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3.56 AVERAGE
3.56 AVERAGE
Veronica has suffered at the hands of public discord for years. She's finally able to share her side of the story with another writer at a vacation home.
What follows is an explanation of how she ended up married to Roger, a teacher many years her senior. An event that poisons many people's impression of her and makes Rogers relationship with his son untenable. They move to an old house where each comes to terms with parental relationships with their parents and with Roger's son as strange and inexplicable events occur.
I enjoyed this, it was an interesting take on the haunted house genre with some interesting and painfully imperfect characters. The writing is dense but well constructed and entertaining.
What follows is an explanation of how she ended up married to Roger, a teacher many years her senior. An event that poisons many people's impression of her and makes Rogers relationship with his son untenable. They move to an old house where each comes to terms with parental relationships with their parents and with Roger's son as strange and inexplicable events occur.
I enjoyed this, it was an interesting take on the haunted house genre with some interesting and painfully imperfect characters. The writing is dense but well constructed and entertaining.
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Langan's penchant for nested character-driven narratives in an existential supernatural horror format stretches as far back as his debut. The layered story at the heart of "House of Windows" isn't as structurally accomplished as "The Fisherman", and in some senses it's clearly a debut by an author still finding their footing - Veronica's excess details can venture into fluff, though I do wonder if this is a valid criticism or just an unnecessary feeling on my part; given that this novel has Dickens very openly in its DNA, I wouldn't be surprised if this was a nod to his style, my only problem is I haven't read much Dickens beyond "A Christmas Carol" ages ago so I cannot say, so I will leave that for others more qualified to discuss. But "House of Windows" is overall still a strikingly accomplished work, one that announced Langan as the real deal from the get go, and much like his second full length effort, this is genre fiction at the heights of what it can do within its bounds.
While "The Fisherman" is also immensely metatextual, "House of Windows" leans more toward metafiction outright (though it may not also meet the strictest definition of that term). I say this because of its "protagonist", the unnamed narrator, a horror writer who is a guest at a beach house with family friends. One of these friends is a woman named Veronica who, having been acquainted, tells this narrator the long story of what really happened to her husband Roger, whose disappearance was talk of the town as he and Veronica were the centers of an adultery scandal (committed by Roger), this relayed story spanning a course of two nights. While the long-winded telling of the tale would at first seem superfluous, it is interesting to think about the reason for the way the tale is told (aside from the aforementioned nods to classic writers). The outer narrator (on the margin's of Veronica's inner narration, she being the "true" protagonist of the novel) is a horror writer, and the conceit is established from the get-go with Veronica mentioning that if this protagonist needs material for the horror stories he writes, she can provide him with the story she ends up telling. Is this author an alias for Langan? Either way, it almost creates a feeling of the author speaking through Veronica and like he himself is having a conversation with her. What she tells him is what he then puts to page, as she lampshades at in both the beginning and end of the novels.
Like "The Fisherman", and also like that novel's usage of layered stories and memories to create a vivid and emotional narrative (as well as anchor the usage of these unconventional metatextual techniques), "House of Windows" is heavily in service to Langan's vivacious character writing. Veronica is headstrong and capable woman yet she is set back and dragged down by circumstances beyond her control and the stigma levied against unconventional relationships and does her best to fight what is haunting her marriage, and is still scared through that strength (it is fitting she be the protagonist as Abe is also the protagonist of his novel, both of Langan's longest single works, since they are both his most illustrated, singularly-voiced characters). Roger is an intelligent man with a cold front who deeply represses his emotions and runs from his abusive history while himself coming to slowly embody it, starting with the "curse" he places on his son Ted, who had a tumultuous relationship that then reached a boiling point after the latter arrives one night at the couple's apartment with hateful words and attacks his father. Ted dies in the Iraq War, which leads Roger, unable to escape the weight of the curse, to fall into obsession with reviving his son from the dead or making contact, dragging Veronica into his whirlwind of grief while she must hold on and fight against decades of family trauma and resentment congealing in the form of a vivid, existential ghost story.
Obviously, what Langan is exploring is generational trauma, how untreated trauma and obsession and grief can lead to the dissolution of families even with completely different loved ones involved, or after the dust has settled. Trauma is a slow-acting poison that slinks through the veins and becomes part of the blood after a point, and the only ones who can undo it are the ones whose burden it has been placed unfairly upon. Roger is given this choice, and the entirety of the novel balances on it. The past can close in on us and choke us like the ever-closing and shifting walls of the eldritch Belvedere House (which may have its own conscience, as in "House of Leaves"), with nowhere to go but down. There is hope and healing here, but it only comes after acceptance and atonement, not turning away and sweeping a history of abuse and damage under the rug.
Of course, I also enjoyed the clear enthusiasm for literature and art in this book. Dickens is written in this novel's DNA and into Roger's character, as can also be seen in its themes of parenthood and the chains of the past, and Veronica is a student of Hawthorne, which lends to some of the sense of failed duty and guilt that can be found in both Veronica and Roger's character arcs. Visual art is crucial to this book, as the history of Thomas Belvedere (the house's previous owner) and his dark paintings as well as his relation to an eccentric painter with obtuse metaphysical interests involving geometry and architecture named de Castries (the true nature of whose relationship and motives is left appropriately in the dark for a slow-simmer horror novel). But Langan also isn't afraid to show his influence from pulpier authors either, such as in his clear inspiration from Stephen King's "The Shining", combining a family brimming with tension, the ghosts of the past both literal and figurative, and their entrapment in a home with impossible dimensions. I always admire an artist who wears their heart on their sleeve the way Langan does with both his influence and the actual content of his works and what he is interested in portraying in his stories, and how he is not afraid to acknowledge the importance of more traditional "genre fiction" in his clear influences.
Both "House of Windows" and "The Fisherman" are excellent, but not quite perfect, but this is only exciting, because it may set his third novel up to be his most compelling yet. Not necessarily a fun read - it's slow and dense and concerned very much with what we don't want to have to come to terms with, no matter how strong and steadfast Veronica's narrative voice. But it is one that helps put Langan at the top when it comes to this whole "new wave of weird" thing we have been experiencing in this decade and the previous.
While "The Fisherman" is also immensely metatextual, "House of Windows" leans more toward metafiction outright (though it may not also meet the strictest definition of that term). I say this because of its "protagonist", the unnamed narrator, a horror writer who is a guest at a beach house with family friends. One of these friends is a woman named Veronica who, having been acquainted, tells this narrator the long story of what really happened to her husband Roger, whose disappearance was talk of the town as he and Veronica were the centers of an adultery scandal (committed by Roger), this relayed story spanning a course of two nights. While the long-winded telling of the tale would at first seem superfluous, it is interesting to think about the reason for the way the tale is told (aside from the aforementioned nods to classic writers). The outer narrator (on the margin's of Veronica's inner narration, she being the "true" protagonist of the novel) is a horror writer, and the conceit is established from the get-go with Veronica mentioning that if this protagonist needs material for the horror stories he writes, she can provide him with the story she ends up telling. Is this author an alias for Langan? Either way, it almost creates a feeling of the author speaking through Veronica and like he himself is having a conversation with her. What she tells him is what he then puts to page, as she lampshades at in both the beginning and end of the novels.
Like "The Fisherman", and also like that novel's usage of layered stories and memories to create a vivid and emotional narrative (as well as anchor the usage of these unconventional metatextual techniques), "House of Windows" is heavily in service to Langan's vivacious character writing. Veronica is headstrong and capable woman yet she is set back and dragged down by circumstances beyond her control and the stigma levied against unconventional relationships and does her best to fight what is haunting her marriage, and is still scared through that strength (it is fitting she be the protagonist as Abe is also the protagonist of his novel, both of Langan's longest single works, since they are both his most illustrated, singularly-voiced characters). Roger is an intelligent man with a cold front who deeply represses his emotions and runs from his abusive history while himself coming to slowly embody it, starting with the "curse" he places on his son Ted, who had a tumultuous relationship that then reached a boiling point after the latter arrives one night at the couple's apartment with hateful words and attacks his father. Ted dies in the Iraq War, which leads Roger, unable to escape the weight of the curse, to fall into obsession with reviving his son from the dead or making contact, dragging Veronica into his whirlwind of grief while she must hold on and fight against decades of family trauma and resentment congealing in the form of a vivid, existential ghost story.
Obviously, what Langan is exploring is generational trauma, how untreated trauma and obsession and grief can lead to the dissolution of families even with completely different loved ones involved, or after the dust has settled. Trauma is a slow-acting poison that slinks through the veins and becomes part of the blood after a point, and the only ones who can undo it are the ones whose burden it has been placed unfairly upon. Roger is given this choice, and the entirety of the novel balances on it. The past can close in on us and choke us like the ever-closing and shifting walls of the eldritch Belvedere House (which may have its own conscience, as in "House of Leaves"), with nowhere to go but down. There is hope and healing here, but it only comes after acceptance and atonement, not turning away and sweeping a history of abuse and damage under the rug.
Of course, I also enjoyed the clear enthusiasm for literature and art in this book. Dickens is written in this novel's DNA and into Roger's character, as can also be seen in its themes of parenthood and the chains of the past, and Veronica is a student of Hawthorne, which lends to some of the sense of failed duty and guilt that can be found in both Veronica and Roger's character arcs. Visual art is crucial to this book, as the history of Thomas Belvedere (the house's previous owner) and his dark paintings as well as his relation to an eccentric painter with obtuse metaphysical interests involving geometry and architecture named de Castries (the true nature of whose relationship and motives is left appropriately in the dark for a slow-simmer horror novel). But Langan also isn't afraid to show his influence from pulpier authors either, such as in his clear inspiration from Stephen King's "The Shining", combining a family brimming with tension, the ghosts of the past both literal and figurative, and their entrapment in a home with impossible dimensions. I always admire an artist who wears their heart on their sleeve the way Langan does with both his influence and the actual content of his works and what he is interested in portraying in his stories, and how he is not afraid to acknowledge the importance of more traditional "genre fiction" in his clear influences.
Both "House of Windows" and "The Fisherman" are excellent, but not quite perfect, but this is only exciting, because it may set his third novel up to be his most compelling yet. Not necessarily a fun read - it's slow and dense and concerned very much with what we don't want to have to come to terms with, no matter how strong and steadfast Veronica's narrative voice. But it is one that helps put Langan at the top when it comes to this whole "new wave of weird" thing we have been experiencing in this decade and the previous.
Worthwhile attempt at literary horror which is engrossing in the moment but, when I think back on it, feels like it diminishes as I mull it over. Doesn't quite bridge the gap between the narrative tradition it draws on, and commits some unforced errors (like directly drawing attention to a way in which the story has become annoying and repetitive, rather than adjusting the pacing accordingly to fix it). Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/2023/01/29/windows-of-the-soul/
Very solid but very much a debut in how messy the ideas are and in how many of them flow freely here. I also was peeved that the actual power of the house is never really explained - too many concepts and not executed with panache. Still, Langan is a superb writer of horror literature and the chief theme of his work (the human, costly desire to reunite with those claimed by death) is here in all its palpable yearning. A bit of a rough draft for the elegance and absolute terror of The Fisherman.
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Honestly, I'm a little underwhelmed by House of Windows, mainly because of me not being able to warm up to the pacing and to not liking the narrator, young grad student Veronica whose husband is missing without a trace, at all. In a frame story Veronica tells a colleague and friend of hers the events leading to the day he disappeared, starting with the very beginning of their relationship, when Roger was still married with a son, whom he basically leaves for Veronica.
Having a similar family history as the starting situation of the book, I initially thought "House of Windows" would be right up my street, but unfortunately it wasn't. First of all, and that's nothing new to loyal readers of Langan, he makes excessive use of the so-called slow-burning narration and a little too much for my taste. I understand the need to build up a background for a character, but since I didn't enjoy Veronica at all, I didn't care about her relationship to her parents or the extensive takeout dinners she has with her husband and many other similar details. These started to annoy me after a while.
I genuinely think Langan has a hand for terrifying, dreadful scenes and here too, he doesn't disappoint. There are some rougher scenes that will seriously curdle your blood and more scenes, especially the ones taking place between Roger and Ted, that will get under your skin. I also like the history of the house and the little story within story recounting the previous owner. And finally, another nicety is the sheer amount of allusions and references comprised in this work - Dickens, Lovecraft, Shakespeare, Peter Straub… But those did not outweigh the overall sluggish pacing and by the time I reached them I already had kind of lost interest. If you enjoy extreme slow pacing, have a fondness for Dickens and can click with the narrator though, this could still be YOUR book.
Having a similar family history as the starting situation of the book, I initially thought "House of Windows" would be right up my street, but unfortunately it wasn't. First of all, and that's nothing new to loyal readers of Langan, he makes excessive use of the so-called slow-burning narration and a little too much for my taste. I understand the need to build up a background for a character, but since I didn't enjoy Veronica at all, I didn't care about her relationship to her parents or the extensive takeout dinners she has with her husband and many other similar details. These started to annoy me after a while.
I genuinely think Langan has a hand for terrifying, dreadful scenes and here too, he doesn't disappoint. There are some rougher scenes that will seriously curdle your blood and more scenes, especially the ones taking place between Roger and Ted, that will get under your skin. I also like the history of the house and the little story within story recounting the previous owner. And finally, another nicety is the sheer amount of allusions and references comprised in this work - Dickens, Lovecraft, Shakespeare, Peter Straub… But those did not outweigh the overall sluggish pacing and by the time I reached them I already had kind of lost interest. If you enjoy extreme slow pacing, have a fondness for Dickens and can click with the narrator though, this could still be YOUR book.
A wonderfully atmospheric mind-fuck, and one of the very best haunted house books I have ever read. One reviewer on this site said in their disappointed review that this should appeal to fans of literary fiction, which I guess means that it should appeal to people who like books. That is indeed true. This is very much a story for people who love reading, peppered as it is with metatextual allusions to Dickens and the Gothics. It is at times discursive, but these long passages that illustrate the sad, doomed obsessions of the main character parallel the meticulous way that the novel creates of itself a seductive new world in the mind of the reader.