HouseboundElizabeth Gentry. Lake Forest College Press, $15 paperback (160p) ISBN: 978-0982315668
Elizabeth Gentry’s moody, tense
novel Housebound takes place over the
three days before the protagonist, Maggie, the eldest of nine siblings, is to
leave home to work in a daycare center in the city. The characters of Housebound exist in a strange,
half-formed sort of world; it’s similar enough to our own to be familiar, but
the typical rules don’t all seem to be in place. The standards of time and
geography feel oddly bent, lending the feel of a fairytale. Not far from home, Maggie
wanders through the country and stumbles upon house after house, each
containing nearly-forgotten family and acquaintances, each with new and
upsetting things to reveal. But there is also temptation in learning things
about the world outside her home. Maggie is repeatedly tempted by sugary foods,
which are banned by her parents, just as she is tempted by the urge to explore
further from her home and learn long-buried truths about herself and her
family.
Maggie’s parents and siblings are
also given occasional control of the narrative, and as with Maggie, the reader
is given glimpses into the desires that plague them as they march their way
through the rigid schedule of their home life. The youngest children use the
break from Maggie’s watchful eyes to explore forbidden places. Their mother,
Hannah, plots a way to have a room to herself. As the family’s routine begins
to crumble, Maggie shoulders the blame for welcoming change. Her family members
feel their private desires and doubts rise to the surface. In this way, the novel is a study of cause and effect—the
chain reaction caused by Maggie’s decision to leave home.
It is established early on that, at
least in the minds of Maggie and her family, her leaving is absolute. The
family lives in a world of extremes. Either Maggie is with them, or she is no
longer one of them. As a result, in her last few days at home, she slips into a
new role in her family, or more accurately, the absence of one. This cuts her
off from the stability she has known for so long, and gives her the freedom to
travel farther, both physically and emotionally, than she has ever been able to
before.
Perhaps Gentry’s greatest
achievement is her descriptions of the house itself and the way that the
various characters describe it and interact with it. They evaluate its spaces
and their purposes, recount its features like touchstones, and wonder about its
secrets. When the house’s secrets are uncovered, so are the family’s, and they
can no longer seclude themselves as they had before.
There is throughout the novel the constant
threat of the outside, particularly of the woods around the property and anyone
who might be lurking there. As Maggie explores, and meets more people, she
learns the difference between phantom danger and the true risks of separating
herself from her home and family. Gentry’s writing, the way she builds the
world of her story, makes the reader feel much the way Maggie does about her
home and what lies beyond it: afraid to venture out, but more unwilling still
to stay in. (November 2013)Purchase Housebound HERE.
Reviewer bio: Taylor Breslin graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 2012. She lives in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. She is on Twitter: @taylorbreslin.
