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A review by ealebrun
The Guest Book by Sarah Blake
5.0
WARNING CONTAINS SPOILERS
The novel was very slow moving, but by the end I felt its tone and pace lent to the powerful impact of the story being told. There are pages of the description of the wallpaper and the flowers, reminiscent of Dickens, that many modern readers will find a chore to plow through. However, the languid and boring pace of the novel is analogous to the largely languid and boring lives the Milton family choose to lead. It is only families of extreme wealth that can spend time worrying what to do with the island they're inheriting, where they can spend hours arguing about wallpaper and paint.
However, beneath the drowsing pace of the novel is exposed the ugly truth behind the life of wealth and leisure. There is so much truth of America's history of white privilege in the Milton family. A family that does not consider itself racist, that chooses never to speak of business or money, or of anything unpleasant. It's a family whose elders have passed down an unpleasant and unspoken silence through generations. The unspoken truths of a fortune built by aligning with Nazi's throughout WWII, not because they were racist, but because it made good business sense. This is a family that put wealth and status above all else, and in the end the silence of those actions, the actions they take to keep that silence, erects barriers between all of them. None of the members of the family are able to successfully break away from their insulated and comfortable family, in fact none of them really even try. The result is a family that harbors its resentments and while they continue to function as a family, vacationing together on the island every summer, they live their lives under a constant veil of sadness, anger, and misery.
I was relieved that Evelyn finally learns the truth of the rift between her mother and aunt, the truth about her own heritage. I do understand that while I want to vilify Joan for not disowning her family and following her heart, I say this as woman of an entirely different generation and perspective. It did irk me that we do not get to witness Reg telling Joan who her father was, that this is glossed over. However, there is quite the poetic justice that Evelyn herself has married a Jewish man, which is evidence that things have actually started to change.
While Ogden is certainly one of the villains of the novel, having built his fortune and success on the genocide of the Jewish people and the United State's enemy during the war, it is Kitty whom I found myself despising with the most vehemence. It is the nature of all mothers to protect their own children above all else. I understand her desire to provide for her children, to want them to be happy and in her mind happy meant marrying well to ivy league WASPs. For Kitty, a woman's role is to be a good hostess, keep the dinner conversation light, and steer it away from any controversial discussion, to soften all the edges, to be pleasant. It is this constant focus on pleasantness at all costs that is the most horrifying aspect of the novel, is in fact the most horrifying part of the one percent in real life historically and in the present. The hardheartedness to have been able to look a Jewish woman in the eye at the start of WWII and be able to tell her no, you will not keep and protect her child, it chills me to the bone. And yet I know it's likely that many women did just this. Kitty wasn't even in a position where she would have been risking anything to offer that protection. She was safe in America with plenty of influence, power, and money, but it was not her responsibility to help. It was not polite of Elsa to even suggest such a thing. Didn't she know the rules? And in the moment where she has the audacity to slap Reg in the face when he refuses to absolve her of her guilt, I loathed her with a fiery passion.
Blake has held a mirror up to America's face as to what is beneath the truth of the American Dream. The truths of the 1940's are unfortunately still largely true today. We are still a country that profits off of white privilege and racism, where people of color, LGBTQ people, and women have to fight for equality. However, one thing has noticeably changed. We no longer live in a culture of silence. I am grateful for that.
The novel was very slow moving, but by the end I felt its tone and pace lent to the powerful impact of the story being told. There are pages of the description of the wallpaper and the flowers, reminiscent of Dickens, that many modern readers will find a chore to plow through. However, the languid and boring pace of the novel is analogous to the largely languid and boring lives the Milton family choose to lead. It is only families of extreme wealth that can spend time worrying what to do with the island they're inheriting, where they can spend hours arguing about wallpaper and paint.
However, beneath the drowsing pace of the novel is exposed the ugly truth behind the life of wealth and leisure. There is so much truth of America's history of white privilege in the Milton family. A family that does not consider itself racist, that chooses never to speak of business or money, or of anything unpleasant. It's a family whose elders have passed down an unpleasant and unspoken silence through generations. The unspoken truths of a fortune built by aligning with Nazi's throughout WWII, not because they were racist, but because it made good business sense. This is a family that put wealth and status above all else, and in the end the silence of those actions, the actions they take to keep that silence, erects barriers between all of them. None of the members of the family are able to successfully break away from their insulated and comfortable family, in fact none of them really even try. The result is a family that harbors its resentments and while they continue to function as a family, vacationing together on the island every summer, they live their lives under a constant veil of sadness, anger, and misery.
I was relieved that Evelyn finally learns the truth of the rift between her mother and aunt, the truth about her own heritage. I do understand that while I want to vilify Joan for not disowning her family and following her heart, I say this as woman of an entirely different generation and perspective. It did irk me that we do not get to witness Reg telling Joan who her father was, that this is glossed over. However, there is quite the poetic justice that Evelyn herself has married a Jewish man, which is evidence that things have actually started to change.
While Ogden is certainly one of the villains of the novel, having built his fortune and success on the genocide of the Jewish people and the United State's enemy during the war, it is Kitty whom I found myself despising with the most vehemence. It is the nature of all mothers to protect their own children above all else. I understand her desire to provide for her children, to want them to be happy and in her mind happy meant marrying well to ivy league WASPs. For Kitty, a woman's role is to be a good hostess, keep the dinner conversation light, and steer it away from any controversial discussion, to soften all the edges, to be pleasant. It is this constant focus on pleasantness at all costs that is the most horrifying aspect of the novel, is in fact the most horrifying part of the one percent in real life historically and in the present. The hardheartedness to have been able to look a Jewish woman in the eye at the start of WWII and be able to tell her no, you will not keep and protect her child, it chills me to the bone. And yet I know it's likely that many women did just this. Kitty wasn't even in a position where she would have been risking anything to offer that protection. She was safe in America with plenty of influence, power, and money, but it was not her responsibility to help. It was not polite of Elsa to even suggest such a thing. Didn't she know the rules? And in the moment where she has the audacity to slap Reg in the face when he refuses to absolve her of her guilt, I loathed her with a fiery passion.
Blake has held a mirror up to America's face as to what is beneath the truth of the American Dream. The truths of the 1940's are unfortunately still largely true today. We are still a country that profits off of white privilege and racism, where people of color, LGBTQ people, and women have to fight for equality. However, one thing has noticeably changed. We no longer live in a culture of silence. I am grateful for that.