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A review by lriopel
Hausfrau by Jill Alexander Essbaum
4.0
This novel is some seriously fantastic writing. I say that, because it is a terrible, not at all enjoyable story, and yet I feel compelled to give it four stars! I read somewhere that it is a modern version of Madame Bovary, and that makes sense to me because I HATED that book when I read it, and I also detested the plot of this one for many of the same reasons. However, my conclusions about each of them are completely different. I think what redeems this book is that the writing is so stupidly well executed that I just gobbled it up, and I forgot to notice that I was hating the plot. I think there may be something to the idea that this was written by a woman, and therefore, the female perspective feels so much more honest, accurate and understandable than Madame Bovary's did. Thinking about it, I am actually more reminded of Kate Chopin's The Awakening, which has a very similar plot as well, and that I also much preferred over Madame Bovary. Even though I didn't like any of those three protagonist, I could empathize with the other two in a way I never could while reading Madame Bovary.
With regard to this book, specifically - the protagonist made me crazy. She was the most extremely passive (oxymoron?) person I can imagine. From her POV, her life just kept happening to her, and even when she was committing deliberate actions she acted as though everything she did was something that she was just enduring, something that was being done to her. Such frustrating helplessness - I hated it, but I totally bought it, because it was so vividly described. I understood exactly what she was thinking and feeling and why, and from that character's perspective everything she did made perfect sense.
This may be one of the only times I can think of when both the opening sentence and the closing sentence of the same novel just knocked me flat, they were both so fantastic. I actually gasped when I got to the end, it was so well done. She tells you precisely what happened, without telling you ANYTHING about what happened. Seriously, some of the best writing I have read for a long time. If you don't mind unlikeable protagonists and you love great writing, I highly recommend. If you are looking for a good story, I would look for it elsewhere.
With regard to this book, specifically - the protagonist made me crazy. She was the most extremely passive (oxymoron?) person I can imagine. From her POV, her life just kept happening to her, and even when she was committing deliberate actions she acted as though everything she did was something that she was just enduring, something that was being done to her. Such frustrating helplessness - I hated it, but I totally bought it, because it was so vividly described. I understood exactly what she was thinking and feeling and why, and from that character's perspective everything she did made perfect sense.
This may be one of the only times I can think of when both the opening sentence and the closing sentence of the same novel just knocked me flat, they were both so fantastic. I actually gasped when I got to the end, it was so well done. She tells you precisely what happened, without telling you ANYTHING about what happened. Seriously, some of the best writing I have read for a long time. If you don't mind unlikeable protagonists and you love great writing, I highly recommend. If you are looking for a good story, I would look for it elsewhere.