At The Huffington Post Maddie Crum tagged
seven books "that suit the [holiday] season, either because they're about family, or because their gripping plots will keep you awake," including:
The Hundred-Year House by Rebecca Makkai
The characters in Rebecca Makkai's novel know what it's like to be entrapped in a space with family members welcome and unwelcome. The Hundred-Year House tracks the history of an estate, beginning with its prideful, mostly neurotic present-day inhabitants, and moving back in time to reveal the lives of the ancestors and artists who lived there for, well, the past one-hundred years. The storyline is more than clever; Makkai uses the cast of residents to make a broader comment on perceived versus "actual" history, and manages to be amusing along the way.
Read about
another novel on the list.
The Hundred-Year House is among
Ellen Wehle's four books with tough, savvy female characters.
The Page 69 Test: The Hundred-Year House.
My Book, The Movie: The Hundred-Year House.
--Marshal Zeringue
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