The Giant's House: A Romance (P.S.)
by Elizabeth McCracken
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The first time I read this book I kept copying chunks of the words into my journal. The language dazzled me - not so much the plot or the characters - but McCracken's way with words.
" I am a librarian, and you cannot stop me from annotating, revising, updating. I like to think that--because I am a librarian--I offer accurate and spurious with no judgment, good and bad next to each other on the shelf. But my memories are not books. Blessing if they were. Then maybe someone would borrow...more
" I am a librarian, and you cannot stop me from annotating, revising, updating. I like to think that--because I am a librarian--I offer accurate and spurious with no judgment, good and bad next to each other on the shelf. But my memories are not books. Blessing if they were. Then maybe someone would borrow...more
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I love "The Giant's House" for various reasons and I feel that this is probably one of the best books I've read in a long, long time. The reason I give this novel such high praise is simple: It's a wonderful book written by a talented author.
What first drew me to this book was the characters in the story. I could sympathize with the young book because I too grew up being taller that most kids my age and I also sought comfort at the library. I could too relate to the librarian who a...more
What first drew me to this book was the characters in the story. I could sympathize with the young book because I too grew up being taller that most kids my age and I also sought comfort at the library. I could too relate to the librarian who a...more
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Read in May, 2008
"Space is the chief problem. Books are a bad family-there are those you love, and those you are indifferent o; idiots and mad cousins who you would banish except others enjoy their company; wrongheaded but fascinating eccentrics and dreamy geniuses; orphaned grandchildren; and endless brothers-in-law simply taking up space who you wish you could send straight to hell. Except you can't, for the the most part. You must house them and make them comfortable and worry about them when they go ...more
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Read in January, 2006
recommends it for:
anyone who wants a good cry
What I like about this book: untraditional love story; love and loss; tragedy; loneliness; social outcasts.
A young librarian's sympathy for an 11-year-old boy with giantism turns into an earnest love. At the heart of the story is the concept that we each have our afflictions---some more obvious than others (giantism vs shyness)---but all impact lives equally.
For me, I am especially touched by this; I suppose this is a result of working with people with both mental and physical disab...more
A young librarian's sympathy for an 11-year-old boy with giantism turns into an earnest love. At the heart of the story is the concept that we each have our afflictions---some more obvious than others (giantism vs shyness)---but all impact lives equally.
For me, I am especially touched by this; I suppose this is a result of working with people with both mental and physical disab...more
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This is supposed to be a love story. It turns out it's a story about a reserved librarians obsession with an extremely tall boy. The author's idea of what love is does not agree with my own (at one point the librarian is talking about how she loved every single part of him - right down to his poo. Yes, that actually gets said in the book).
Her love for the giant also causes her to sleep with his father so she can get pregnant w/ a son who has the Giant's genes. Then, she tells everyone's it'...more
Her love for the giant also causes her to sleep with his father so she can get pregnant w/ a son who has the Giant's genes. Then, she tells everyone's it'...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in February, 2008
I've become increasingly interested in reading about (or watching reality TV or documentaries about) people who are distinctly different from me-- or so I think.
McCracken has a clear voice and her subject matter is thoroughly intriguing. But in terms of a romance, this book fell a tad flat for me. I think it relates to the narrator's perspective.
It's a relatively fast read, however, and giantism is something I've virtually never given thought to, while I have as of late been very intrig...more
McCracken has a clear voice and her subject matter is thoroughly intriguing. But in terms of a romance, this book fell a tad flat for me. I think it relates to the narrator's perspective.
It's a relatively fast read, however, and giantism is something I've virtually never given thought to, while I have as of late been very intrig...more
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I guess I picked this up because I was drawn to the idea of a platonic love affair between two very unlikely people...and I wanted to know where it would lead. Also, it's just a unique idea for a story and I always gravitate towards those rather than standard best sellers. I did really enjoy this book...the character development, the unlikely relationship between two people, the tragedy in the ending. I'm guessing this book isn't for everybody because though platonic, the idea of a grown woman f...more
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Read in February, 2008
recommended to Jen by:
some c-wordrecommends it for: heartful people
Since this book really falls between "I liked it" and "I really liked it," I wish I could give 3 1/2 stars. This is a dilemma I've found when rating other books within the confines of this 5-star system. Why is life so goddamn hard.
Anyway, I decided to err on the side of being less critical and more heartful (It's a word. Don't look it up. It hasn't yet been recognized by the powers that be because I haven't yet submitted it to the Word Peeps for consideration) where sta...more
Anyway, I decided to err on the side of being less critical and more heartful (It's a word. Don't look it up. It hasn't yet been recognized by the powers that be because I haven't yet submitted it to the Word Peeps for consideration) where sta...more
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so far i'm learning what it must feel like to be looked at as a freak or so different than others. There is a seperateness between James (the giant) and everyone else. Although he makes friends easy enough, he is treated as if fragile as though he might break. He is not really appreciated for his mind by anyone other than the main character Pegggy, the local librarian. I relate somewhat to her in her love of knowledge, her love of sharing knowledge with others. She loves researching things and i...more
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Read in September, 2007
The Giant's House is a romance in the way that Citizen Kane is about a guy who collects statues. It is and it isn't--it's a deeply felt, but never sentimental, look at two people exiled from the world around them in different ways and the means by which they connect and shape each other. It's sometimes chilly, but only because the narrator, a lonely woman who has absolutely no ability to expect anything out of life, sometimes tries to bury the ferocity of her heart beneath observation and dist...more
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Read in May, 2008
This book was so wildly, inexplicably....meh. I wanted to love it. I really did. But I couldn't get wrapped up in the main characters -- they weren't very compelling at the end of the day. And when there is little plot or action, plus weak characters, you're in trouble. I will say that there were small vignettes within the story that I enjoyed -- their trip to New York, James playing with his niece -- but I found it strange that the most interesting and well-thought out characters were the suppo...more
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Read in January, 2003
recommends it for:
anyone!
I am in love with Ripley's Believe it or Not and Guinness Book of Records. I have always lamented that there are so few books about the people you meet in Ripley's and Guinness. This is a FICTION book but it kinda filled the void that I was feeling for a non-fiction book like that. Also, alot of what happens to the giant in this book is very like the life of Robert Pershing Wadlow, the World's Tallest Man. Also, the lives of other so called "freaks" were obviously well-researched and m...more
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recommends it for:
anyone with a soul
McCracken writes her way into the literary Hall of Fame with this insanely good book about "one overage virgin and one oversized boy" (from 'The New Yorker' review).
Here's a bit from when Peggy Cort, the so-called overage virgin and full-time town librarian, finds a book on magic tricks for James Carlson Sweatt, the town's boy giant:
"His fingers kept slowly snatching at nothing, as if he had already made dozens of things disappear, rabbits and cards and rubber balls and ...more
Here's a bit from when Peggy Cort, the so-called overage virgin and full-time town librarian, finds a book on magic tricks for James Carlson Sweatt, the town's boy giant:
"His fingers kept slowly snatching at nothing, as if he had already made dozens of things disappear, rabbits and cards and rubber balls and ...more
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Read in May, 2008
so this book made me feel complicated. i was a little freaked out by the way older lady, young dying boy romance thing. but if i ignored the fact that this woman had been pining for this kid since he was 12(!)... i really liked this book. i felt like the author did a fairly good job of discussing how able-bodied people make folks with disabilities in this country feel like they are completely on display as was very apparent with this man's situation. i related to the protaganist in how she felt ...more
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Read in June, 2008
On the up side, the author's writing style is easy and flowing, and this is a good read. On the down side, I found the story perverse and, at times, just plain distasteful. I did not hate the book; I just did not particularly like it. You do not have to like the characters in a story to find the story compelling, but you ought to at least be able to understand the characters--their motives and desires, etc. In my view, the main narrating character in this story fails entirely on that count. I wo...more
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Hmm, don't know how to quite describe this book..slow, some charm, sad, painful, I would read a bit then go about my business feeling VERY SLOW. It's not a gripper, but it did have some very painful reality of being single that most of us can remember and relate to. They did give the main female character more humor at the end which I apprecitated. All in all, just eh-with some good moments thrown in. I still apprecitate anyone that can get coherent words down in a book and tell a story.
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Read in October, 2007
recommends it for:
librarians and romantics
Though I really wanted to like this book, and enjoyed aspects of it (especially the essential librarianality of the narrator) I also found parts of it unpalatable. Though it is romantic to think of one person giving themselves up fully and completely to another, I grow tired of the idea that a woman needs a man (even if that man is a giant)to realize herself. The book is engaging and dips a bit into magical realism, but there was something lacking that I haven't quite put my finger on.
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Read in June, 2008
S-L-O-W. In one word, that's what this book was for me. There was absolutely no suspense. In fact, the author tells you within the first 50 pages what's going to happen to the main characters in the end, so at that point, why continue? The portrayal of the lonely spinster librarian was so cliche. Her behavior at the end of the book is out of character and utterly ridiculous. There are plenty of other great stories about people with disabilities--feel free to skip this one.
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Read in May, 2008
recommended to emi by:
Julierecommends it for: non-librarians
Being a librarian myself, I take great issue with the "lonely, cranky, pathetic" librarian stereotype. Which is exactly what McCracken goes with as her main character, so that's pretty much the only reason I didn't enjoy this book more. It's like "I can call my wife ugly, but YOU can't call my wife ugly". I loved all the other characters in this book, and she uses some AMAZING metaphors that really cracked me up, so I'd totally be happy to read other works of hers.
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Read in January, 2008
This book is crazy. Much as I really could never buy the premise (older librarian falls in love with young, very tall boy--and when Katie Dahl doesn't love a love story with an age differential, you know something truly bizarre is going on), I also could not get over how much I loved the metaphors and the writing style. I plan on reading more Elizabeth McCracken, especially since her name makes such a good verb in everyday conversation--"Gotta get McCracken"--etc.
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