Customer Reviews

The House on Eccles Road: A Novel

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

The House on Eccles Road pulls off a small miracle. It's the story of one anniversary day in a troubled long term marriage--a day filled with recognizable "petty offenses" by the couple against one another, and with the possibility of reconciliation. It's realistic. It's also written in a fluid internal style, ranging from character to character, and centering on one woman's longings. It's colored by sadness and memory but brilliantly intense about the present. It's a passionate, lyrical book. And for those who can recognize this, it plays off amazingly against James Joyce's mammoth Ulysses, answering that mammoth mythic masterpiece with a woman's point of view, a woman's feelings, a woman's truth. It is a moving book, maybe unforgettable.

I would have rated one star if it were an option. If you can finish this book, chalk it up to boredom...that's the only reason I finished it. If you can finish this book and tell a good friend that you enjoyed it, I don't even know what to say. If you suggest this book to a good friend, you're just plain mean. Every single time I began to read this book, I fell asleep within thirty minutes. I was sure something was going to happen any time. It never did. The lack of dialog may have been the main reason it didn't grab my attention, but seriously...the most uninteresting book i've read in a very long time.