A House Among The Trees, by Julia Glass
Presenter Katharine C, Zoom, 8 people, including 2 at-large members
This is a story about how four people struggle to deal with the death of a successful children’s author, the central character of the book, and based upon the iconic author Maurice Sendak who wrote Where the Wild Things Are.
All the characters are richly drawn, and the emphasis of the book is on the characterisation rather than the plot. It is mostly about Tommy (female) the enabler, but who passively falls into things and for whom even the house is a trap; Dani her brother, the exploited child; Merry the disappointed museum curator; and Nick the actor.
The main themes of the novel are loyalty, jealousy, disappointment, illness and legacy.
The book is vividly written and we found it to be a compelling read. There is plenty of irony and warmth as the story is told from the different points of view. Transitions between the characters can, however, be abrupt and slightly confusing. The story builds to a climax, but we felt that the ending seemed to be rather uselessly prolonged and therefore helped to produce a sense of anti-climax at the end - a problem we have encountered before! We enjoyed the book, however, and appreciated the satisfactory outcome and the redemption of Nick.
