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A review by yostertag
The Keep by Jennifer Egan
4.0
I listened to this right after listening to "The Goon Squad," which is a tribute to Egan's writing prowess but also partially speaks to my desire to experience a less fragmented novel of hers. "The Keep" delivered on all of those counts. The format of the story bounced between two main scenes, and then united brilliantly at the end of the book.
It deals heavily in flashbacks from the childhood of one of the characters (as two of the principle characters are cousins and have a somewhat sordid history). A washed up man on the cusp of middle age accepts an invitation to travel to a castle in Germany that his cousin has purchased and plans to turn into a hotel. The story meanders between this world and that of a prisoner taking a creative writing class somewhere in the US. Egan is at her best when she plays with reality of her main characters, duping the reader into confusing real and imagined.
Perhaps the best part of this book is when the two different scenes/settings/characters intertwine. In foresight analyzing the plot makes the twist seem obvious, but for some reason it creeped up on me when I heard the story unravel.
Great book, and relatively unknown I believe.
It deals heavily in flashbacks from the childhood of one of the characters (as two of the principle characters are cousins and have a somewhat sordid history). A washed up man on the cusp of middle age accepts an invitation to travel to a castle in Germany that his cousin has purchased and plans to turn into a hotel. The story meanders between this world and that of a prisoner taking a creative writing class somewhere in the US. Egan is at her best when she plays with reality of her main characters, duping the reader into confusing real and imagined.
Perhaps the best part of this book is when the two different scenes/settings/characters intertwine. In foresight analyzing the plot makes the twist seem obvious, but for some reason it creeped up on me when I heard the story unravel.
Great book, and relatively unknown I believe.