The Household Spirit

by Tod Wodicka

In this remarkable novel, Tod Wodicka, author of All Shall Be Well; And All Shall Be Well; And All Manner of Things Shall Be Well, has crafted a luminous story of a most curious friendship.

There’s something wrong next door. At least, that’s what neighbors Howie Jeffries and Emily Phane both think. Since his daughter and wife moved out, Howie has been alone, an accidental recluse content with his fishing and his dreams of someday sailing away from himself on a boat. Emily couldn’t be more different: she’s irreverent, outgoing and seemingly well-adjusted. But when Emily returns from college to care for her dying grandfather, Howie can’t help but notice her increasingly erratic behavior—not to mention her newfound love of nocturnal gardening.

The thing is, although they’ve lived side by side in the only two houses on rural Route 29 in upstate New York since Emily was born, Howie and Emily have never so much as spoken. Both have their reasons: Howie is debilitatingly shy; Emily has been hiding the fact that she suffers from a nighttime affliction that makes her both terrified to go to sleep, and question the very reality of her waking life. It is only when tragedy strikes that their worlds, finally, become joined in ways neither of them could ever have imagined.

A poignant, big-hearted, and often humorous novel about two very unique individuals unceremoniously thrown together, The Household Spirit is a story about how little we know the people we see every day - and of the unexpected capabilities of the human heart.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Audiobook, Realistic Fiction

336 pages, Hardcover

First published June 4, 2015

About the author

Tod Wodicka's second novel, THE HOUSEHOLD SPIRIT was published by Pantheon and Jonathan Cape in June 2015.

His first novel, ALL SHALL BE WELL; AND ALL SHALL BE WELL; AND ALL MANNER OF THINGS SHALL BE WELL has been translated into Spanish, Dutch and German. It was shortlisted for The Believer Book Award. Wodicka's writing has appeared in the Guardian, Granta, Tank Magazine, South as a State of Mind, the National, Art Papers, AnOther Magazine, Amuse and the New Statesman.

Reviews

[August Rex · Rating 1 out of 5]

Seeing all of the 4 and 5 star ratings after reading something like this makes me completely lose faith in humanity and think the dinosaurs really were the superior species.

During the first chapter I kept looking around for sharp objects to stab this book to death with to kill its annoying factor. Some say it's quirky and weird. No, quirky and weird is like seeing that chubby baby at McDonald's trying to eat a big balloon while the mom does nothing about it. Slobber all over the kid's chin and balloon and the little bugger is just gumming away like Jaws.

This is Annoying and weird in that way the film school student who has body odor and collects his boogers in a jar asks you to participate in his film project about the effects of poetry and vaginal piercings on society.

It's almost like this book went so far out of its way to be weird that it forgot the basic concepts of plot and interest. Where is this going? is the question you're asking yourself every page and chapter. And the stake to the heart of any book: I'm not really interested anymore because it's so all over the place.

Some sentences in this book that made me want to find out where the author lived and encase his typing fingers in cement were:

'She'd heard him, but he hadn't made a noise.' =Uh, what?
'The book on his lap knew.' =Uh, what? My books typically don't know I'm even reading them.
'She resembled a bat, without looking like an actual bat.' Uh, Okay, I just want to punch you with a handful of forks.

Reading this I felt like perhaps I'd failed my parents expectations, that I was somehow guilty of something revolting like pooping my pants on the subway, and that I should start looking in the want-ads for a dominatrix that used a live snake instead of a bullwhip. At the very least, I'm going to need about 17 hours of therapy to get my sanity back to normal levels.

[Kasa Cotugno · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are two main characters in this book, who have lived side by side on Route 29 in upperstate New York, but have never communicated until forces throw them together. Howie has lived almost as a recluse ever since his wife left 20 years ago. His face, which she used to call "the last face on earth," gives a wrong impression of his gentle nature. So he finds it easier to just quietly exist on his own. Next door, Emily has returned home to nurse her ailing grandfather who had raised her on his own. This is not a romance between these two, but a discovery of the amplification of their natures and an exploration of how to step out into the world. Other characters are truly original, the landscape is almost a character itself, and Route 29 maintains its identity throughout. Yes, I loved this book.

[Laurie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Everybody is weird to some degree, and with their own flavor of weird. Howard Jeffries and Emily Phane happen to be further-much further- along the weird continuum than most. They have lived next door to each other since Emily was new born, but have never interacted. Howard is pathologically shy and nearly incapable of showing- or perhaps of having- emotions. Emily has night terrors and is afraid of becoming close to others.

Living on an isolated stretch of highway in upstate New York, theirs are the only two houses for a distance. Howard is 50, divorced, and thinks about fishing a lot. Emily is in her twenties, and home from college to care for her grandfather after he has a brutal stroke. Peppy is the only family Emily has; her mother and grandmother were killed in an auto accident when Emily was tiny and her father was never a part of the picture. Losing her grandfather pushes Emily past the point that her fragile ego can handle; when she accidentally sets fire to her house, Howard is forced to come to her rescue, bringing her into his house to recover. They end up in an odd codependent friendship as each draws the other reluctantly out. Their odd relationship is disrupted when Howard’s daughter, Harri, who is the same age as Emily, comes crashing back into Howard’s life. She’s rarely been around since Howard’s divorce, and the reason why she’s back just about breaks Howard’s mind. Her presence forces a change that sets the odd pair back on their own separate roads to living life.

I had a hard time getting into this book; if it hadn’t been from the Vine program I probably would have given up halfway through. I’m glad I kept going, because the ending is pretty cool. I had problems with the characters – not with who they were, but how they were presented. The two main characters have pretty much zero self awareness. The secondary characters are basically props that force the protagonists to react in certain ways. Harri has no real personality (and she had a lot of potential) and we never see why she did the things she did. Likewise, we don’t get much insight into Emily’s boyfriend. He is simple a Good Guy, as Harri is a Disrupter. In the end, it’s all about how Emily and Howard watch over each other, like the household spirits of the ancients that protected families.

[latner3 · Rating 5 out of 5]

"It sounded as if it was coming from the screens,from deep inside Emily's memory of home: a door opening, a blizzard, and the joy of a little girl shouting, "Daddy!"

[Naaytaashreads]

[ DNF ]

I had to DNF this because I just can't.
It's too dry. It feels like the story wasn't going anywhere. It wasn't for me.

[Tensy (bookdoyen) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The main characters in this novel personify the term weird. Yes, you could argue that in a sense, "aren't we all weird?", but if you put a bunch of people on a "weird" continuum these two, Emily and Howie, would be be at the far end of the spectrum. The novel is beautifully written and makes you really care about these people and you keep hoping that they will intersect and help each other out of the weird dimension they are inhabiting. My only complaint is with the ending. It felt rushed after the glacial pace of the rest of the novel, although the art exhibit at the end was a fitting metaphor for Howie's languid state. Yes, this novel really is OK!

[Tara Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a gentle, funny, poignant story about a unique friendship. The multi-generational aspect of it startled me initially, but I think that's because books are so much grief/violence porn nowadays, or sugary sweet, that to read something that isn't an extreme was a surprise. A serendipity one.

I don't agree with some of the comments here that felt the characters were 'too quirky.' I don't think the book was trying at all. I felt the characters were all people I knew, or could know, with real problems and interactions that felt truthful.

It's a quiet book, and a beautiful one. I love Howie. I feel like I've lost a friend closing the covers.

[Daniela Ritchie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the two main characters and there were some great lines in this novel, but ultimately I like a book with a good story and there wasn't really one in this. So, unfortunately I got bored and gave up.

[Roland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worth waiting for.

[Carol · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not like this book well enough to finish it...

[Carrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a curious, odd, and touching couple of characters. Don't know quite what to make of them all, but really enjoyed this read. There's some wonderful sentences in there.

[Marvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel, like Wodicka's first one, is tough to assess. As in that first one, too, he takes a dysfunctional character--well, actually, two this time--and makes him/them endearing. One of these dysfunctional characters is comfortable in his own skin but has extreme difficulty facing social interactions; the other is comfortable enough in the social world (though unable to get close enough to anyone to be anyone's best friend) but is uncomfortable with herself and, as a result (or, as a cause) has a severe sleep disorder. Eventually, they (sort of) save each other. It's an endearing, touching story but one that often left me laughing aloud in recognition of the difficulties people face in dealing with an extremely shy person. Just for the record, too, Wodicka employs the oddest similes and metaphors: for example, "Mr. Jeffries . . . was a powerful hum, like a refrigerator filled with police"; and "The forest wheezed around him like laughing gas." This wonderfully strange novel is certainly not for everyone--it develops very slowly and never has much of a plot--but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book. I liked the idea of these 2 people, each with their own flaws and troubles finding a way to help one another with those troubles. And though it took awhile to get there, the book did reach a point where that seemed to be slowly happening. And at that point, I was ready for the book to move along in the same fashion to a satisfying ending. But for me, that isn't what happened. Instead the story took an abrupt turn and started hurtling down a fast rocky hill where nothing seemed to make sense anymore. And while things happened at the end that should have felt satisfying to the reader, I felt cheated out of seeing how we reached that point. A quick few lines describing all we missed just didn't seem like enough given the slow start we slogged through to reach the point where the characters even came together in life. So ultimately, I gave it 2 stars because it held promise for me in the middle of the story. I just wish it delivered the end to us in a different way.

[M. Meyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hopefully my computer won't eat it again. I was very frustrated with the slow development of this book. I abandoned it in frustration yesterday afternoon. I finished it this morning. I understand after reading the entire book that slow motion was part of the story. That didn't make it less frustrating. I meant to skip over a chunk of it, but I didn't do that either.

My favorite passage: ...His house appeared to be homemade. Made, it seemed, quite literally, haphazardly, from square chunks of other homes. It was unlike anything that Howie had ever seen. He imagined that the house had started way at the top of the mountain and tumbled down like a snowball, growing larger, collecting and subsuming other houses along the way. Probably there were entire wings of the structure, full of other men's children, wives, pets.

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is fundamentally about being known. How there are moments where we are seen by someone and it’s almost like not having skin. But it’s also impossible to maintain that without huge amounts of effort into finding words and learning to communicate. Two people find themselves knowing and known and try to stand still as long as they can. It’s not romantic. Both characters are neurodivergent and find getting words out of their heads difficult, but together they learn how to a bit more and it’s enough to build other relationships. That drop of encouragement that ripples through your whole life.

It reminds me a bit of The Curious Case of the Dog in the Nighttime, since you get pulled into a perspective that doesn’t react or process human interactions typically. It helped me understand my Dad and my daughter.

It’s fun, absurd, atypical and beautiful.

[Kerry]

In Tod Wodicka’s novel, The Household Spirit, neighbors of over twenty years get to know one another after a death, and the bonds they form transform them. Peopled with odd characters, this story has a heart with a quirky heartbeat. The male lead, Howie, is shy and has some facial differences, but I get the impression he might be autistic or possessed some other neurological difference. He’s middle aged, the divorced dad of a college age young woman. When the elderly neighbor dies and his caretaker, an erratic young woman about the age of Howie’s daughter, Howie finds some of her behavior troubling. For her part, the grieving young woman can’t sleep without experiencing night terrors. She loves plants, though, and finds them soothing. These two help one another until Howie’s artistic daughter shows up. This story shows how interconnected lives can become.

[Janet Ramski · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't often rate a book with only 2 stars but I'm not sure this one even deserved one! I did finish it, if only because I'd become connected to Mr Jefferies, at least. I was hoping for some sort of interesting ending, but just when things started happening, BLAM! He quickly and unrealistically wrapped it all up! What, did his editor demand he reach deadline?
So what happened to Emily's condition? Why did her boyfriend take her back? How in the world did Howie let Rho marry him? What the heck happened to Harriet's attitude? What HAPPENED????
It was tidied up way too neatly, with no rhyme or reason. I was very disappointed, because basically all the conflicts in the storyline just evaporated with no explanation. I'm sorry I invested 2 days into this book.

[May Borati · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not an easy book. It’s not for everyone. It reads as if there was barely any editing and the author just bled her thoughts all over the pages. The characters are complicated to the point that there are barely any redeeming qualities to them until you get deep in the story. But it’s no less excellent for those things. The novel is compelling, enthralling, a nicely woven and seemingly endless web of mysteries and concepts that drag you back and forth over and over again, and I loved every bit of it. The final chapters are messy and beautiful and wrapped the story perfectly, and I was left hoping this book was much longer.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book, but once I finished it I missed all the people in it instantly. The friendship that forms between Emily and Mr. Jeffries is really unexpected and makes you almost uncomfortable for them as it plays out, but you quickly start to love it just like they do. Poor, weird Mr. Jeffies, his crappy child, his weird relationship with everyone he naturally shouldn't even want to be friends with... he is an odd man! Emily Phane struggles with unseen monsters and the weird guy next door that wants to be unseen is the only one who can help her. Definitely read it, it is a slow start but you won't regret it.

[Bancha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, I like strange and this one fit the bill.

Awkward, uneasy, charming, warm hearted, disturbing—the author takes all this and writes with expressive, sometimes odd quotable language. An unexpected story of eccentricity, pain, frailties, and need. It is full of tiny, heartbreaking revelations—unique, surprising.

This book has darkly humorous moments even though I would not consider it comic.
An unlikely friendship between a middle-aged man –sort of a Jack Nicholson curmudgeon character with a deep seated anti-social type of inability to function in the social world (and other fears of life)…and his much younger female neighbor who suffers from sleep paralysis and dramatic disturbing night terrors (and other fears of life). They are two individuals who are struggling—each on their own—until they connect.
The connection they come to make—the way they have something to offer each other-(a refreshingly completely platonic relationship, by the way)-the ability to support each other’s deficits and really only start to enjoy life because they support each other the way they do—these reasons for their friendship, is what is out of the ordinary---they save each other and themselves from falling over the edge of life. Living next door to each other—regarding each other uneasily before coming to rely on each other completely. This book reminds us of how little we know the people we see every day. Touching, sweetly awkward and surprising, a human connection kind of read.

[Jennifer Trimble · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a story about a man and a young woman that lived next door to each other. The man,Howie,was a divorced lonely man but he seemed content with his life. The young woman, Emily, was grieving her grandfather that passed away. It took half of the length of this book to get to the interesting bits, but I did enjoy it. It was a bizarre story, but the writing was very good. I can't explain what made it bizarre without giving everything away. If you like books that meander on for a long time, like I do, then you'll like this book. If you need a more fast paced plot, definitely don't read this.

[Vicki A · Rating 2 out of 5]

The characters in this book drew no sympathy from me and it was hard to read this book to the end. I found it surprising that Howie even had friends that stuck by him for years when he was such a difficult and unfriendly sort. The two young women in this novel were so dysfunctional and unlikable and I thought that maybe they might redeem themselves but no. By the end i just rushed through to get it over with. Not an enjoyable or thought provoking read at all.

[Ginni · Rating 2 out of 5]

Page 100 and reading this is like watching paint dry. On to some other book for me!

[Mary Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit on the strange side but so good. Funny sad wierd it had it all

[Angela · Rating 2 out of 5]

Much, much too long. Two people saved each other for a very short time. The end.

[Olivia Simmonds · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF @20%. I was not liking the themes in this book and I felt like I didn't want to keep pushing through it.

[Eli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like many other readers, I found this book difficult to get into. The Household Spirit is a story (without much plot) that ponders over the lives of two eccentric characters whose lives become entwined for the briefest of moments. Wodicka used this character study to produce a few poignant sentiments through his sometimes strangely captivating style. I enjoyed the second half of the book more than the first.

[Catherine (The Gilmore Guide to Books) · Rating 4 out of 5]

In The Household Spirit, on a rural road in upstate New York, there sit two identical houses inhabited by two people who are anything but identical. Howie Jeffries is fifty-years old and has lived alone in his house since he and his wife divorced twenty years ago. He is a man with a huge heart wrapped in a persona of extreme shyness and an exterior that is so dour when he does smile it makes small children cry. He is not an angry man, just one who finds the outside world perplexing.

He was not, he knew, an unhappy man…You treat folks like you expect to be treated back. Howie had never found a good or bad reason to believe in God and believed only that things were getting too noisy and that most people were insane.

Emily Phane is a young woman mysterious in her dysfunction. Yes, she was raised by her grandfather with little contact with children her own age but it is a loving relationship. She has no friends or social life, no one but her grandfather so she is misaligned with the rest of the world and takes refuge in plants. It is only when she goes to college in Boston that she starts to create a life of her own but this is cut short when her grandfather becomes ill and she returns home.

You can read the rest of this review at The Gilmore Guide to Books: http://wp.me/p2B7gG-14l

[Stephen Hickman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I struggled to find the rhythm of this book in the first quarter but there was enough to encourage me to persevere. The book really has two main characters in Howie Jeffries and Emily Phane and I liked them both when they were thrown together, two dysfunctional personalities that are able to make sense of each other and help the other emerge. It is somewhat fanciful but both characters are well drawn and that overcomes a location and plot that are not quite right but oddly appropriate at the same time. The middle quarters I found compelling but the wrapping up was uneccesary and rather spoiled what was a quite unique story with a bit of a "they lived happily ever after" saccharine finish. I found Howie's daughter and her professor lover predictable antagonists and again not quite right, but you cannot have everything I suppose. I enjoyed the book but was never quite convinced why Howie had turned into the useless dope that he had.
CErtainly worth a read.

[Penny Schmuecker · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book because it had received many four and five star reviews, and initially, I did like it. It was quirky and subtly funny as the author tells the stories of two misfits. However, it rambled on and and just when I thought it was going somewhere, it left me hanging. I've never given less than a three star review before because if a story doesn't interest me, I don't bother finishing the book because there are simply too many good books to read. However, as I mentioned, I was holding out hope for the last third of this book when the two main characters actually came together to solve each other's issues but even when that finally happened, it just didn't materialize in a way I'd hoped for.