Trying to escape her embarrassing immigrant mother, Vimbai moves into a dilapidated house in the dunes... and discovers that one of her new roommates has a pocket universe instead of hair, there's a psychic energy baby living in the telephone wires, and her dead Zimbabwean grandmother is doing dishes in the kitchen. When the house gets lost at sea and creatures of African urban legends all but take it over, Vimbai turns to horseshoe crabs in the ocean to ask for their help in getting home to New Jersey.
The House of Discarded Dreams
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Lyrical writing and rich imagination compensate for loose plotting in this quirky, joyous fantasy. College student Vimbai moves to a house on the New Jersey shore to escape her bickering parents. Her housemates are a bit unusual: Maya is being followed by a pack of mystical animals, and Felix has a black hole sitting on his head. As the house drifts out to sea, Vimbai's grandmother's ghost starts doing housework and giving advice. Felix draws a "Psychic Energy Baby" out of the phone lines, and the house expands to include forests and lakes. Vimbai's biggest concern is whether missing classes will affect her application to grad school. Somehow, the overall effect is dreamily compelling rather than farcical, as Sedia (The Secret History of Moscow) shows how competing natural and supernatural worldviews can enrich each other.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Vimbai, who studies invertebrate zoology because of a fascination with horseshoe crabs, moves into the house on the beach in order to escape her Zimbabwean immigrant mother’s intensity; she finds something strange and beautiful. There are two roommates: Zach, who has a pocket universe where his hair should be, and Maya, who works in an Atlantic City casino. Vimbai’s dead grandmother haunts them, a ghostly presence who tells Zimbabwean children’s stories and does the dishes. When the house comes unmoored and drifts away to sea, Vimbai must bargain with ghostly horseshoe crabs, untangle the many and varied stories that have come loose in the vast worlds of the house, and find a way home. From Maya’s urban nightmares to Vimbai’s African urban legends, the house is filled with danger and beauty and unexpected magic. On one level, this is a reflection of ancient fairy tales and legends; on the other, it’s a perfectly straightforward tale of finding oneself in a bizarre world. Either way, Sedia’s prose is a pleasure, her story a lovely place to have spent time, even with the horrors her characters face. --Regina Schroeder
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Going in to the the novel, I did not know what to expect. There was no foundation of prior reading experience for it to fall upon, just a clean slate that it could just as easily slip away from. Or, it could remain firm as a beginning foundation for later works. I had high hopes that it would be the latter, that I would enjoy the novel. All of this almost came crashing down in the first twenty pages, when I found the prose grating and difficult to read for any sustained amount of time. I was tempted to put the book down then, but for whatever reason, perhaps a bit of tolerance that I lacked in the past year, kept me reading.
Eventually everything snapped into place. The once jarring prose that threatened to eject me from the book every few sentences suddenly blossomed into a flowing prose that lured me in and propelled me through the book. The imagery of it drew beautiful dream vistas, impossible landscapes tucked away inside a small beach house free floating somewhere in the ocean, and the chaotic blend of modern and ageless in stories told to calm a psychic energy baby festooned with amputated phantom limbs. The story is slow to unfold, taking its time to reveal to the characters that this house filled with their discarded dreams is not as benign as they assume, but the pace is comfortable and works well. On a negative level, the dialogue came across as stilted at times and this clashed with the flow of the narrative enough that it threw me from the story on more than one occasion.
Vimbai and her roommates, Maya and Felix, are the central characters in the novel, but they are part of an extended cast that is as diverse as it is strange. I am struggling to come up with a cast from another book that can compete with one that includes a psychic energy baby, a Atlantic City bartender with a pack of hybrid fox-possums that follows her around, a guy with a pocket universe instead of hair that makes a living amputating phantom limbs, a ghostly grandmother transplanted from Zimbabwe that does the dishes and tells African folk stories, a talking fish that eats souls, and a college student with an army of Horseshoe Crabs. The extended cast does not feature much characterization, but that is contrasted by the characterization for the central characters.
Vimbai is especially well drawn. We spend a lot of time in her head and her memories, and her dreams seem to have the largest influence on the house and the landscapes that form inside it. She learns about herself as the novel progresses and it gets to the point that she begins to identify issues that has plagued her, issues she has chosen to ignore, and begins to rectify it. And here then is a line that I think may be drawn by readers, because I expect there will be those who think the characterization is done well and those who do not. Vimbai has grown by the time the novel comes to a close. She is no longer the girl we meet at the beginning of the book who suffers from a profound lack of confidence, but on the other hand, it is clear that her story is not over and that there is much more growing that needs to be done, growing that we are not privy to. I am fine with this, I rather like this because it is a touch of realism implanted in such a surreal novel. However, if I were a cartoon character, I would have a little vein popping out of my head with annoyance because the book ends without the resolution of an important plot point that I picked up on early and followed through to the reveal. I want that resolution, but I also understand that the character still lacks the confidence needed to take the steps towards it. Characterization and plot go hand in hand here and I think Sedia did wonders by not going the easy route and forcing an awkward moment by ushering in the resolution. I am still annoyed by it, of course, but I would rather be annoyed than disappointed. Whether or not there will be people out there who are the opposite of me and hate the characterization for hindering the plot is yet to be seen, but I will not discount the notion.
The characterization becomes thinner as we move along. The second of this central cast of characters is Maya, a bartender in an Atlantic City casino. For most of the book she remains a bit of a mystery, never revealing much of anything to the other characters and disappearing for stretches of time as she explores with her "dogs". This is a character we have seen before, the same seemingly hard-ass, aloof woman that populates every sort of media, but as the book progresses and she pairs up with Vimbai more often, both the characters and the reader learn more about her. Maya began life as a mild disappointment for me, but I began to understand the character more and even feel sorry for her as I got to know her. I liked her by the end of the book and felt that it was a strong turnaround in characterization from where she began.
Felix, the third of the central cast and the roommate with a pocket universe undulating atop his skull in place of hair, is the least characterized. A lot of this has to do with how little page space the character got, which was considerably less than Maya and Vimbai and seemingly less than some of the supporting cast. The oddest of the lot, we see very little of him and know even less. Most of the information we get regarding him comes from minor characters and various conclusions from his roommates. Felix plays an integral part in the plot, but it is that very thing that makes him feel like less of a living, breathing character and more of a plot device. I am more than willing to admit that I may have missed something integral along the way, but after finishing the book, the character still remains more of a mystery to me than anything.
A big issue I had with this book has nothing to do with characterization or prose or pacing, but rather a technical aspect. The book was riddled with typos and while I am inclined to forgive and forget if the number is limited to a scattered few, there comes a point when my capacity to ignore them is stretched beyond its limits. I have seen books in worse condition from publishers both large and small and it is the same issue every time. Most of these typos could have been caught if only someone had given the novel one last read-through before sending it off for publication. And I know that this comes across as more of a nitpick than anything-I am not sure how many people would take note of the typos, let alone find it as much of an issue has I have-but when it gets to the point that I wish I would have taken count and marked pages so that I could come up with a final tally, then it comes away as a bit of a problem. This feels as though it could have been prevented and that it was not just strikes me as sloppy editing.
While I am on a nitpicking level, I am bothered by the subdued reaction of the cast to all the strange things going on around them. This is a complaint I had with Michal Ajvaz's The Other City, in which the narrator takes to the oddness without much in the way of distress. This is a work of fantasy of course, both works are, but I struggle with the notion that a cast of characters, some less weird than others, can encounter a house where cities exist somewhere beyond the pantry, meat grows on windows, and plants take over the walls and hallways, and take it in relative stride. Though, credit where it is due, Vimbai does freak out a little before she shrugs the whole thing off as if it was nothing special. If I woke up in my apartment with a desert found through my closet, my grandmother's ghost doing the dishes, and a pack of wild whatsits sitting by my slippers and offering me the morning paper, I am going to question my sanity and probably go loopy for a while. When reality flies through the window and characters take it with an appreciative nod and a murmured 'cool' (this is not taken from the book), I find it hard to read something like this and not have it nagging at the back of my head.
If you are looking for a novel with a unique and interesting story, then look no further than The House of Discarded Dreams. It is a good book, the best book I have read all year by sole virtue of being the only book I have read this year, and though it has issues, they do little to detract from the overall quality. I went out and bought another of Sedia's books, The Secret History of Moscow, on the strength of only the first half of this book, which is a good hint as to my opinion of her work.
Eventually everything snapped into place. The once jarring prose that threatened to eject me from the book every few sentences suddenly blossomed into a flowing prose that lured me in and propelled me through the book. The imagery of it drew beautiful dream vistas, impossible landscapes tucked away inside a small beach house free floating somewhere in the ocean, and the chaotic blend of modern and ageless in stories told to calm a psychic energy baby festooned with amputated phantom limbs. The story is slow to unfold, taking its time to reveal to the characters that this house filled with their discarded dreams is not as benign as they assume, but the pace is comfortable and works well. On a negative level, the dialogue came across as stilted at times and this clashed with the flow of the narrative enough that it threw me from the story on more than one occasion.
Vimbai and her roommates, Maya and Felix, are the central characters in the novel, but they are part of an extended cast that is as diverse as it is strange. I am struggling to come up with a cast from another book that can compete with one that includes a psychic energy baby, a Atlantic City bartender with a pack of hybrid fox-possums that follows her around, a guy with a pocket universe instead of hair that makes a living amputating phantom limbs, a ghostly grandmother transplanted from Zimbabwe that does the dishes and tells African folk stories, a talking fish that eats souls, and a college student with an army of Horseshoe Crabs. The extended cast does not feature much characterization, but that is contrasted by the characterization for the central characters.
Vimbai is especially well drawn. We spend a lot of time in her head and her memories, and her dreams seem to have the largest influence on the house and the landscapes that form inside it. She learns about herself as the novel progresses and it gets to the point that she begins to identify issues that has plagued her, issues she has chosen to ignore, and begins to rectify it. And here then is a line that I think may be drawn by readers, because I expect there will be those who think the characterization is done well and those who do not. Vimbai has grown by the time the novel comes to a close. She is no longer the girl we meet at the beginning of the book who suffers from a profound lack of confidence, but on the other hand, it is clear that her story is not over and that there is much more growing that needs to be done, growing that we are not privy to. I am fine with this, I rather like this because it is a touch of realism implanted in such a surreal novel. However, if I were a cartoon character, I would have a little vein popping out of my head with annoyance because the book ends without the resolution of an important plot point that I picked up on early and followed through to the reveal. I want that resolution, but I also understand that the character still lacks the confidence needed to take the steps towards it. Characterization and plot go hand in hand here and I think Sedia did wonders by not going the easy route and forcing an awkward moment by ushering in the resolution. I am still annoyed by it, of course, but I would rather be annoyed than disappointed. Whether or not there will be people out there who are the opposite of me and hate the characterization for hindering the plot is yet to be seen, but I will not discount the notion.
The characterization becomes thinner as we move along. The second of this central cast of characters is Maya, a bartender in an Atlantic City casino. For most of the book she remains a bit of a mystery, never revealing much of anything to the other characters and disappearing for stretches of time as she explores with her "dogs". This is a character we have seen before, the same seemingly hard-ass, aloof woman that populates every sort of media, but as the book progresses and she pairs up with Vimbai more often, both the characters and the reader learn more about her. Maya began life as a mild disappointment for me, but I began to understand the character more and even feel sorry for her as I got to know her. I liked her by the end of the book and felt that it was a strong turnaround in characterization from where she began.
Felix, the third of the central cast and the roommate with a pocket universe undulating atop his skull in place of hair, is the least characterized. A lot of this has to do with how little page space the character got, which was considerably less than Maya and Vimbai and seemingly less than some of the supporting cast. The oddest of the lot, we see very little of him and know even less. Most of the information we get regarding him comes from minor characters and various conclusions from his roommates. Felix plays an integral part in the plot, but it is that very thing that makes him feel like less of a living, breathing character and more of a plot device. I am more than willing to admit that I may have missed something integral along the way, but after finishing the book, the character still remains more of a mystery to me than anything.
A big issue I had with this book has nothing to do with characterization or prose or pacing, but rather a technical aspect. The book was riddled with typos and while I am inclined to forgive and forget if the number is limited to a scattered few, there comes a point when my capacity to ignore them is stretched beyond its limits. I have seen books in worse condition from publishers both large and small and it is the same issue every time. Most of these typos could have been caught if only someone had given the novel one last read-through before sending it off for publication. And I know that this comes across as more of a nitpick than anything-I am not sure how many people would take note of the typos, let alone find it as much of an issue has I have-but when it gets to the point that I wish I would have taken count and marked pages so that I could come up with a final tally, then it comes away as a bit of a problem. This feels as though it could have been prevented and that it was not just strikes me as sloppy editing.
While I am on a nitpicking level, I am bothered by the subdued reaction of the cast to all the strange things going on around them. This is a complaint I had with Michal Ajvaz's The Other City, in which the narrator takes to the oddness without much in the way of distress. This is a work of fantasy of course, both works are, but I struggle with the notion that a cast of characters, some less weird than others, can encounter a house where cities exist somewhere beyond the pantry, meat grows on windows, and plants take over the walls and hallways, and take it in relative stride. Though, credit where it is due, Vimbai does freak out a little before she shrugs the whole thing off as if it was nothing special. If I woke up in my apartment with a desert found through my closet, my grandmother's ghost doing the dishes, and a pack of wild whatsits sitting by my slippers and offering me the morning paper, I am going to question my sanity and probably go loopy for a while. When reality flies through the window and characters take it with an appreciative nod and a murmured 'cool' (this is not taken from the book), I find it hard to read something like this and not have it nagging at the back of my head.
If you are looking for a novel with a unique and interesting story, then look no further than The House of Discarded Dreams. It is a good book, the best book I have read all year by sole virtue of being the only book I have read this year, and though it has issues, they do little to detract from the overall quality. I went out and bought another of Sedia's books, The Secret History of Moscow, on the strength of only the first half of this book, which is a good hint as to my opinion of her work.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I don't really have any cute stories about why I picked The House of Discarded Dreams up besides a recommendation from a friend. I have noticed that my friends seem to have remarkably good taste in books across the board and happily I found that to be the case yet again.
So, the story starts with Vimbai moving out of her parent's house and into the House in the Dunes with Maya and Felix. Unfortunately, the house goes out with the tide and begins to become bigger on the inside. The house begins to fill up with more creatures than what were there to start with and things become slightly creepy.
I have exactly one gripe. Sometimes the prose seemed emotionally removed from the characters. This did clear up as the book progressed (which leads me to think that it's being used to reflect Vimbai's emotional investment in the people around her), but sometimes it was a little off putting.
Fortunately I completely forgot about that minor hiccup in my fascination with the characters. Vimbai's perception of her relationship with her family (and other people) and how it changes over the course of exploring the new landscapes within the house. Each new space within the house and how it carried some special significance to each character seemed like an interesting reversal of the "house that destroys" trope one frequently sees in horror. I would go so far as to say that some parts of the house illustrate the home as a place of slow stagnation, especially those places with the catfish. I did like how this seemed to function as an allegory for Vimbai's relationship with her mother. I loved how well and how thoroughly her character had been thought out with regards to her relationship with her family, her ancestry, random classmates and her housemates.
The pacing has something of an oceanic feel to it. It moves like the tide. Direct observation doesn't show the currents underneath and yet one can see them creeping in if you glance away and then look back. So it was with this book. Vimbai would seem like she was talking herself into circles, but then she would rise to the challenges before her and point to all the little things that led up to it. Because of this wavelike pacing, I was perfectly content with the loose ends that were left with the end of the page count since like the tide I had full confidence that they would be addressed in due time although the book had ended.
A few other small points remain. Kudos must be given for using non-European legends. I have utterly no idea how accurate it might be, but I felt that the interpretation worked well with the "outsider" lens through which Vimbai viewed those stories for much of the book. Also, it might be my inner oceanography nerd and marine biologist geekery talking, but I appreciated that Vimbai liked horseshoe crabs. I call the strangest sea creatures cute too. I've a soft spot for itty bitty nudibranchs (sea slugs for the rest of the universe) and month old wolf eels are adorable.
I loved this book. It took a little while to get used to (mostly because I read a lot of action-y books) but I would highly recommend this as an awesome thoughtful read.
So, the story starts with Vimbai moving out of her parent's house and into the House in the Dunes with Maya and Felix. Unfortunately, the house goes out with the tide and begins to become bigger on the inside. The house begins to fill up with more creatures than what were there to start with and things become slightly creepy.
I have exactly one gripe. Sometimes the prose seemed emotionally removed from the characters. This did clear up as the book progressed (which leads me to think that it's being used to reflect Vimbai's emotional investment in the people around her), but sometimes it was a little off putting.
Fortunately I completely forgot about that minor hiccup in my fascination with the characters. Vimbai's perception of her relationship with her family (and other people) and how it changes over the course of exploring the new landscapes within the house. Each new space within the house and how it carried some special significance to each character seemed like an interesting reversal of the "house that destroys" trope one frequently sees in horror. I would go so far as to say that some parts of the house illustrate the home as a place of slow stagnation, especially those places with the catfish. I did like how this seemed to function as an allegory for Vimbai's relationship with her mother. I loved how well and how thoroughly her character had been thought out with regards to her relationship with her family, her ancestry, random classmates and her housemates.
The pacing has something of an oceanic feel to it. It moves like the tide. Direct observation doesn't show the currents underneath and yet one can see them creeping in if you glance away and then look back. So it was with this book. Vimbai would seem like she was talking herself into circles, but then she would rise to the challenges before her and point to all the little things that led up to it. Because of this wavelike pacing, I was perfectly content with the loose ends that were left with the end of the page count since like the tide I had full confidence that they would be addressed in due time although the book had ended.
A few other small points remain. Kudos must be given for using non-European legends. I have utterly no idea how accurate it might be, but I felt that the interpretation worked well with the "outsider" lens through which Vimbai viewed those stories for much of the book. Also, it might be my inner oceanography nerd and marine biologist geekery talking, but I appreciated that Vimbai liked horseshoe crabs. I call the strangest sea creatures cute too. I've a soft spot for itty bitty nudibranchs (sea slugs for the rest of the universe) and month old wolf eels are adorable.
I loved this book. It took a little while to get used to (mostly because I read a lot of action-y books) but I would highly recommend this as an awesome thoughtful read.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By Paul Jessup
Format:Paperback
Really great book, probably my favorite Sedia book to date. It's definitely not your run of the mill fantasy novel, no, not at all. It's more like Little, Big, except it deals with so many more interesting, strange stuff. The imagination on display is fantastic! Afterwards your head will be spinning for days. Even though the story is weird and dreamlike, it's heavily grounded in fantastic characters that will live in your head for days.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fun, surrealistic escape
I picked up "The House of Discarded Dreams" at Borders during the final days. I grabbed it solely because the premise sounded so absurd, I just had to read it to see how the author... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Ironcharles
4.0 out of 5 stars
Unique blend of storytelling off the beaten path for nearly every...
I read little fantasy so picking up this one was an interesting experience for me. Especially given the setting and scope of the storyline, as a book of dream made flesh within... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Lucas
4.0 out of 5 stars
All you fans of Charles De Lint take notice. You've got a new favorite...
Ekaterina Sedia, over the course of only a few novels, has assembled a body of work that has continually left me in awe of her creative and daring power. Read more
Published on February 17, 2011 by The Mad Hatter
5.0 out of 5 stars
wonderful
This book was wonderful. Sedia seems to have thoroughly researched so many components of this story, including culture, mythology and of course the science behind all of it. Read more
Published on February 7, 2011 by jed
1.0 out of 5 stars
Ridiculous
I tried to keep reading and make some sense of this but just gave up. It's like a 10 year old kid having a nightmare after eating too much seafood.
Published on February 7, 2011 by Brad Davis
