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Haunted Houses (High Risk Books) [Paperback]

Lynne Tillman (Author)
3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)


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Paperback, July 1, 1995 --  

Book Description

High Risk Books July 1, 1995
This novel chronicles the loneliness of childhood and incipient womanhood, the salvation of friendship and the ties between daughters and parents, by recording the events in the lives of Grace, Emily and Jane, growing up in the 1950s and 1960s in urban middle-class families.

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Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Jane, Emily, and Grace are three young women growing up on the suburban edges of New York. As the narrative moves from a child's concernsJane's fear of her father's antics, Grace's singular relationship with her dolls, and Emily's resonant encounter with her second piano teacherto an adult'sfriendship, betrayal, and the inevitable sorrow of loveit juxtaposes the thoughts and experiences of each woman, giving collective meaning to their lives. Though the sequence of events is fragmented and deeper conflicts are only suggested, never made explicit, the women's search for meaning as they struggle toward adulthood is evident. A cryptic but intriguing first novel recommended for larger collections. Mollie Brodsky, English Dept., Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Praise for Haunted Houses

"In Haunted Houses, Lynne Tillman chronicles the loneliness of childhood and incipient womanhood, the salvation of friendship, and the neurotic chain that binds perpetually needy daughters to their perpetually self-absorbed parents. . . . Her style is spare and compelling, the effect of clinical authenticity." — New York Times Book Review

"Ms. Tillman's characters are rigorously drawn , with a scrupulous regard for the truth of their inner lives . . . this is one of the most interesting works of fiction in recent times . . . Fans of both truth and fancy should find nourishment here." — LA Weekly

“Lynne Tillman's protagonists are so lifelike, engaging and accessible, one could overlook, though hardly remain unaffected by, the quality of her prose, with its unique balancing of character interrogation and headlong entertainment. Haunted Houses achieves that hardest of things: a fresh involvement of overheard life with the charisma of intelligent fiction. Its pleasures pull their weight.” -Dennis Cooper

“This complex and skillfully constructed novel has three separate storylines following the lives of three girls growing up in New York, maturing in a world of baffling freedoms and uncertainties.... Childhood fears, passionate friendships, sexual explorations, and the uncomfortable interdependency of parents and children are depicted with intelligence, honesty, and dark humor. But if you are looking for comfort and consolation, you must look elsewhere: Tillman writes about life as it is, not as we might wish it to be." — Sunday Times

Lynne Tillman's writing uncovers hidden truths, reveals the unnamable, and leads us into her personal world of pain, pleasure, laughter, fear and confusion, with a clarity of style that is both remarkable and exhilarating. Honest. Simple. Deep. Authentic. Daring... To read her is, in a sense, to become alive, because she lives so thoroughly in her work. Lynne Tillman is, quite simply, one of the best writers alive today." — John Zorn

"Lynne Tillman's haunted houses are Freudian ones — the psyches of three girls, Emily, Jane, and Grace, each wrestling with the psychological 'ghosts' that shape them . . . . Frequently shifting points of view are expressed in crisp sentences. Rather than forming a modernist stream of consciousness, however, the writing remains controlled." — Lucy Atkins, Times Literary Supplement
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 208 pages
  • Publisher: Serpent's Tail; First Edition edition (July 1, 1995)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1852424001
  • ISBN-13: 978-1852424008
  • Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,451,627 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Here's an Author's Bio. It could be written differently. I've written many for myself and read lots of other people's. None is right or sufficient, each slants one way or the other. So, a kind of fiction - selection of events and facts.. So let me just say: I wanted to be a writer since I was eight years old. That I actually do write stories and novels and essays, and that they get published, still astonishes me. Right now, I'm working on a novel, my sixth, and also some stories and will be working on an art essay or two soon.

In April, a new collection of stories, Someday This Will Be Funny, will be pubbed by Red Lemonade Press. There is no story called Someday This Will Be Funny in it: it's a title that comments on all the stories, maybe.

Each spring, I teach writing at University at Albany, in the English Dept., and in the fall, at The New School, in the Writing Dept.

I've lived with David Hofstra, a bass player, for many years. It makes a lot of sense to me that I live with a bass player, since time and rhythm are extremely important to my writing. He's also a wonderful man.

As time goes by, my thoughts about writing change, how to write THIS, or why I do. There are no stable answers to a process that changes, and a life that does too. Writing, when I'm inhabiting its world, makes me happy, or less unhappy. I also feel engaged in and caught up in politics here, and in worlds farther away.

When I work inside the world in which I do make choices, I'm completely absorbed in what happens, in what can emerge. Writing is a beautiful, difficult relationship with what you know and don't know, have or haven't experienced, with grammar and syntax, with words, primarily, with ideas, and with everything else that's been written.

 

Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
5 star:
 (2)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.7 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the finest pieces of contemporary feminist literature, November 18, 1998
By 
This review is from: Haunted Houses (High Risk Books) (Paperback)
One of my favorite books of all-time, it saddens me to see someone disregard it simply because it doesn't have some false, contrived plot.

I can't believe this idiot gave it one star because it didn't have an "ending." Too used to reading Stephen King and other such pop garbage, I guess.

Anyway, I first read this book in an avant-garde fiction class (don't let that throw you off--it's easy reading!), and have since used it as a gift for several friends. Among other things, one said it was an all too realistic potrayal of growing up female in America.

Basically, the book is divided into three sections, each giving a snapshot of a girl's life in the 70's. Lynne Tillman is up there with Kathy Acker--must reading.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars one of my favorite reads, April 25, 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: Haunted Houses (High Risk Books) (Paperback)
There is no real ending -- why would you want it to end? Tillman is still introducing new characters in the last few pages of the book! Reading a great book doesn't necessarily mean reading a great ending. Great books, Literature, can be read again and again, you "inhabit" the book and with every reading the book changes as you change.

Tillman has a mesmerizing style, totally unique, that keeps you turning the pages although you never feel like you are being herded toward an "end". Not to mention the book is absolutely packed with (feminist) insight. She has constructed a provocative and intensely interesting literary space:

Live this book!

If you want a nice pat ending, read a disposable potboiler and stop writing worthless on-line reviews.

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1 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars No Ending...don't bother reading it!, July 1, 1998
By A Customer
This review is from: Haunted Houses (High Risk Books) (Paperback)
If my one line review wasn't enough I suggest you read it and find out the truth for yourself
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
Her father liked to scare her. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Uncle Larry, American Revolution, Marilyn Monroe, Miss Anderson, The Black Cat, Central Park, King Lear, Madame Bovary, New Jersey, Forty-second Street, John Winthrop, Little Louie, Lord Chesterfield, Margaret Fuller
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