Customer Reviews

House of Women: A Novel

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

 

 

Lynn Freed writes beautifully, and "House of Women" is a mysterious, otherworldly book. Her ability to whittle down to only the most emotionally essential description is wonderfully dreamlike and virtuoso; this is not a long novel, but it's extraordinarily rich. It reminded me both of Jean Rhys' work and of the second half of "The Sheltering Sky" -- both good reference points in my book. The first fifty pages or so are very swift and mysterious (and might loose a few sticklers for realism who could have trouble surrendering to Freed's premise), but they reflect the staccato structure of the conclusion, and they also have a tug of dark fantasy that was pulled off deftly. And the tone of that "premise-portion" of the novel is thoroughly in keeping with the rest of the book -- evocative, sad, and jaggedly beautiful. There, due praise with nothing spoiled.

This remarkably complex novel is as multi-layered as humanity itself, a caution against the folly of premature assumptions. Truth, after all, lies in personal perceptions.

Nalia and her daughter, Theodora, live in a house surrounded by a fence with a padlocked gate, immune to the passions of the outside world. A Holocaust survivor, Nalia wishes to keep her daughter close as a shadow, perhaps even growing old together, so that she need never be alone. Nalia understands men and their selfish ways and considers them untrustworthy buffoons, including Thea's philandering father, as he briefly drifts in and out of their lives.

The years pass, and Thea's childish innocence is replaced by the romantic musings of adolescence; she begins to chafe at her mother's claustrophobic constraints. The years of living so intimately have corrupted their mother/daughter relationship's progression through it's natural stages into the roles of captor and prisoner. In one shocking afternoon, the padlock on the gate is broken open and Thea elopes with a mysterious older man, her father's old friend, leaving a desolate Nalia howling with despair.

Nalia is alone, after all, without her beloved companion and Thea finds herself isolated on an island with a possessive husband that refuses to release her. Even when she becomes pregnant and gives birth to twins, he will not allow her to leave and take the children to meet their grandmother, fearful that she won't return. The two women struggle, each in their own way, to survive their forced separation, both filled with regret. They are, after all, the victims of time, which can never be contained, no matter how carefully its reality is avoided.

Finally, seduced by memory, Nalia and Thea are tormented by their intense longing to see each other, to renew their closeness, and unable to find release from the power of their fierce emotions. Their bond of blood, as old as time, cannot be severed. Lives complicated by ancient lies and hidden truths, each must find the way back, to forgive the unforgivable. With consummate skill, Freed's vibrant characters fill the pages of House of Women, flaunting their obsessions, passions, and finally, their deep love for one another. Luan Gaines/2003.

I have been waiting for this novel ever since reading The Mirror. Freed hands down a lesson once more. A lesson in tone, a lesson in character, a lesson in pacing, and, as in The Mirror, a triumphant lesson in Voice!

This is not simplistic fiction. It fits no category except in the category of excellence. Slow, evocative, like layers being peeled away or a picture and a world coming into focus as the reader -- me! -- marveled at this modern master. If you want car chases go elsewhere. Seemingly effortless depth? You've found it!

Sorry, the very things that made the other reviewers call this book "hypnotic" and "dreamy" just left me in a total fog. Characters without names, unidentified times and places. Instead of making me "peel back layers," it left me saying..."wait, who are we talking about here?" And while aspects of the mother-daughter obsession were compelling, most of it made me want to tell them both to "snap out of it!" Guess you really have to embrace this style of writing to appreciate the book.

I was expecting a nice, easy read. NOPE! The story was good but for such a small book it drags on and on!
I hope the author's other books don't drag on like this one.

I would never read anything by this author again. A little more reality, please.