HAUNTED HOUSES

by Lynne Tillman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 16, 1986

A triptych in angst, featuring three young New York City area women who, splattered by events and still-burning or gutted-out relationships that date from childhood on, ponder, experience, and perceive in densely matted prose. Jane, who had always adored her ""crazy"" father, was in the habit of ""loving"" madmen, losing and gaining weight, and wanting to be loved and to love (does she really exist?). Before and after a violent rape, she mulls the complexities of King Lear and suggests in class that ""Lear wanted Cordelia sexually."" Meanwhile, Grace's mother Ruth was the sort who greeted a birthday present with the news that it was ugly and that she'd never wear it. Friends in school could be mean, too. Grace decided to be tough. She will pull out a knife to threaten Ruth, then move to Providence, R.I., where she'll pal around in the homosexual scene, work in a mental hospital, obsess on horror films, act in a nouveau morality play, and try a lesbian relationship. She's haunted, too, by stabs of memory concerning her mean mother Ruth, who's died of a heart attack. Then there's Emily the writer; her preoccupation is with opposites like right and wrong, dreams and reality, friendship and passion. Emily, edging through friends and abortive love affairs, writes things like ""Wordlessly we stalk words."" There's something to be said for the slow crawl of unaccented events to background-cohering identities; but there's a sameness to the clotted broodings here, and the three women (who do not, incidentally, cross paths) meld into one. It's a bright relief when Grace flashes the knife at Mother--which stops the airless drumming of psychic motors. Much bright stuff here, but as fiction, a chore.

Pub Date: Feb. 16, 1986

ISBN: 1935869043

Page Count: -

Publisher: Poseidon/Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1986

Categories: FICTION