Thursday, December 6, 2012

Book Review: The Red House by Mark Haddon

Title: The Red House
Author: Mark Haddon
Enjoyment Rating: **
This book would be rated: R, for language, sex, and general peevishness
Source: Audible for iTunes
Books I've read this year: 118

Oh wow, it's been a long time since I've written any book reviews, and when I was going through my draft posts, I happened on this book, which I read back in the summer but never reviewed. So take my review with a large grain of salt because it's sure to be even foggier and more outdated than the others.

I really enjoyed Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time so listening to The Red House felt like an obvious choice. The book is about two English siblings whose mother has recently died. The brother, a wealthy doctor living with his second wife and her daughter, invited his sister and her family, including three children, to stay at their vacation rental home in the countryside.The book is one of those where it feels like the author is trying to show the reader how smart he is-- while the story is chronological, it switches perspective from character to character with no notice, and we often get the stream of consciousness thoughts of characters. Basically, everyone fights, a few people have epiphanies, and the reader is left feeling entirely hopeless that any person in that family will life a happy (albeit fictional) life.

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