Great House by Nicole Krauss

Every once in a while I will read something that affects me on a personal level. It becomes so intense that it is like a relationship, a secret relationship that I have with the characters of the story. It is not only that I can relate to the characters, feel their pain, happiness, anger, and fear it is that the author allows me to feel that way in a very subtle and almost sneaky sort of way. There are only a couple books that have made me feel that way in the past, The World According to Garp, She’s Come Undone, and Lolita are just to name a few. Those books took me to places in the human psyche where I never thought I would ever go. Sometimes while reading about these characters I start to imagine who they are in my life, inevitably I believe that authors model their characters after real people in their lives. My favorite authors are ones that make me reread the sentences to make sure I understand their full impact. I also love when I have to research exactly what the author is talking about. Often times that research leads me to other authors that have inspired them and I in turn engulf their work just to see how the influence exists. Nicole Krauss is a fairly unrecognized author in the mainstream, but I have read one of her other books, The History of Love , and was so inspired to read Great House. Krauss has an amazing way with words and reading her books is like listening to Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” for the first time. She invents characters with so many flaws and internal struggles that you start to question your own internal struggles. With sentences like, “When you die, are you Hungry” or "Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering,” I almost have to do a double take to make sure I really understand their impact. Krauss makes you wish that you could use simple words and weave them into these sentences that take your breath away. I must admit that I had to read The History of Love twice because it was really intense and I wanted to make sure that I grasped the characters and the essential meaning of the book. I am sure that in a couple of years I will reread The Great Room. Krauss has a formula for her books and she tends to write in a choppy sort of way in that each chapter is the story of another’s life. It is sort of like she threw the pages up in the air and where they landed is where she unravels the stories. At first it is hard to keep up with the characters; a fifty year old woman who is telling a story to a judge about her life and a desk that she fostered, A father and son gripping with the death of their wife and mother and trying to understand each other, A professor who is trying to unlock the secret of his wife’s past, and a tormented thirty something who is in love with an antiques dealers’ son who has depressive tendencies. All these stories surround this desk that was stolen from a Jewish family when the Nazi’s came into power. What I love about this novel (and her other books) is how she is able to connect all the characters together for brief chapters, yet you are still able to relate and connect to the characters on a deeper level. I must admit that at the end of the book I got upset because it was ending. I didn’t exactly like the way it ended, and I had some questions and I had to reread certain pages to fully grasp the novels conclusion. The persona stories within the novels are marvelous and any author who can see a perspective from another sex (other than their own) is a great story teller. I am glad that Nicole Krauss exists and I hope to read more of her work. I give this book a 8 out of 10.

London by Edward Rutherfurd

I truly believe that if you are a reader then you are able to learn just about anything. Although I was a fairly good student and took honor classes, certain things never interested me in school. I do love history, and I certainly know a lot of American History and in school they touched on World History but it wasn’t highly in depth. Since this whole Royal Wedding excitement is happening I thought it would be great to learn about the History of England (well more specifically London). Edward Rutherfurd is a wonderful historical fiction writer and I read one of his books New York a couple months ago. Rutherfurd likes to build a tapestry of a fictional family tree(s) while writing about the history of the time. About two weeks ago I bought London and started reading it.

As expected the book has over 1,000 pages. I knew it was going to take me a couple weeks to finish it, especially because of the historical aspects. The first pages of the book contain three maps starting from the Roman times of London, Shakespeare’s’ London, to the current map of London. There is also a very detailed family tree, explaining the major families in the story; Duckets, Doggerts, Silversleeves, Barnikle, Penny and Carpenter to name a few. Rutherfurd is very talented in creating these characters and often helps you identify who is related to whom by some similar characteristic (for instance the Duckets have a silver streak in their hair and have webbed fingers, as do the Doggets). The families ranging from the very wealthy to the very poor show us the different ways that people lived during that time.

London begins with the formation on the River Thames and the introduction of a fishing family who settled in pre-Roman London (then called Londinium). This family interacts with several interesting characters like the Norman conquerors, the Anglo’s and the Saxons and creates their own history. Shortly after other families are introduced and all their lives are intertwined within the backdrop of the relevant histories that took place in London.

I certainly learned a lot about London and the English culture. For instance that high tea is a new thing that was brought to London from Asia. I loved learning about the building and formation of the Globe Theatre. I especially loved the tragic yet thrilling separation of Catholicism and Protestant religion during Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.

I do admit there were some really boring parts as well. I was also confused a lot by the family tree and was always looking back at the tree. I felt a little cheated because with about fifty characters you can’t really form a really emotional and strong relationship with the characters.

I recommend this book to anyone that likes to read about history but not in a history book and recommend that you have a lot of patience as it is over 1,100 pages. I didn’t really enjoy the ending and I feel that Rutherfurd ran out of things to say and didn’t exactly tie in the loose ends.

I give it a 7 out of 10.

For all those wondering my next book will be a lot lighter, with just over 400 pages