The House on Eccles Road [Mass Market Paperback]

Judith Kitchen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 30, 2003

It is July 16, 1999, in Dublin, Ohio. On this day, the 13th anniversary of their wedding, Molly Bluhm and her husband, Leo, quietly follow their usual routines. Leo, a college professor, busies himself with his work and worries about his aging father; Molly, keeping close to their home, dreams about the life she once had and wonders if Leo will remember the significance of the date. As Molly's and Leo's thoughts circle each other throughout the day, Judith Kitchen illuminates the full scope of their life together. Despite their separate musings, both-in different ways-mourn the loss of their four-year-old son who died eight years before. With echoes of Michael Cunningham's The Hours and Charles Baxter's The Feast of Love, this deeply moving novel poignantly explores grief, love, and loyalty, and the exquisite texture of an ordinary but fateful day, that turns out to be unlike any other.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In crafting her own version of Bloomsday from Molly's perspective, essayist Kitchen (Only the Dance) establishes straightaway that she does not intend to duplicate James Joyce's famous Ulysses soliloquy but to offer her own interior, quietly detailed, feminist gloss. Kitchen's Molly Bluhm is 51. Since the tragic death of her four-year-old son, Arjay, exactly eight years ago, she has been inconsolable even her love of singing Irish folk songs has deserted her. She spends the day of June 16, 1999, waiting in her remodeled farmhouse on Eccles Road (renamed Larch Lane) in Dublin, Ohio, for her professor husband to give a sign that he remembers the significance of the date. Off teaching, he does not, but Molly decides she will not allow Leo's neglect to "get in the way of her life." Kitchen fluently channels her narrative through the voices of characters Molly encounters over the course of the day the demanding, begrudging Marcie, Leo's daughter from his first marriage; a pregnant neighbor, Jackie; a former admirer and music director, Ted Boyle, who is delighted to hear that Molly intends to sing again and agrees to meet her later. Kitchen's writing is powerfully direct, though the inherent claustrophobia in such a tightly packed story is compounded when Leo and his academic proteg‚, Steve, begin to bandy about the "interiority" and "intensities" of Molly Bloom's soliloquy. Molly finally comes to recognize that her life can no longer consist of waiting for Leo, and an invitation to sing again onstage at the pub underscores her newfound independence. Even this over-plotted ending does not spoil the quiet celebration of Molly's coming of age.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

Eight years after the death of their only child, Molly O'Rourke and Leo Bluhm are still tiptoeing around each other. While Leo is able to lose himself in academia, Molly has found it impossible to resume work as a singer. Both continue to mourn, albeit separately and wordlessly. This intense premise is rendered with amazing grace as Kitchen, the writer in residence at SUNY at Brockport, uses the occasion of the couple's 13th anniversary to explore themes of grief, loss, and loyalty. Her prose is poetic and breathtakingly beautiful. As the story unfolds, readers witness the intersection of past and present, learning ways that relationships are distorted by history and tainted by memory. What's more, by focusing on a single day (much like Ulysses, which it hints at), the novel captures both the nuances of routine and the serendipity of chance. Indeed, one cannot close the book without wondering why some of us are granted long lives and professional success while others are not. The winner of the publisher's S. Mariella Gable Prize for a previously unpublished novel, this work is recommended for all libraries.
Eleanor J. Bader, Brooklyn, NY
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (September 30, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0142003301
• ISBN-13: 978-0142003305
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 4.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,554,655 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars an authentic and sensitive peak into a mature feminist mind, December 29, 2002

By 

Karola Moore (Anchorage, AK USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The House on Eccles Road: A Novel (Hardcover)

This book came as a gift from my college-age son. A "story" it is not, verging more on the poetry of daily life. It is succinct, well edited, and the writing is exquisitely crafted to give life to the personal voices of Molly and those family members and others who touch into her life. The 51-year-old Molly is close to my age - her thoughts, insecurities, and relationships feel so authentic. This is a book to share and savor with your women friends. I find myself looking to see what else is available from Judith Kitchen.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars thoughtful, October 12, 2003

By 

konnie k (sarasota, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The House on Eccles Road (Mass Market Paperback)

This book surprised me- it slows you down. The entire book takes place in one day. How two married people can so easily live within their own heads and rarely intersect at good conversation. I found the writing beautiful and very true to life. a simple snapshot. a magnifying glass into the mind.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A gem, July 27, 2006

By 

magazinewriter "Duleen" (Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The House on Eccles Road: A Novel (Hardcover)

I was enthralled by this book from the very first sentence. The writing is so beautiful that, even though the vast majority of the action takes place in the mind and there are many purely descriptive passages,the story seemed full of action.

I appreciated the water imagery, which was consistent throughout, lending a unity to the narrative. Kitchen is not the first to use this potent imagery ( "Those are pearls that were his eyes"; "I should have been a pair of ragged claws . . .") but that's because water is so elemental to everyone.

I must confess that, like Molly, I am a 50-plus married woman with a passion for music, so I found lots to relate to in the book. Unlike Molly, however, I do not enjoy the works of Edna O'Brien.

One quibble: I thought the portrait of the husband as a deracinated, disaffected Jewish academic was more than a little trite.