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The Great House (2000)

The Great House (2000)

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Rating
3.42 of 5 Votes: 3
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Language
English

About book The Great House (2000)

SPOILERS: Great House is one of the best books I've ever read. The four major plot lines are (mostly) connected by the ownership of the desk, although the chapters I found the most compelling to read were probably the most tenuously connected (the author Nadia is speaking to Dov -- "Your Honor" -- after she hits him in her car at the very end of her narration; my favorite chapters were those told from the perspective of Dov's father). The question that remained for me at the end of the book was who gave the desk to Lotte Berg (presumably, the father of the child she gave up). I was surprised that a question of such great significance was not answered, and I wondered if there was a connection between the looting of the Weisz household and how the desk came into Lotte's possession (could a Nazi have given her the desk? Is that the source of her shame and secrecy?) In the end, though, the book is the story of how ideas replaced the need for physical objects. The Great House of Jewish learning (set up at Yavne by Yohanan Ben Zakkai) replaced the Second Temple, and the connections and love between the characters (especially Izzy's marriage to Yoav and their son, David) replaced the desk (and Weisz killed himself after finally finding the desk - as his "list of enchanted objects was diminished by one"). To return to the chapters written through the eyes of Dov's father, they could have been stand-alone chapters, and the grief at the lack of connection between father and son (and a lifetime of missteps in their relationship) is palpable. I was disappointed with this book because Nicole Krauss's 'A History of Love' is one of my all-time favorite books. 'Great House' left me with the impression that it was an unfinished work that was completed in haste but prematurely so. Maybe she was under the gun to just publish it half-baked? Krauss usually does a fantastic job weaving together parallel stories in surprising, beautiful ways. But this time the ties between plot lines were unimpressive and thin. The big reveal at the end was anti-climatic and somewhat unbelievable. At times the prose is tedious, melancholic, endless; as if I was reading one of the author's journal entries. The character development was half-formed; I was able to relate to the characters to some extent but often their actions seemed unrealistic and tactical (plot devices). I gave the book three stars because it was imaginative and, occasionally, beautifully written. I love the idea of a desk that crosses continents adding physical permanence to a world that is otherwise constantly shifting and re-shaping itself. And I love how she creates a web of stories in her books, even if this time it didn't come together so well. But ultimately it fell short of being a true work of art.

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I hate books that I finish and then have to go to the Internet to have them explained to me. The good news is that I am in good company--nobody seems to be able to explain this book. Given that, maybe I can relax a bit. The dust jacket says that the stories in this book are told by narrators who all have a connection with the same hulking desk. When I read that I imagined a work similar to People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks, but the desk here doesn't take the central role that the Haggadah does in that one. Instead the desk is almost a side note, or maybe a subtle, oboe counter line, to the intimate melody that each of the narrators plays as they tell their stories. The writing is beautiful--similes and metaphors par excellence, but after awhile all the narrators start to sound alike, none has their own voice, and it seems to be more about the writing than about the stories. I found several reading group guides with lists of questions--very few of which I could answer--and I think that that is what the author was after, a story with no real ending, no neat lines, a story that you can fill in the details as you will,. I don't have time for that. So why do I keep trying to figure out the answers?
—LoveMuffin

Mooi geschreven. Maar een boek heeft meer nodig dan mooie taal alleen om te blijven bekoren. Op het moment dat er een derde ik-persoon op het toneel verscheen, heb ik afgehaakt. Het bureau zou de rode draad doorheen het boek moeten zijn. Maar meer dan opduiken in elk apart verhaal deed het mijns inziens niet. Het had de krachtlijm tussen de afzonderlijke verhalen kunnen vormen, maar bleek uiteindelijk niet meer dan een te veel verdunde behangerslijm.
—greenidwolf

Overwrought.
—bala

2.5
—Julieta

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