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The HundredYear House Rebecca Makkai 9780525426684 Books

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The HundredYear House Rebecca Makkai 9780525426684 Books

I read a lot of books on my kindle, skimming or blowing through most of them because they're predictable, or have poorly developed characters or not enough plot. I simply quit reading and delete a good many too. Every once in awhile I stumble across a gem.
The Hundred-Year House is one of the great ones. So good, in fact that I will read it again. I like stories that are different and this is like nothing else I've read.
It's not scary but it is mysterious and smoothly suspenseful. I get why other readers aren't satisfied. The author doesn't lay everything out or tie all the storylines off neatly. You actually have to think a little. The story suggests things and you get to draw your own conclusions. You'll form lots of questions and the answers you get may or may not apply to those questions. Paying close attention helps. I really enjoyed the writing style so it ended up being very absorbing. I haven't read an absorbing book in a good long while.
It's wickedly subtle, quietly audacious and a gorgeous ode to all artists and their quirks. Along with hints of art vs academia.


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The HundredYear House Rebecca Makkai 9780525426684 Books Reviews

I was not prepared to enjoy this book as much as I did. I found myself totally absorbed in the plot, the characters that were not greatly developed and the multi generation approach to this story. I left the book was some unanswered questions that I will have to make up the answers on my own. I didn't take the book real serious & perhaps that is the reason that I laughed much to myself & had a good time with an offical summer read. I was surprised at times with some poignant remarks of human observation by the author. The book does port tragedy. Yet, because of the way the characters are designed to fit in the story, their sufferings to me were part of a "black humor" sub track that felt more like " isn't this awfull" as compared to " I am deeply moved by this person's suffering as I know this suffering too" I enjoyed the mysteries of the ghost stories and were there ghosts in the house or not . I think that the years of all combined energies left by the people who lived in the house was a continual process of the internal influence of the house enviroment for future generations.l
Rebecca Makkai has written a clever, brilliant puzzle box of a book about a house and the secrets it has witnessed, gathered - and maintained its silence about - over its one hundred year lifespan. This is a novel of many characters and many layers. It relates its history and divulges its secrets from the present day backwards - rather like deconstructing an onion – until, at its very end (the Prologue), you “unpeel” the final layer and find, just like an onion, you have nothing tangible left in your hand.

Nothing that is, except for a strong sense of portent fraught with potential.

The story “begins” in 1999 on the cusp of the 21st century (remember the Y2K scare?). In this 1st section, you are presented with answers – lots of them. But, and this is what Makkai has done so cleverly, you are in the unusual position of having more answers than you have questions. And because of that, you aren’t really sure which question goes with which answer, the result being that, even if you have the right answer associated with the right question, you don’t really know what that answer means. This first section is an easy read and engages you immediately. The prose is crisp and the characters are well-drawn, warts and all. Partial truths and the portents of further mysteries are tantalizingly and frustratingly revealed. You want to know more.

Part II (1955) divulges more layers of secrets and characters. The tone is darker, the prose is softer and more melancholy – weightier and atmospheric - which is in keeping with the events it relates. Questions associated with the answers discovered in Part I are revealed. But… even more answers come to light; and again, you have more answers than questions. The puzzle box continues to mystify and intrigue you.

Part III (1929) continues the deconstruction of the onion. Honestly, I found this section to be the least successful. It is a bit overwrought and overwritten. There are a profusion of characters, and while this is understandable (it is an artist colony after all), Makkai’s decision to keep all the characters in the forefront while telling the important events that occur during the evening of the “bacchanal”, drags the story down. You have to plow through a lot of words and you have to do it carefully because there are secrets and final answers to be unearthed – it’s just that you have to shovel a lot of earth to get to them. You will want to start skimming (not all the characters are as interesting as Makkai thinks they are), but don’t skim. Once you get past the events of that pivotal evening, the story shakes off its torpor and moves right along. Careful reading will yield maximum reward.

Part IV (1900) is the Prologue, where we meet Violet and learn of the genesis of the house.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I will tell you, it’s not a haunted house story. It’s not a ghost story either. Luckily, this fascinating novel doesn’t need anything so run of the mill. The whole Violet thread is not strong or compelling enough to be the connecting thread through all the layers. I’m telling you this so that you don’t go into the book with those expectations. You will find that the characters who resided in the house were haunted long before they ever came there. Haunted by grief, loneliness, longing, fear and need - combined with a fragile hope for relief and happiness.

Perhaps it is in Part I after all that you will find the true “answer” to all the questions – that, after one hundred years, there is light in the house again, and that, perhaps for this next “layer” of the story, the light will banish the darkness. Which would make the people who once walked those corridors and inhabited those rooms very happy indeed.
I’m not sure how I came across this book, but the premise was interesting. It started off well, but by the end, the story was a weird jumble of stuff written in parentheses and told out of order for no discernible reason.
The book is really written in 3 parts, each set in a separate time period. The first 2 parts were mostly well done and interesting, even if the characters weren’t all that likable, but the 3rd, which was really the part I was most interested in reading, was just a hot mess of changing perspectives, disjointed narratives, characters that were far too stereotypical, and “surprises” that I was able to easily figure out long before they were revealed. I was left disappointed.
This is a story which moves backwards over a span of 100 years. Living in the home in modern-day is a rich, socialite couple, along with their two children and spouses. Each person has an open problem (lack of work, lack of inspiration) along with a secret. But some secrets which are uncovered go back generations, back to the artist colony who once resided in the home, and to the woman who died there and supposedly haunts the place still. It was an interesting read with colorful descriptions, yet so many of the main characters I found to be unlikeable and self-centered. They tend to blame others when unhappy with their choices. The ones who were more sympathetic, I felt didn't get fleshed out enough along the way. An interesting, though ultimately sad read. A cautionary tale of wealth, greed, lust, and difficult choices.
I read a lot of books on my kindle, skimming or blowing through most of them because they're predictable, or have poorly developed characters or not enough plot. I simply quit reading and delete a good many too. Every once in awhile I stumble across a gem.
The Hundred-Year House is one of the great ones. So good, in fact that I will read it again. I like stories that are different and this is like nothing else I've read.
It's not scary but it is mysterious and smoothly suspenseful. I get why other readers aren't satisfied. The author doesn't lay everything out or tie all the storylines off neatly. You actually have to think a little. The story suggests things and you get to draw your own conclusions. You'll form lots of questions and the answers you get may or may not apply to those questions. Paying close attention helps. I really enjoyed the writing style so it ended up being very absorbing. I haven't read an absorbing book in a good long while.
It's wickedly subtle, quietly audacious and a gorgeous ode to all artists and their quirks. Along with hints of art vs academia.