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ISBN-10: 081297784X
ISBN-13: 9780812977844
Edition: N/A
List price: $18.00
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Description:
Set in the conformist 1950s and reaching back to span two world wars, Ellen Baker7;s superb novel is the story of a newlywed who falls in love with a grand abandoned house and begins to unravel dark secrets woven through the generations of a family. Like Whitney Otto7;sHow to Make an American Quiltin its intimate portrayal of women7;s lives, and reminiscent of novels by Elizabeth Berg and Anne Tyler,Keeping the Houseis a rich tapestry of a novel that introduces a wonderful new fiction writer. When Dolly Magnuson moves to Pine Rapids, Wisconsin, in 1950, she discovers all too soon that making marriage work is harder than it looks in the pages of theLadies7; Home Journal. Dolly tries to adapt… to her new life by keeping the house, supporting her husband7;s career, and fretting about dinner menus. She even gives up her dream of flying an airplane, trying instead to fit in at the stuffy Ladies Aid quilting circle. Soon, though, her loneliness and restless imagination are seized by the vacant house on the hill. As Dolly7;s life and marriage become increasingly difficult, she begins to lose herself in piecing together the story of three generations of Mickelson men and women: Wilma Mickelson, who came to Pine Rapids as a new bride in 1896 and fell in love with a man who was not her husband; her oldest son, Jack, who fought as a Marine in the trenches of World War I; and Jack7;s son, JJ, a troubled veteran of World War II, who returns home to discover Dolly in his grandparents7; house. As the crisis in Dolly7;s marriage escalates, she not only escapes into JJ7;s stories of his family7;s past but finds in them parallels to her own life. AsKeeping the Housemoves back and forth in time, it eloquently explores themes of wartime heroism and passionate love, of the struggles of men7;s struggles with fatherhood and war and of women7;s conflicts with issues of conformity, identity, forbidden dreams, and love. Beautifully written and atmospheric,Keeping the Houseilluminates the courage it takes to shape and reshape a life, and the difficulty of ever knowing the truth about another person7;s desires.Keeping the Houseis an unforgettable novel about small-town life and big matters of the heart. Advance praise forKeeping the House 0;Ellen Baker7;s first novel is a wonder! Keeping the House is a great big juicy family saga, a romantic page-turner with genuine characters written with a perfect sense of history, time, and place. Her portrayal of the American housewife is hilarious and heartbreaking. I couldn7;t have liked it more!1; -Fannie Flagg, author ofCan7;t Wait to Get to Heaven 0;Ellen Baker7;s first novel, Keeping the House, is a quilt that grids a small Midwestern town in the middle of the last century. Under this writer7;s deft hands, each square is a story, a mystery, an indiscretion, a tale of the great house and grand family who once ruled there. Even more, it captures the roles of women then: both the living embodiments of demure ideals, and those who couldn7;t fit the pattern. Edith Wharton7;s novels of domestic despair and display come to mind with each page.1; -Jacquelyn Mitchard, author ofThe Deep End of the Ocean 0;A born storyteller, Ellen Baker has written an enthralling family saga filled with three generations of memorable characters and capturing the dreams and frustrations of twentieth-century women in wonderful, spot-on historical detail.1; -Faith Sullivan, author ofGardeniasandThe Cape Ann 0;Ellen Baker has written the novel I7;ve been waiting to read for a very long time. It7;s the book