Great House (novel)

Last updated
Great House
GreatHouse.jpg
First edition
Author Nicole Krauss
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenreNovel, Postmodernism
Publisher W.W. Norton & Company
Publication date
October 12, 2010
Media typePrint (Paperback) and E-Book
Pages289 pg (paperback)
ISBN 978-0-393-07998-2
Preceded by The History of Love (2005) 
Followed by Forest Dark (2017) 

Great House is the third novel by the American writer Nicole Krauss, [1] published on October 12, 2010 by W. W. Norton & Company. Early versions of the first chapter were published in Harper's ("From the Desk of Daniel Varsky", 2007), [2] Best American Short Stories 2008 , and The New Yorker ("The Young Painters", June 2010). Great House was a finalist for the 2010 National Book Award in Fiction.

Contents

Book description

For 25 years, a reclusive American novelist has been writing at the desk she inherited from a young Chilean poet who disappeared at the hands of Pinochet’s secret police; one day a girl claiming to be the poet’s daughter arrives to take it away, sending the writer’s life reeling. Across the ocean, in the leafy suburbs of London, a man caring for his dying wife discovers, among her papers, a lock of hair that unravels a terrible secret. In Jerusalem, an antiques dealer slowly reassembles his father’s study, plundered by the Nazis in Budapest in 1944.

Linking these stories is a desk of many drawers that exerts a power over those who possess it or have given it away.

The book's title, Great House, is the name by which the yeshiva in Yavne, founded by the first-century rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, became known after his death. Its source is this passage from the Bible, in the Second Book of Kings, chapter 25, verse 9: "He burned the house of God, the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem; even every great house he burned with fire."

Dedication

The book is dedicated to Krauss's two children, both boys. [3]

Reception

Great House has received very positive reviews from critics. Patrick Ness of The Guardian described the book as "subtle and fractured, almost demanding a second reading to put all the pieces together. Mainly, though, Great House is a meditation on loss and memory and how they construct our lives...Great House is a smart, serious, sharply written novel of great care and yearning." [4] Rebecca Newberger Goldstein of The New York Times described the book as "a high-wire performance, only the wire has been replaced by an exposed nerve, and you hold your breath, and she does not fall." [5] Janet Byrne of Huffington Post stated "It's a daunting undertaking, one that not every writer under 40 would choose or can do justice to, but Krauss's talent runs deep. And she cannot write a bad sentence: pound for pound, the sentences alone deliver epiphany upon epiphany." [6]

Related Research Articles

Ian McEwan English novelist and screenwriter

Ian Russell McEwan, is an English novelist and screenwriter. In 2008, The Times featured him on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945" and The Daily Telegraph ranked him number 19 in its list of the "100 most powerful people in British culture".

Nicole Richie American television personality, fashion designer, musician and actress

Nicole Camille Richie is an American television personality, fashion designer, musician and actress. She came to prominence after appearing in the reality television series The Simple Life (2003–2007), in which she starred alongside her childhood friend and fellow socialite Paris Hilton. Richie's personal life attracted media attention during the series' five-year run and thereafter.

Yehuda Amichai Israeli poet

Yehuda Amichai was an Israeli poet and author, one of the first to write in colloquial Hebrew in modern times.

<i>Moment</i> (magazine)

Moment is an independent magazine which focuses on the life of the American Jewish community. It is not tied to any particular Jewish movement or ideology. The publication features investigative stories and cultural criticism, highlighting the thoughts and opinions of diverse scholars, writers, artists and policymakers. Moment was founded in 1975, by Nobel Prize laureate Elie Wiesel and Jewish activist Leonard Fein, who served as the magazine's first editor from 1975 to 1987. In its premier issue, Fein wrote that the magazine would include diverse opinions "of no single ideological position, save of course, for a commitment to Jewish life." Hershel Shanks served as the editor from 1987 to 2004. In 2004, Nadine Epstein took over as editor and executive publisher of Moment.

Dominic West English actor

Dominic Gerard Francis Eagleton West is an English actor, director and musician. He is best known for playing Jimmy McNulty in The Wire (2002–2008) and Noah Solloway in The Affair (2014–2019), the latter of which earned him a Golden Globe nomination. He won the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor at the 2012 British Academy Television Awards for portraying serial killer Fred West in Appropriate Adult (2011), and he played Jean Valjean in the 2018 BBC miniseries Les Misérables. His film credits include Chicago (2002), 300 (2007), Punisher: War Zone (2008), John Carter (2012), The Square (2017), and Colette (2018). West is currently playing the role of Dr Chris Cox in the Sky One series Brassic (2019–present).

Nicole Krauss is an American author best known for her four novels Man Walks Into a Room (2002), The History of Love (2005), Great House (2010) and Forest Dark (2017), which have been translated into 35 languages. Her fiction has been published in The New Yorker, Harper's, Esquire, and Granta's Best American Novelists Under 40, and has been collected in Best American Short Stories 2003, Best American Short Stories 2008, Best American Short Stories 2019, and Best American Short Stories 2021. In 2011, Nicole Krauss won an award from the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards for Great House. A collection of her short stories, To Be a Man, was published in 2020 and won the Wingate Literary Prize in 2022.

<i>The Untouchables</i> (film) 1987 American film directed by Brian De Palma

The Untouchables is a 1987 American crime film directed by Brian De Palma, produced by Art Linson, written by David Mamet, and based on the book of the same name (1957). The film stars Kevin Costner, Charles Martin Smith, Andy García, Robert De Niro, and Sean Connery, and follows Eliot Ness (Costner) as he forms the Untouchables team to bring Al Capone to justice during Prohibition. The Grammy Award–nominated score was composed by Ennio Morricone and features period music by Duke Ellington.

Edward Lewis Wallant was an American writer, best known for his novel The Pawnbroker (1961). It was adapted into an award-winning film of the same name, directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Rod Steiger. He also worked as an art director at advertising firm McCann-Erickson.

Naomi Alderman is an English novelist and game writer. She is best known for her speculative science fiction novel The Power, which won the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction in 2017.

Jeremy Butterworth is an English playwright, screenwriter, and film director. He has written screenplays in collaboration with his brothers, John-Henry and Tom.

Rebecca Skloot American writer

Rebecca L. Skloot is an American science writer who specializes in science and medicine. Her first book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2010), was one of the best-selling new books of 2010, staying on The New York Times Bestseller list for over 6 years and eventually reaching #1. It was adapted into a movie by George C. Wolfe, which premiered on HBO on April 22, 2017, and starred Rose Byrne as Skloot, and Oprah Winfrey as Lacks's daughter Deborah.

Rebecca Goldstein American philosopher and writer (born 1950)

Rebecca Newberger Goldstein is an American philosopher, novelist, and public intellectual. She has written ten books, both fiction and non-fiction. She holds a Ph.D. in philosophy of science from Princeton University, and is sometimes grouped with novelists such as Richard Powers and Alan Lightman, who create fiction that is knowledgeable of, and sympathetic toward, science.

Patrick Ness British-American author, journalist, lecturer, and screenwriter

Patrick Ness is a British-American author, journalist, lecturer, and screenwriter. Born in the United States, Ness moved to London and holds dual citizenship. He is best known for his books for young adults, including the Chaos Walking trilogy and A Monster Calls.

In 1962, the Edward Lewis Wallant Award was established at the University of Hartford, in Connecticut, USA by Fran and Irving Waltman. It is presented annually to a writer whose fiction is considered to have significance for American Jews. The award is named for Jewish American writer Edward Lewis Wallant.

Robin Wells American economist

Robin Elizabeth Wells is an American economist. She is the co-author of several economics texts.

Festival of Dangerous Ideas

The Festival of Dangerous Ideas (FODI) is a disruptive festival that encourages debate and critical thinking, co-founded in 2009 by The Ethics Centre the Sydney Opera House.

Rebecca Stead American writer

Rebecca Stead is an American writer of fiction for children and teens. She won the American Newbery Medal in 2010, the oldest award in children's literature, for her second novel When You Reach Me.

<i>Parades End</i> (TV series)

Parade's End is a five-part BBC/HBO/VRT television serial adapted from the eponymous tetralogy of novels (1924–1928) by Ford Madox Ford. It premiered on BBC Two on 24 August 2012 and on HBO on 26 February 2013. The series was also screened at the 39th Ghent Film Festival on 11 October 2012. The miniseries was directed by Susanna White and written by Tom Stoppard. The cast was led by Benedict Cumberbatch and Rebecca Hall as Christopher and Sylvia Tietjens, along with Adelaide Clemens, Rupert Everett, Miranda Richardson, Anne-Marie Duff, Roger Allam, Janet McTeer, Freddie Fox, Jack Huston, and Steven Robertson.

<i>Forest Dark</i>

Forest Dark is the fourth novel by the American writer Nicole Krauss. It was published on August 24, 2017 in the United Kingdom and on September 12, 2017 in the United States. The book, which is set in New York City and Israel, is dedicated to Krauss's father and its title is derived from the opening lines of Dante's Inferno, as translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Its chief characters are lawyer Jules Epstein, who is wealthy, divorced and retired, and Nicole, an internationally acclaimed novelist and mother of two sons who is in a failing marriage.

Carys Bray is a British writer whose 2014 debut novel, A Song for Issy Bradley, was critically acclaimed.

References

  1. Rachel Cooke (February 13, 2011). "Nicole Krauss: 'I take great pleasure in thinking'". The Guardian . Retrieved April 5, 2015.
  2. "From the Desk of Daniel Varsky:eNotes Synopsis". eNotes. Retrieved November 5, 2011.
  3. Kampel, Stewart (January 2012). "A Talk with Author Nicole Krauss". Hadassah Magazine. Retrieved April 17, 2015.
  4. Patrick Ness (February 19, 2011) "Great House by Nicole Krauss – review", The Guardian . Retrieved December 5, 2012.
  5. Rebecca Newberger Goldstein (October 14, 2010), "Hearts Full of Sorrow", The New York Times . Retrieved December 5, 2012.
  6. Janet Byrne (April 10, 2010) "Nicole Krauss's 'Great House' Reviewed", Huffington Post . Retrieved December 5, 2012.