Nicole Krauss - Great House

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Exceptionally good

I thought this was an exceptionally good book. It had the potential to be dreadful - five fractured, loosely linked monologue narratives, little plot to speak of, no quotation marks for speech... it sounds like the sort of tricksy writing that I hate, designed to show off the author's cleverness and with little regard for anyone being able to read it. However, it is so well written that it works brilliantly: I found myself completely engaged with the characters and their stories and it also has a lot of important things to say.

It is hard to give an idea of the story in this book. It is told in the first person by five different narrators whose disparate stories are loosely linked by a writing desk. Despite the absence of a driving plot I was completely gripped by the stories and inner lives of the narrators. The stories are largely concerned with the nature of relationships, like those between parents and their children, those between new lovers and those between long-married couples, but it also says a lot about loneliness, hope, loss, the regrets of age, and a great deal more. I thought it made a lot of really penetrating, subtle and important observations about all these things. As well as some truly profound insights, Krauss manages tiny but very recognisable observations which make her scenes and characters wonderfully real.

The writing is excellent. It is readable, engaging and literate and carried me along wonderfully. The different voices are exceptionally well done and I found each of them utterly believable. Just once or twice the aging Oxford Don comes out with an American usage which doesn't ring quite true ("fit" for "fitted" and "morgue" for "mortuary", for example), but I don't raise this as a criticism. The fact that these tiny flaws stand out so vividly shows how exceptionally well the different voices are maintained throughout the book.

I cannot agree with the reviewers here who have said that this book is depressing. I do agree that it is poignant and sometimes very sad, piercingly moving in places and certainly not a light, cheery read. However, it carries such insight and compassion that although it is often melancholy and thought-provoking I certainly didn't find it depressing and I feel genuinely enriched for having read it. It made a very powerful impact on me and has stayed with me strongly afterward. I think it is a book which I will return to more than once and I recommend it very warmly indeed.