I'm the last type. I'm immune to love and poison ivy."

McCracken is a writer to watch - she surely deserved to be named by Granta as one of the 20 Best Young American Novelists, and this book heartily merited its nomination for the National Book Award.

McCracken is one of Granta's 20 best young American novelists, and she deserves the distinction. Her first novel is a romantic look into the heart of Peggy Cort, a New England librarian, who falls in love with the world's tallest boy. It's bitingly sarcastic when it needs to be, and an odd, almost old-fashioned romance througout. McCracken proved herself a brilliant writer in her short story collection Here's Your Hat, What's Your Hurry, but here she proves to us that exploring the nature of longing and the hidden spaces of the human heart can be as funny, as sexy, and as adventurous as anything we'll ever see at the movies. You must read this novel--it will change your heart.

The Giant's House is a novel written as a romance - a romance being the notion of love between two people which encompasses one's being, one's existence. The story revolves around two people who suffer from distinct afflicitions - Giantism (an afflicition of the body) and lonliness (an afflication of the spirit). These 2 people - the giant and lonely librarian - develope a romance which fulfills the body and spirit and through this romance they each attain life's meaning and define their own existence. Their relationship is special as is this novel. Ms. McCracken - an ex-librarian herself - writes with meaningful words and a style which encompasses the vitality of romance. However, Ms. McCracken does not write what one may consider "a romance novel." She is not sappy with her words or her notion of romance. She is, however, true to the human condition of love we all yearn and dream of, no matter what ails us - physically or emotionally. A National Book Award finalist - this book is much deserved. We should all read and learn from this book about love, about the individuality of others and, above all, about the human spirituality of romance.

Almost no book can live up to its hype, and McCracken's is no exception. Had I read her novel before I'd heard it so highly touted, I might have enjoyed it a little more...but maybe only a little. I do not agree with the many reviewers who praise her writing style; the book is almost absurdly overwritten in a great many places: "I loved him because I wanted to save him, and because I could not. I loved him because I wanted to be enough for him, and I was not." Admittedly, there were some wonderful lines as well, but just not enough to make up for the those that sound straight out of "Bridges of Madison County."

I also agree with the reviewers who noted that the book spends far too much time on Peggy and not nearly enough on James (or really any of the other characters). Everyone but Peggy came across as somewhat "flat." At many points in the story I started to wonder if Peggy wasn't meant to be an "unreliable narrator" -- that is, that we were supposed to see her love for James as truly unbalanced in a way that she herself can't see. James is intriguing but just not fleshed out enough as a character for me to see why Peggy should be so obsessed with him. I really wanted to like Peggy -- it's so seldom that quiet, bookish characters get to be the center of novels -- but most of the time I did not, not because any of her "faults" (such as her straightforward declaration that she is not a lover of mankind), but, ironically, because I felt that McCracken tried too hard to make us like Peggy and to force us to see Peggy's point of view as a justified one.

I've re-read this book a couple of times now, and each time I find myself moved by this touching story. When I first read the back of the book, I was intrigued by its original concept. A librarian and the world's tallest boy? Subtitled A Romance? I feared that it could be one of those books that tries so hard to be quirky, but ends up turning its characters into caricatures that we can't identify with and losing us with its twisted plotlines, all in the name of originality. This is not the case with The Giant's House. Both Peggy and James, as well as some of the minor characters like James' mother, captured my heart. A previous reader described the narrative as "quiet" and I find that word is particularly fitting. The parts that move you aren't flashy, or filled with action, but are careful, truthful depictions of life's sadnesses and joys. While it's true that we have more insight into Peggy (due to the first-person narration), there are several scenes that let us into James' huge shoes, giving us just a glimpse of what it might like to be the world's tallest boy--I'm thinking of the wedding dance and the feet scene especially. The ending put me off a little on first reading, but subsequent readings make me realize that I, like Peggy, didn't want to let James go. A highly original novel filled with scenes and sentences of pure poetry. Highly recommended.

Elizabeth McCraken has woven a most wonderful tale of bittersweet love between a small town boy-giant and a librarian, fourteen years his senior. Peggy Cort and James Sweatt are at first an unlikely pair, but through closer investigation of their relationship it appears they are a perfect match. McCracken has crafted a delightfully unique story that will not be soon forgotten. I can't say much more for fear of spoiling the secret of this hidden gem of a book.

Having read an excerpt from "The Giant's House" in Granta Magazine, I could not wait to get my hands on the entire novel. Boy, was I glad I did! Elizabeth McCracken is a glorious storyteller. The prose is elegant, touching, sad and almost always worth reading aloud. I was truly enchanted by this book and stayed up the whole night reading it. I recommend it heartily!

In The Giant's House, Elizabeth McCracken has come up with a intriguing story line. Her engaging and sometimes brilliant writing style made me enjoy the reading intensely. The metaphors used and phrasing of certain descriptions had me green with envy of her abilities.

Unfortunately, I felt that the story just didn't move. The whole time I was reading, I was excited about what was coming, but it never seemed to come. It just focused on Peggy Cort to the extent that I began to dislike her. It didn't give me nearly enough about James. And the soap opera ending kind of tainted my whole view of the book. On reflection, it made certain parts of the book change from romantic to obsessive.

Overall, I would recommend this book. If nothing else, then just to admire the writing. I will certainly read Ms. McCracken's next book.

What a super story. McCracken delivers such beautiful prose in this novel, I actually had to reread some chapters as I finished them. These are words worth savoring, delightfully delivered through metaphors.

Giant is a story of TRUE romance. Hang up those Harlequins and read a story that will touch your soul and make you a believer in real love and emotion. McCracken has taken two characters and thrown in a bundle of troublesome issues to make the reltionship doomed (the boy's size, their difference in age, etc) yet moves the characters closer together and shows that the bonds of love can cross any boundaries.

Buy this one and keep it. You'll want to read it again. Trust me.

My problem with this book was that I found it somewhat boring. Peggy Court's take on the world was too small-minded and self-involved to hold my interest, and the narrator's tone too smoothly dry and humorless, occasionally flat. I liked the premise very much, but fail to see what all the hoopla's about. This could have been a heartbreakingly dark, hilarious story about all sorts of ideas and themes, but in its execution, it's about nothing much and didn't move me at all. One of the 20 best young American novelists? Out of how many? But I'll read her next one in hopes that her evident skills find a livelier and deeper story.