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A review by jacki_f
Hausfrau by Jill Alexander Essbaum
5.0
This is the kind of book that would benefit from a Reader's Advisory Label on the front. If it had one, it would say something like this - Warning: Frequent, explicit sex scenes. Depressed and unlikeable heroine. Bit of a downer all round.
And while this is all true, I loved this book. Loved it, loved it, loved it. (Being the old lady that I am, I would have preferred it to have less graphic sex in it - but whilst it was graphic, it was neither titillating nor gratuitous). I got completely immersed in it and I also am full of respect for how cleverly it has been constructed and how satisfying it is on several levels.
The book is about Anna, aged 37, an American who has lived in Zurich with her Swiss husband for the last 8 years. During that time she has had three children but she has never succeeded in feeling "at home" in Switzerland. She hasn't come to grips with the language, she hasn't made many connections with others and she has kind of floundered in a drifting apathy that has evolved into depression and self-loathing. She feels detached from both her husband and her children.
Two years ago, she had an affair that lasted a few months and that gave her a feeling of purpose and life. Over the course of this book she will take further lovers, although the relationships are impersonal - physical but not emotionally satisfying. Sex for Anna is a way to shut out her depression on a temporary basis, whilst at the same time compounding it through guilt.
I didn't particularly like Anna and I don't think many readers will. But I empathised with her. I have been a lonely partner living in Switzerland myself and it is a hard society to break into, particularly if you are not fluent in the local language. Even now, while I read this, I am adapting to a new country that we moved to a few months ago and so I really get that feeling of isolation, how easy it is to avoid taking proactive steps to lift yourself out of it and how apathy just perpetuates the feeling of isolation. I don't know if I would necessarily recommend this book for a book club because I think that lots of people will probably have quite strong negative reactions to it, but I would love to have a discussion about it. Having finished it, I almost immediately feel like reading it again and that's a very unusual reaction for me.
And while this is all true, I loved this book. Loved it, loved it, loved it. (Being the old lady that I am, I would have preferred it to have less graphic sex in it - but whilst it was graphic, it was neither titillating nor gratuitous). I got completely immersed in it and I also am full of respect for how cleverly it has been constructed and how satisfying it is on several levels.
The book is about Anna, aged 37, an American who has lived in Zurich with her Swiss husband for the last 8 years. During that time she has had three children but she has never succeeded in feeling "at home" in Switzerland. She hasn't come to grips with the language, she hasn't made many connections with others and she has kind of floundered in a drifting apathy that has evolved into depression and self-loathing. She feels detached from both her husband and her children.
Two years ago, she had an affair that lasted a few months and that gave her a feeling of purpose and life. Over the course of this book she will take further lovers, although the relationships are impersonal - physical but not emotionally satisfying. Sex for Anna is a way to shut out her depression on a temporary basis, whilst at the same time compounding it through guilt.
I didn't particularly like Anna and I don't think many readers will. But I empathised with her. I have been a lonely partner living in Switzerland myself and it is a hard society to break into, particularly if you are not fluent in the local language. Even now, while I read this, I am adapting to a new country that we moved to a few months ago and so I really get that feeling of isolation, how easy it is to avoid taking proactive steps to lift yourself out of it and how apathy just perpetuates the feeling of isolation. I don't know if I would necessarily recommend this book for a book club because I think that lots of people will probably have quite strong negative reactions to it, but I would love to have a discussion about it. Having finished it, I almost immediately feel like reading it again and that's a very unusual reaction for me.