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The Red House

2.87 of 5 stars 2.87 · rating details · 5,343 ratings · 1,280 reviews

A dazzlingly inventive novel about modern family, from the author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

The set up of Mark Haddon's brilliant new novel is simple: Richard, a wealthy doctor, invites his estranged sister Angela and her family to join his for a week at a vacation home in the English countryside. Richard has just re-married and inherited a willf...more

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Published (first published June 12th 2012)

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Jun 18, 2012 John Luiz rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I loved The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time and A Spot of Bother, so I was very excited once I heard about this novel, and then became utterly disappointed with what a chore this one is to read. It's told in a stream of consciousness style when eight people get together -- an estranged brother and sister and their two families for a week of vacation after the brother and sister's mother died. The point of view shifts from one person's interior thoughts to the next from one paragrap...more I loved The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time and A Spot of Bother, so I was very excited once I heard about this novel, and then became utterly disappointed with what a chore this one is to read. It's told in a stream of consciousness style when eight people get together -- an estranged brother and sister and their two families for a week of vacation after the brother and sister's mother died. The point of view shifts from one person's interior thoughts to the next from one paragraph to another, but often the switch occurs within a paragraph. Countless times throughout the book you have to re-read sections to figure out whose point of view it is, and a several times it's impossible to guess. Often there are passages when we get excerpts of what someone is reading -- and you can't always be sure which character it is. While this may be interesting the first few times, it quickly becomes tedious. Then there are riffs like this one:

Marja, Helmand. The sniper far back enough from the window to stop sun flaring on the rifle sight. Crack and kickback. A marine stumbles under the weight of his red buttonhole. Dawn light on wile horses in the Kentii Mountains. Huddershfield, brown sugar bubbling in a tarnished spoon. Turtles drown in oil. The purr of binary, a trillion ones and zeroes. The swill of bonds and futures. Reckitt Benckiser, Smith and Nephew. Rifts and magma chambers. Eyjafjallajokull smoking like a witch's cauldron.

It goes on like this for many more lines -- I'm not sure what it's supposed to be -- descriptions of all that's going on in the world, while these 8 people try to make sense of their lives?

Late in the book, we just get a long list of every item in a novelty shop the characters visit. It was fun when Tim O'Brien used that trick in The Things They Carried because each person's possessions revealed their personality, but I'm not sure what knowing all the curios in this paritcular curio shop does for me or any of the characters.

It's too bad because the characters' dilemmas -- the sister is going crazy over memories of her deformed stillborn baby, her ambition-less husband is having an affair, the brother is learning his wife has secrets and he has to be a better husband -- are all very interesting, not to mention the children's various problems -- the most interesting of which is a teenage girl coming to a slow realization of her sexual orientation. There was enough tension and character development in the book to make it somewhat worthwhile, but you have to have a lot of patience for artsy, fartsy writerly technigues to get through it. (Some readers might like the experimentation, but I obviously am not one of them.) (less)

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May 16, 2012 Michael rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literary-fiction, 2012, arc

It’s hard to review a book like this; Mark Haddon is a very talented writer and he has some brilliant techniques employed into this novel. However, I can’t help comparing this book to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and ultimately I think this book lacked something to make this book great. With the huge success of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, I can’t help but think that Mark Haddon has gotten overly confident with his writing. While it was refreshing and e...more It’s hard to review a book like this; Mark Haddon is a very talented writer and he has some brilliant techniques employed into this novel. However, I can’t help comparing this book to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and ultimately I think this book lacked something to make this book great. With the huge success of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, I can’t help but think that Mark Haddon has gotten overly confident with his writing. While it was refreshing and enjoyable to read a book with so many interesting writing techniques; I never really connected with the plot or the characters. I was so excited about reading another book by this author and I feel I made a rookie mistake by going into a book with such high expectations.

The Red House is the story about a well off physician, Richard, and his new family (recently married a woman with a sixteen year old daughter) taking a vacation. Richard invites his sister Angela and family to join them as they hadn’t seen each other since the funeral of their mother, fifteen years ago. Angela’s husband Dominic and three children are not as well off as Richard and took advantage of the offer as they wouldn’t be able to afford a vacation any other way. Together for a week in a rented cottage in Wales starts to show the cracks in everyone’s relationship and exposes just how dysfunctional the family really is.

Mark Haddon is contently switching between narrators in this book, I think I counted eight different points of views throughout this book (might be more) and one of those was an all-seeing third person narrative. With the narrative always changing and each character only giving a glimpse of an insight, this book started off a little confusing and hard to keep track of all of the main characters. One thing I’ve found that Haddon did in this book as well as The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time that I really liked was that he wasn’t afraid to expose the inner voice of each character and allowing the reader an insight into the flaws and thoughts of each one of the characters. There were also a lot of references to pop-culture within this book that was quite enjoyable to read; especially all the references to each book the main characters were reading.

The Red House was actually a nice easy read and I was surprised how fast I got through this book; this could have been all the blank pages throughout the book. While I never really connected with this book the writing styles used throughout this book were interesting and almost experimental at times. Some of it worked and some of didn’t, I think Mark Haddon was overly confident when he wrote this book and it seemed to come through in the novel. I’m sure many people will love and enjoy this book and don’t let my opinion stop you from reading it. For me I struggled making that connection and I tried and tried to enjoy this book but it just didn’t quite get there.

This review was originally posted on my blog;
http://literary-exploration.com/2012/...(less)

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Apr 25, 2013 ·Karen· rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: brits, f2f-book-group-reads

Extreme speed dating

What’s on your iPod right now?
PING!
If you were a book title, what would you be?
PING!
What’s your worst memory from childhood?
PING!
Do you have any memories from childhood?
PING!
If you could own an owl, like Harry Potter’s Hedwig, what would you call it?
PING!
Why are you vegetarian? Why aren’t you vegetarian?
PING!
Is there anyone here who hasn’t tried to kiss Melissa?
PING!
What was the last message on your phone?
PING!
Can you make a rocket out of vinegar and bicarbonate of soda?
PING!...more

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Sep 17, 2012 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: england, fiction, family-relationships, sexuality, coming-of-age, dysfunctional-family

I liked the ride on this one a lot, though I can’t easily predict which friends would be equally pleased. There is a lot to be said about trusting a good chef to know what to serve. So one should release expectations before cracking this book. There is no wondrous Asperger savant kid in this one nor hapless and resilient man with a humorous Walter Mitty-like interior monologue. Here we get an extended dysfunctional English family (actually the families of two siblings) thrown together on a holid...more I liked the ride on this one a lot, though I can’t easily predict which friends would be equally pleased. There is a lot to be said about trusting a good chef to know what to serve. So one should release expectations before cracking this book. There is no wondrous Asperger savant kid in this one nor hapless and resilient man with a humorous Walter Mitty-like interior monologue. Here we get an extended dysfunctional English family (actually the families of two siblings) thrown together on a holiday in rural Wales and a lot of stream-of-consciousness among the 4 adults, three teenagers, and an 8-year old. There is little in the way of humor. Maybe this doesn’t seem a promising premise to many readers, but I felt it was quite a powerful slice of life with a lot of heart, wisdom, and interesting character development.

The magic for me lies in Haddon’s use of nearly equal perspectives from the minds of eight characters. Before you object to stream-of-consciousness writing based on your fill from so many masters of decades gone by, you have to admit that if a writer really wants to portray the life of a person, they have to at some level emulate the way their mind works. And if your inquiry reaches toward what a family means, then a book bent on recreation of the symphony of minds could have some attractions for you. But where is the grounding in this approach? The raw and personalized perceptions, the private hurts, the poisonous thoughts, and the secret desires in this ensemble quickly looks like it will spin this world out of control. Yet, even though each character is flawed and variously messed up with emotions of jealousy, grief, guilt, lust, religious yearnings, or despair (you name it, the whole human nine yards), each takes steps either to improve their situation or to vouchsafe a path to continue bumbling along, helped along through strife or cooperation with each other. It feels a little like development in a terrarium, a fertile microcosm of the human race.

I appreciated Kingsolver’s use of different family voices, young and old, to tell a tale from different perspectives in her “Poisonwood Bible”. There is some of that same pleasure in this book for me. In both books, when dark private realities come to light, there is eventually a surprising broad convergence on mutual understanding. For example, a mother obsesses over a stillborn child from 18 years ago and how it drives her to imagine the daughter alive and growing in the present. Her living daughter struggles to come to terms with her lesbian leanings and the undermining of her fundamentalist faith. Despite the tenuous nature of the family bonds and their limited doses of moral courage, the secrets are digested by the family and taken in stride. Haddon seems to be revealing how a family as a whole can be more than the sum of its parts.

I understand how some readers can be frustrated with a bit of a game Haddon plays when he doesn’t always identify the character who lies behind a particular thought process he unfurls. In Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway” or Joyce’s “Ulysses” you didn’t have such challenges. And sometimes an omniscient observer breaks through, which some might judge to detract from the realism of the immersion. I think these devices lighten the load a bit in the same way the Wizard of Oz did when he punctured Dorothy’s desperate bubble. Here are a couple of examples (or maybe they are from the mind of one of the characters; some scholar could enlighten me):

“One person looks around and sees a universe created by God who watches over its long unfurling, marking the fall of sparrows and listening to the prayers of his finest creation. Another person believes that life, in all its baroque complexity, is a chemical aberration that will briefly decorate the surface of a ball of rock spinning someone among a billion galaxies. And the two of them could talk for hours and find no great difference between each other, for neither set of beliefs makes us kinder or wiser.”

“Time speeds up….A day becomes an hour, becomes a minute, becomes a second. …Buildings inhabit the earth, growing like spores, sending out tubers, seeding new towns, new villages, new cities till they all are drowned in sand or jungle.”
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Jul 18, 2012 Maya Panika rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Once again Mark Haddon demonstrates his remarkable ability to hone tight, true and fascinating glimpses of humanity through the simplest and most mundane of situations. The Red House is enjoyably engaging, with a deep dark undercurrent; a beautiful blend of the mundane and esoteric in the most everyday of circumstances.

An extended family spend a first holiday together in a rural cottage. Estranged for 15 years, Richard and his sister Angela meet again at their mother's funeral, then Richard invi...more Once again Mark Haddon demonstrates his remarkable ability to hone tight, true and fascinating glimpses of humanity through the simplest and most mundane of situations. The Red House is enjoyably engaging, with a deep dark undercurrent; a beautiful blend of the mundane and esoteric in the most everyday of circumstances.

An extended family spend a first holiday together in a rural cottage. Estranged for 15 years, Richard and his sister Angela meet again at their mother's funeral, then Richard invites Angela and her family to share a family holiday near Hay on Wye. The Red House is a ship of fools story in which not very much happens on the outside, inside the heads of the characters lies a whole other world; everyone - of course - has a secret, a trauma, everyone has their own demons to exorcise and to say more about any one of them would be to spoil.

As so often with Haddon's work, it's the child who has all the best lines. 8 year old Benji - 'a kind of boy-liquid which had been poured into whatever space he happened to be occupying' - is the most engaging and likeable character. Refreshingly honest, Benji serves as the Voice of naïve Truth amidst the secrets, lies and double-dealings of the adult's interactions. An omniscient point-of-view takes us into the minds of each character as an individual, and Haddon's trademark misunderstandings - each individual never truly sees the motivation of any of the others - run like a dark thread through the intricate tapestry of the whole, emphasising the solitude of each human existence.

Everything is graced by Haddon's astonishing writing. The detail of a week in a Welsh cottage, blighted by rain and unrelieved boredom, is exquisitely described: 'Scrabble, a tatty box in some drawer, a pack of fifty-one playing cards, a pamphlet from a goat farm.'
`Cooling towers and sewage farms... Seventy miles per hour, the train unzips the fields. Two gun-grey lines beside the river's meander. Flashes of sun on the hammered metal. Something of steam about it, even now. Hogwarts and Adelstrop. The night mail crossing the border... That train smell, burning dust, hot brakes, the dull reek of the toilets.'
'The bandage on the vicar's hand, that woman chasing her windblown hat between the headstones, the dog that belonged to no one.'

Nathaniel Parker's narration is wonderfully understated, each character comes through clearly defined without the need for 'voices', or over-dramatised characterisation. Sublime.

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Jul 10, 2012 Julie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2012, contemporary-fiction, british-isles-theme-setting

After attending several writing workshops in recent months, I've noted the popularity of fragmented, stream-of-consciousness writing among men of a certain demographic. White, aged somewhere between skinny hipster and the first thickening of the waistline, well-educated, enamored of morose, Sisyphean humor à la David Sedaris or, oh, let's say Mark Haddon. They write to a beat, disguising punchlines of angst in scattered phrases that connect like poetry but which strive to convey plot and charact...more After attending several writing workshops in recent months, I've noted the popularity of fragmented, stream-of-consciousness writing among men of a certain demographic. White, aged somewhere between skinny hipster and the first thickening of the waistline, well-educated, enamored of morose, Sisyphean humor à la David Sedaris or, oh, let's say Mark Haddon. They write to a beat, disguising punchlines of angst in scattered phrases that connect like poetry but which strive to convey plot and character. It sounds really cool when read aloud; you get lost in the riffs and the rhythms of postmodern paragraphs. But I'm not convinced it makes for good story.

When a writer of Mark Haddon's skill approaches a story using similar techniques, you can count on something pretty remarkable. For within the randomness of phrases, the phrases that fall away to ellipses, the ellipses that join ever changing points of view, you are presented with warm, nutty, tortured and scarily familiar characters.

And the characters are what I adore about The Red House. In his latest take on Tolstoy's famous "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way" Haddon reunites a mildly-estranged sister and brother in a house hidden in a remote Welsh valley. For the week's holiday at "The Red House," the siblings bring their spouses and children. Everyone's emotional baggage is packed tight with hang-ups, hurts, secrets and silliness.

The children sparkle with complexity and empathy. Their individual storylines and the prickly and sweet ways the author brings the characters together and plays them against each other rings true. I'm far less enamored of the relationships between the spouses, but the interactions between siblings- and spouses-in-law are hilarious and painful - hilariously painful - because they are so real. How awkward and anxious we are with those whom we are forced by blood or marriage to spend time. How often they are people we would never choose to befriend, but we have to figure out a way to love them, all the same. Haddon is a master of making readers fall in love with his characters, despite our better judgment.

There is no central protagonist or narrator of The Red House. The points of view shift rapidly between the four adults, three teenagers and an eight year old boy. Haddon explores their thoughts and in doing so, reveals their characters. It's not difficult to keep up or make the switch between voices; rather, it's a thrill being on the Haddon emotional rollercoaster.

But honestly, the fragmented paragraphs, the jittery sentences, the lists, book excerpts, the contents of a second-hand shop just don't work for me. Fortunately, Haddon eases up on the clutch as the book continues, and the jerky ride smoothes out, but I admit to a fair amount of skimming through these bits. They're boring. They read like those "Now, let's share our work with the class," moments when the bespectacled software designer wearing threadbare checked Vans spins out his clever three hundred word response to a writing prompt. It sounds just awesome, but is utterly incomprehensible and bears no resemblance to a story.

I'd go for 3 1/2 stars here. It's a good read. You can sift out the pretentious parts if you'd like. They aren't my thing, but they may be yours. The rest, we'll probably agree, is purt near pitch perfect.

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Mar 20, 2012 Lindsay (Little Reader Library) rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literary-fiction

I was genuinely thrilled to have the opportunity to read the new novel by Mark Haddon. Like millions I loved The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. I really enjoyed A Spot of Bother too.

I liked the idea behind this book. A brother and sister holiday together after their mother’s death, taking their children with them to spend a week in a rented holiday cottage on the Welsh border near Hay-on-Wye. The siblings, Angela and Richard, aren’t at all close, so we realise that this may be an...more I was genuinely thrilled to have the opportunity to read the new novel by Mark Haddon. Like millions I loved The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. I really enjoyed A Spot of Bother too.

I liked the idea behind this book. A brother and sister holiday together after their mother’s death, taking their children with them to spend a week in a rented holiday cottage on the Welsh border near Hay-on-Wye. The siblings, Angela and Richard, aren’t at all close, so we realise that this may be an uncomfortable week, and sit back with some relish to discover the clashes and confrontations that may occur in amongst the attempts at forced friendliness. There are eight characters in all, and the narrative brings together the thoughts and conversations of all eight of them. Angela and husband Dominic, and their three children, teenagers Alex and Daisy, and young Benjy, and Richard, and his new wife Louisa and her teenage daughter Melissa. There is also the additional character who features prominently in Angela’s thoughts, her stillborn daughter Karen.

In one sense the author’s use of so many different voices is a wonderful approach as it gives us eight different perspectives on things, eight very individual characters, all with their different anxieties and concerns for us to discover. We see how each of them interacts with the other family members when all suddenly thrust together at such close quarters for a week. For all of them, the time away sees them thinking about what is really happening in their lives, and exposes the realities of their lives, the shortcomings in their friendships and relationships; the truths behind things that are normally shelved away at the back of the mind during daily life come creeping to the fore here. There are some keen insights into how the generations view each other; there is one moment where teenager Daisy actually realises her mother is a human being, but only for a moment – she soon becomes just her mother again. And when Melissa, the same age as Daisy, realises that she hates something her father has suggested to her about her life, predominantly because she sees that it may well be true, and that is unbearable.

On the other hand, this number of perspectives makes for rather a disjointed narrative, jumping from one person to another sometimes every page or even more often. Additionally, the author has added in excerpts from books the characters are reading, mentions of the music they are listening to, aspects of the house’s history, which does add another dimension to the characters and the setting, but again halts the flow of the narrative significantly. Further, we have the character’s random thoughts about past events and people in their lives. There are also passages where there are various thoughts or ideas expressed in a ‘quick-fire’ way, a barrage of words hitting us.

It felt like the presiding view was a rather gloomy outlook on life and the world overall, which actually felt realistic and accurate to me; at the end of the day, this is what people are like, full of insecurities, regrets, anxieties, and the author captures that so well here.

It is a thought-provoking read, and it is perceptive, at times poignant and certainly insightful. I felt from reading the premise that I would love this story, and I jumped in eagerly. I very much admire anyone who can write a novel and I always hesitate to say I didn't love a book but somehow this one wasn’t quite a favourite for me despite many aspects of it which I admired.
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Aug 21, 2012 Sarah rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Unfortunately for those of us who loved The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Haddon's newest novel has little of the spirit, compassion, and basically none of the humor that the earlier book had. Haddon describes simple acts--driving through the countryside, eating a meal--and complex emotions--guilt, fear, anger--with prose both confusing and pretentious. Lists that disguise themselves as short chapters and a stubborn refusal to use quotation marks did not help.

I would have quit a...more

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Sep 18, 2012 Lormac rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The best way for me to review this book is to write the review like Haddon wrote this book – sort of a stream of consciousness flowing from the minds of the eight people in the house (of course, mine will just be from my mind, but I think you will get the idea):

“Taking your estranged relatives on a weeklong vacation in an isolated house is never a good idea; I can’t even imagine a week with my not-estranged relatives in this manner, and with only one car for all 8 people?!….Does every 18 year-ol...more

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Jun 24, 2012 Jason rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The first 40 pages were tedious and the next 60 were not much better, but after that the author seems to find a workable rhythm and attempts to figure out a novel's form for his ideas. One of the main problems is that Haddon seems to have graduated from the Bronte school of fiction and his use of descriptive adjectives is way beyond my ability to tolerate. I could have done without phrases like "The swill and chatter of water" on page 144 or "Bruised purple sky, wind like a train, the landscape...more

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Nov 15, 2012 Nlimprecht rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I loved the stream of consciousness--interior monologues interspersed with actual conversation--of the eight characters gathered together on holiday at the Red House: a long estranged brother and sister and their respective spouses and children. The book reminds me of Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury--especially given the fact that Haddon has incorporated the point of view of an eight-year-old boy (Benjy) within his narrative. (Haddon may well be paying tribute to the master, as Faulkner's nove...more

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May 31, 2013 Thelorax rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I found the narration style of this book a bit hard to read but i can't think of any other way in which this book could be portrayed. Although it is a bit hard to read the unique style really gives the reader a chance to look at all sides of the story and gives us a chance to sympathise with each of the characters individually. i found this book a very interesting read and a nice break from the other books i normaly read (ones which are more story orientated)but it's not the kind of book i would...more

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May 13, 2013 Rhiannon rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I loved "curious incident" and "spot of bother" and I couldn't wait to get my hands on Mark Haddon's New book, "the red house".

I have to say that I was disappointed by it. It did not deliver on humour, which I was fully expecting, and my immediate reaction to the prose was that it seemed as though Haddon was hoping for a book award of some sort with is arty fatty air. This was the work of someone who was just trying too hard. And it didn't work. I did not enjoy having to wade through various st...more

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May 11, 2013 Caroline Taggart rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It‘s said that someone once said to Joseph Heller that he had never written anything as good as Catch-22. ‘Who has?’ he replied. Mark Haddon is going to have the same problem throughout his career –not many people will ever write anything as good as The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time. Personally, I thought A Spot of Bother was underrated, but whether or not you liked that The Red House comes close to the achievement of A Curious Incident – and in a sense surpasses it by getting in...more

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May 09, 2013 Abe rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I had assumed that Haddon was a one-hit-wonder since The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime was such an unusual book, written entirely from the viewpoint of an autistic child. But this book indicates that he is something more than that, as he can write from the point of view of lots of different characters.

This is a simple story of a family vacation, a sister and her family and a brother and his meeting up in a Welsh country home for a week. Much like any family drama, everyone has the...more

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Apr 10, 2013 Brian Finnegan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Although I wasn't a huge fan of The Curious Incident, I loved Mark Haddon's second adult novel, A Spot of Bother. I think he is brilliant at writing the dynamics of family, the mixture of love, resentment, competition, annoyance and friendship that comes with having parents and siblings. While A Spot of Bother was quite comedic, and very moving, in its exploration of the breakdown of a parent, The Red Room is a much darker take on family dynamics altogether. But it's nonetheless gripping and bea...more

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Apr 10, 2013 Indiabookstore rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time came highly recommended and did not disappoint. Depending on how one approaches his latest offering, The Red House, one will either feel engaged or let down. The hovering presences and themes are still the same- death, family, a child’s mind, images, impressions- but the story, for the lack of a better word, is very different.

It would serve any reader best if he were to begin a book without looking for the framework of a story. To m...more

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Mar 05, 2013 Amy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

One of my favorite things in a book is really getting to see inside the minds of the character. This book is basically told through the eight characters in the story. Angela and her brother Richard are somewhat estranged, but make an attempt to get to know each other after the death of their mother, by spending a week together in a rented house in the country. Angela brings her husband and three kids and Richard brings his new wife and stepdaughter.

Each have their own "crises" they are dealing...more

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Jan 28, 2013 Oliver Hutton rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have been a fan of Mark Haddon since curious incident first came out. I saw that he had a third book coming out and, since I'd just been to see the play of curious, I was overjoyed to receive this book as a Christmas present.
If you enjoyed curious, then you're in for a shock with this book. Whilst curious had prose from an aspergers point of view, this seems to be from a poets. The imagery is startling and the prose bleak yet rich. Think Cormac McCarthy if he wrote a book about a family that...more

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Jan 21, 2013 Prom rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I will start with the good points. I finished reading it so now it gets to count toward my goal for the 2013 reading challenge. Seriously though...I picked up this book because it was in my recommendations. Im an avid reader and this was very difficult for me to read. Im not a "trendy" person or a "hipster" by any means (even though, Im pretty sure, trendy and hipster are the same thing) so maybe thats why I couldnt really grasp the 1)writing style, 2)character development, 3)existential ponderi...more

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Jan 17, 2013 Sue rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013

Although perhaps not as thoroughly satisfying as "The Curious Incident of the Dog" in the Nighttime," "The Red House" is nevertheless an enjoyable read. "The Curious Incident" focuses on one person, a child with Aspergers. By contrast, "The Red House" is narrated in a stream of consciousness through the eyes of all of its characters. Therein lies its flaw - not the stream of consciousness, but too many adults. Haddon is at his best when writing about and through the eyes of children.
The best cha...more

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Jan 03, 2013 Shweta rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: family-issues, got-an-arc-to-review

I have to admit that I hadn’t read Mark Haddon’s debut so I went into this book without any expectations. Somehow that worked for me. The beginning sounded exactly like a family drama which would be fodder for future TV mini series or something akin to that but as I continued reading I realized that this book was more of a character study. Each character is detailed so lucidly that by the end of it all you are glad that you knew them.

When the story begins you have a doctor and his estranged sist...more

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Dec 29, 2012 Sheri rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime a few years ago and loved it. Recently, my husband read it and also loved it. I was ebrowsing and stumbled on this and got very excited...I didn't know Mark Haddon had written anything else. Yippee! Turns out I was overexcited. I now know that he has also written Spot of Bother (and will probably read that but with lower expectations).

I spent this entire novel thinking about Stewart O'Nan's Wish You Were Here (which I read a few years back...more I read the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime a few years ago and loved it. Recently, my husband read it and also loved it. I was ebrowsing and stumbled on this and got very excited...I didn't know Mark Haddon had written anything else. Yippee! Turns out I was overexcited. I now know that he has also written Spot of Bother (and will probably read that but with lower expectations).

I spent this entire novel thinking about Stewart O'Nan's Wish You Were Here (which I read a few years back and so have not adequately reviewed). As I remember it, O'Nan does it much better (I still have images from that book in my head and the pain/frustration/angst that he evoked with his inter-family dynamics was remarkable). That said, I suppose I should move on to actually reviewing this book.

The set up for Red House is a family vacation in a remote cottage (The Red House) in Wales. Richard is paying and he brings his new wife and her 16 year old daughter (both of whom have only met his family once, at his mother's recent funeral). Angela (his sister) brings her worthless husband and her three kids, along with the ghost/memory of her eldest child who was stillborn over 18 years ago (the 18th anniversary of Karen's due date occurs during the trip).

The characters are entertaining and the premise is okay. Everything is very Chekovian (no one really cares about anyone else, they are all thinking of their own issues/desires in each interaction and talking past each other), as are most real family interactions. I didn't mind the stream of consciousness writing style; the characters were different enough that it was fairly easy to tell in whose mind we were currently peering.

Ultimately, I think my biggest complaint was that nothing really happened. I just finished reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (arguably nothing happens there) and maybe my expectations for a character piece were high, but this just felt like a rambling description, rather than a story. There isn't much growth in the characters (although what could happen in a week?) with the sole exception of Richard's realization that he should need Louisa. I don't think he necessarily does need her (after all he admits to not even really remembering her existence during his hypothermic run), but he realizes he should.

Daisy's "growth" is that she realizes she is not a Bible-thumping annoying Christian freak, but a lesbian instead. Although on page 24 (during the first SOC from Daisy's POV) she says, "It wasn't about believing this or that, it wasn't about good and evil and right and wrong, it was about finding the strength to bear the discomfort that came with being in the world." So, does she really change all that much or does she discover a new way to find strength in the world?

Dominic briefly considers ending his affair with Amy and taking a more active role in his life and his family's life, but then he does not speak to Daisy when he has the chance, he does not go after Alex to explain anything and ultimately he is ready to return to the status quo.

Louisa is simply a trophy wife; she briefly gets angry at Richard and then just withers to acknowledge that she needs him and at least he doesn't treat her like shit.

Melissa is mean spirited and self centered and while she briefly has remorse for her treatment of Daisy and she acknowledges that she is afraid of kindness, ultimately she fucks Alex just to (figuratively) spit in his face and show her superiority to him.

Benjy doesn't change and doesn't see much, he is sort of the court jester throughout. Alex also doesn't do much outside of his world. He is just the nice guy plodding through and thinking about sex.

Angela also doesn't change in essence, although her psychosis gets worse. It is unclear if she suffers from the same mental disease/stroke? that her mother had or if she is just mourning Karen.

Overall, it was okay. Not fabulous, not terrible, just sort of middling.(less)

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Dec 06, 2012 Johara rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 52-books-2012

Tedious. There is no other way to describe this book than tedious. I hated it.If the cover wasn't so heartbreakingly gorgeous I would have thrown it onto a wall, cackling evily while it slammed into a solid mass of cement and (hopefully) getting a dent in the spine. Gasp. I know. That's vicious.

Anyway. Imagine the Memory Keeper's Daughter. Have you imagined it? Great. Add a couple of more utterly self-absorbed whiny characters, a plotline that goes absolutely nowhere, and a few crude references...more

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Dec 02, 2012 Susan rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Nov 27, 2012 Leila rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I adored A Spot of Bother and of course, fell in love with The Curious Case... This book I was highly anticipating because I thought I would really enjoy it. However, be forewarned-it is cold and dry with none of the spark, humor, or likability of either of his previous novels. If youre like me, whatever drew you to his other books or created such sympathy with both the characters and their circumstances you will not find those qualities here. I liked none of the characters, felt zero comradery...more

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Nov 20, 2012 Cristine Eastin rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I don't like to say negative things about authors' work because they work so hard at it—but if I can spare you the time it takes to read this, I've done you a favor. Unless—you're reading it for a class assignment—in which case, carry on—you're probably reading it to learn something about the creative use of words.
So, let me say the nice thing first: Haddon writes in "proetry"—prose as poetry. Some of his descriptions, such as an approaching storm, are stunning.
The main problem I have with this...more

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Nov 15, 2012 Shonna Froebel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This novel takes place over a week. Richard and his sister Angela have had little contact in recent years. Richard paid for his mother's nursing home and Angela visited her weekly. At the funeral of his mother, Richard is struck by the fact that this is his family and invites Angela and her family on a country vacation in Wales with his wife and stepdaughter.
Richard's wife Louisa feels that her working class background means she must work harder to please Richard by following his high culture in...more

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Nov 09, 2012 Alex Templeton rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

4.5 stars. After my last book, a wacky story about a terrorist who takes over a wedding, I thought I'd immerse myself in a nice, predictable, dysfunctional-family-goes-on-holiday read. I was unprepared for what I got, and at first, even put off, but by the time I finished this novel, I was full of admiration for it. It's been floating around in my head for the past few days since I've finished it. It IS about a dysfunctional family that goes on holiday together, but it is much more serious than...more

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Nov 03, 2012 Jane rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Red House can be engaging, especially if you like stream-of-consciousness writing and paragraphs made up of lists. The story is like a three-legged stool, with two of the legs being adult siblings Angela and Richard who try rekindling (or kindling?) their familial relationship after their mother dies. The third leg is the interesting and flawed characters who make up the family unit and how the interact with each other living in a house together on a week-long holiday. Or maybe the third leg...more

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About Mark Haddon

Mark Haddon is a British novelist and poet, best known for his 2003 novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. He was educated at Uppingham School and Merton College, Oxford, where he studied English.

In 2003, Haddon won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award and in 2004, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize Overall Best First Book for his novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-t...more

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The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

The Talking Horse and the Sad Girl and the Village Under the Sea: Poems

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“It wasn't about believing this or that, it wasn't even about good and evil and right and wrong, it was about finding the strength to bear the discomfort that came with being in the world.” — 7 people liked it

“You could ask for hugs if you were feeling sad or you'd hurt yourself, but when it happened spontaneously it made you feel warm inside.” — 4 people liked it

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