Halfway House: A Novel [Hardcover]

Katharine Noel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2006

One day, Angie Voorster — diligent student, all-star swimmer, and Ivy League-bound high school senior — dives to the bottom of a pool and stays there. In that moment, everything the Voorster family believes they know about one another changes. Set in a small town in New Hampshire, Halfway House is the story of Angie's psychotic break and her family's subsequent turmoil. Each of her family members responds differently to the ongoing crisis: Her father Pieter, a professional cellist, retreats further into his music; her mother begins a destabilizing affair with a younger man; her younger brother, Luke, first pushes away from her then later drops out of college to be closer to her. Though the Voorsters manage for a time to maintain a semblance of the normalcy they had "before," it is not until Angie is finally able to fend for herself that the family is able to truly fall apart and then regather itself in a new, fundamentally changed way. With grace and precision rarely seen in a first novel, Noel guides readers through a world where love is imperfect, and where longing for an imagined ideal can both destroy one family's happiness and offer redemption.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Halfway House, Katharine Noel's triumphant debut, does far more than expose the highs and lows of battling mental illness; rather, it leaves readers with a sense of longing that transcends the subject matter. Told from the perspective of five family members, Noel expertly captures each character's essence with unapologetic honesty, creating sympathies that would falter under a less gifted writer. The result is a profound look at how a crisis can both destroy and reinvent a seemingly typical family.

Set in rural New Hampshire, Halfway House tells the story of the Voorster family, whose lives are upended when 17-year-old Angie suffers a breakdown and is eventually diagnosed with bipolar disorder. As Angie shuffles between hospitals, dorm rooms, halfway houses, and her childhood home, the side effects of her disease and treatment impact each member of her family. Her father Pieter, a Dutch-born cellist, retreats into himself, while her mother Jordana begins an affair. Angie's brother Luke finds comfort in his girlfriends, especially Wendy, whom he meets while at college in Wisconsin. Eventually, familial relationships must be broken in order to be reinvented. In the process, family dynamics must shift, and each character must confront their own demons in order to emerge on the other side.

From One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest to Girl, Interrupted, the subject of mental illness is hardly uncharted in modern literature. What Noel does is go beyond the disease to explore the consequences of crisis, both punishing and redemptive, without compromise or excuses. That is what makes Halfway House a wonder, and a pleasure to behold. --Gisele Toueg

From Publishers Weekly

A New Hampshire family comes apart at the seams when Angie Voorster, an ostensibly perfect high school senior and swim team star falls off the edge of mental stability. Among those affected are Pieter, Angie's emotionally inarticulate father; her mother, Jordana, 15 years Pieter's junior and seeking solace in the arms of a younger man; and Angie's younger brother, Luke, who becomes his sister's keeper. Debut novelist Noel brings these characters to life, exposing every blemish and desire, and revealing them in all their messy humanness. Over the next several years, bipolar Angie struggles to adjust to life derailed by mental illness, ever-changing prescriptions and their side effects: "She couldn't even lay claim to her own thoughts. Was she the thoughts she had on meds, when her brain was as it should be? Or was she the thoughts she had off meds, her brain as it really was?" Noel unflinchingly constructs scenes with a cinematographer's eye and injects humor into a world of chronic insomnia and suicide attempts. She resists sensationalizing or romanticizing mental illness, and with sympathetic knowledge of the subject (she worked at a mental health home), her keen insights are spot-on. (Mar.)
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press; 1ST edition (February 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0871139340
• ISBN-13: 978-0871139344
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,425,279 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gorgeous book, March 2, 2006

By 

Malena Ann Watrous (San Francisco) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Halfway House: A Novel (Hardcover)

I stayed up late into the night reading Halfway House until my eyes stung, then started early the next morning, in my eagerness to return to this story, these people. The gift of Halfway House is the strength of its characters. They are true to themselves in their smallest actions and biggest moments of drama. They make mistakes, they love hard, they are real and unforgettable. On one level, this is a book about mental illness and its repercussions. But it's not the story you may have read before, in which a person is depicted as a victim of mental illness, that diagnosis (whatever it may be) taking the place of character. Rather, the writer shows how Angie's manic depression is one facet of who she is, and while its repercussions shake the whole household, the lives of her parents and brother are equally multi-faceted and well developed. Another thing I admire in its fresh treatment of mental illness is the way that the book shows the cyclical nature of Angie's disease as she goes on and off medication. This is the rare novel that manages to be both sprawling and focused. The chapters remind me of short stories in the sense that many of them hinge on quiet moments with large consequences. Yet tension builds from chapter to chapter, which is why I found the book so hard to put down. I simply loved it.

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing ,Gripping Read, February 28, 2006

By 

bookaddict44 "debdivine" (Keysville Va) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Halfway House: A Novel (Hardcover)

I read an online review of this book in my Amazon recommends.I took a chance,and I just finished this incredibly gripping read in less than 2 days.I actually have a hand cramp from holding the book for so long without rest.
I felt like it was my family,or so many families out there who have to deal with mental illness and family stress.I didn't want this book to end.I can't wait to read what Ms.Noel comes out with next.I highl recommend this book!You won't be dissapointed.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Compelling, realistic story of young manic/depressive woman, August 5, 2006

By 

Susan K. Schoonover "Sue Yingling" (Boulder, CO) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Halfway House: A Novel (Hardcover)

It is not surprising to read that the author of HALFWAY HOUSE Katharine Noel, has spent time working with the mentally ill as this book is very believable as well as beautifully written. Noel describes the repeated roller coaster rides that define the life of manic/depressives realistically and without undue sentiment. Though we sympathize with Angie we never forget what a difficult, needy and often unattractive person her mental illness has made her. Yet through her experiences she retains insight into life and at times a sense of humor. The book tells much of the story from the viewpoint of Angie's mother, father, brother, and brother's girlfriend/wife. These characters are all well drawn - warts and all.