Whether you enjoy romance, horror, family sagas, or tales of nihilistic chaos, we have a recommendation for you! And please send us your review if you decide to add any of these novels to your August library list at voices@nhpr.org .
The Dutch House & Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
As I read Patchett’s latest novel, Tom Lake, for our new book series Authors on Main, I’m taken back to The Dutch House, an epic portrait of a place over decades and two people who are inextricably attached to and shaped by it. Siblings Danny and Maeve are drawn back to the Dutch House, the mansion they’ve been exiled from by their stepmother, and the life they lived within it, time after time; unable to let go of the past, they cling to one another in their misery. As characters, they are both frustrated and frustrating - I admittedly wanted to slap Danny out of his self-defeating reveries more than once - but Patchett weaves her magic and makes you care about them anyway, makes you want to steal into the house and run away with a painting, to sit and smoke and lament.
Tom Lake, meanwhile, is a meditation on love and commitments old and new, on the ghost of memories transformed into story. Through the lens of Lara Kenison telling her three grown daughters about one summer spent on the shores of the titular lake, acting in summer stock and dating a man who would become a famous movie star, the book explores the way relationships ebb and flow, and the depths of contentment one can find after a betrayal, while holding deep secrets. It is light in plot, but beautifully rich in many other regards. - Sara Plourde
Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion
Joan Didion once said that writing is a hostile act. Play It As It Lays, published in 1970, is nothing less than that. The nihilistic masterpiece is written in both lethargic vignettes and stark prose littered with blank space; as well as perspective shifts between first and third person, causing an even stronger feeling of haziness. Protagonist Maria Wyeth's story is an existential tragedy, a sort of American The Stranger, with Maria as Camus’ Meursault and Los Angeles as the backdrop rather than the Mediterranean coast. Maria is a non-working, 31 year old actress on the verge of a divorce with a four-year-old daughter, Kate, who has been placed in a care facility for developmentally disabled children.
As the novel progresses, it is clear that Maria is paralyzed by the chaotic emptiness she faces in her everyday life. In her career, her relationships, and even in a graphically described, deeply disturbing back-alley abortion; ending a pregnancy that was a product of desperate boredom, not love.
This novel rattles me to my core each time I pick it up. I am always left with feelings of both fierce protectiveness and absolute disdain for Maria. This story is an interesting feminist time capsule with themes of sexuality, motherhood, and patriarchy, which will resonate deeply with the female experience for years to come. It’s not an easy read, but one I found necessary. - Zoë Kay
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
I recently purchased a copy of this from The Folio Society - a beautifully, darkly illustrated edition in a slipcase; a treasure. And the timing was just right: this gothic tale of the Blackwood family - precocious Merricat, her agoraphobic sister Constance, paralyzed uncle Julian, outsiders all - feels like the perfect bit of shade to dip into in the haze of late summer.
Jackson’s last work, Castle evokes a claustrophobia the likes of Du Maurier’s Rebecca, a haunted house story with no ghosts. After several members of the family die due to poisoning, Constance is acquitted of murder. The distrustful villagers that surround them shun the Blackwoods, and so the Blackwoods retreat into themselves. Merricat fashions spells and rituals to keep them safe, but she cannot save her naïve sister from their scheming cousin Charles - who comes seeking the family fortune - and ultimately causes the fire that reduces their beloved home to ruin.
It is in this ruin that the story ends, with Merricat’s and Constance’s lives contained to a handful of rooms. It is here that we learn the truth about the family tragedy (you will have suspected it all along), and it is here that they finally receive acts of kindness, after they have lost everything but each other. It is ultimately not a work of horror; it’s a story about otherness and perseverance, about greed and longing, about family and fortune. It’s my very favorite novel. I hope you enjoy it. - Sara Plourde
Ghost Story by Peter Straub
Every August since I was a kid, I’ve tried to read at least one great ghost story. Last year I finally read the colossal Stephen King classic The Shining and I wondered how I would be able to choose a story that could possibly compare. After a little bit of searching (google search terms included: ‘books that are scary like Stephen King’, ‘horror books to escape modern life’, ‘horror story with no pandemic’), I settled on Ghost Story by Peter Straub. Ghost Story, published in 1979, is a national bestseller and widely regarded as Straub’s opus. And let me tell you, the beginning of this novel does not disappoint. For the first 90 pages or so, I was terrified and thrilled to continue reading.
Ghost Story is set in a fictional New York town, Milburn and is centered around a group of successful, wealthy older men who gather often to tell stories of horror using the prompt: “...the worst thing that ever happened to me…”. Eventually and after many long vague conversations, the men realize that they are all suffering from the same, insistent nightmare after the suspicious death of one of their mutual friends.
After coming away from a rather lengthy King kick, I expected this story to mimic ‘Salem’s Lot. Both novels act as an exercise in the theme of small town living and what mayhem can occur when a stranger comes to town. While King has masterfully woven a web of small town gossip, Ghost Story lacks the forward momentum and intricacy to capture and then grasp the reader's attention.
There is no doubt that Straub is an excellent writer - and perhaps I am jaded by the fast paced nature of modernity - but this sprawling novel, in my opinion, lost sight of what it set out to be. From the pages upon pages of stale description, to the ‘rules’ of the supernatural Evil in the story constantly changing, I became fully un-invested in all but two characters by the conclusion.
Though this novel will not be something that I plan to read again, I am glad I picked it up. After asking friends and skulking around on the internet I have found that folks either love or hate Straub’s style. If you tend to like slower paced horror and don’t lack imagination, I hope that you will give it a try. - Zoë Kay
NHPR Reads is a blog series published on the second Thursday of the month dedicated to poetry, prose, and everything in between. Follow along for a staff-curated list of what we’re reading that month and read along with us!
