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lenny9987 's review for:
Like a House on Fire
by Lauren McBrayer
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I’m often drawn to stories about personal identity and how our understanding of ourselves evolves over the course of our lives. Lauren McBrayer’s upcoming novel Like a House on Fire is one such story told with the kind of brash humor that goes hand in hand with brutal emotional honesty. Looking at the relationships in our lives, especially questions of what we bring to them and what we get from them, McBrayer shows how our measures for success, for happiness, for ‘good enough’ depend on how we see ourselves and what we feel we deserve. Like a House on Fire is, in many ways, a novel of personal awakening and that moment where you need to decide whether to drift off back to sleep or commit to getting out of bed to start a new day.
After a few years of trying to sell her paintings (while also being a stay-at-home mom to two small children), Merit has had enough of her husband’s silent judgement and decides to go back to work at an architecture firm. She and her new boss, Jane, immediately hit it off during the interview and it doesn’t take long for Merit to long for the hours she spends in the office at Jane’s side. Their friendship quickly outgrows the bounds of a professional, working relationship and Jane becomes Merit’s person – the one who just gets her from all the ways her husband’s habits grate on her nerves (and why) to what Merit needs in terms of encouragement and reassurance as an architect, an artist, even as a mother. With her connection to Jane so strong, Merit begins to reexamine the other relationships in her life, especially her decade-plus marriage to her college boyfriend Cory and why things between them seem to have gotten so… dull. The answers Merit finds when she asks herself what she really wants surprise her and soon she’ll have to make decisions that will affect the lives of those she loves the most.
For the rest of my review, please visit my blog: https://wp.me/pUEx4-1bn
After a few years of trying to sell her paintings (while also being a stay-at-home mom to two small children), Merit has had enough of her husband’s silent judgement and decides to go back to work at an architecture firm. She and her new boss, Jane, immediately hit it off during the interview and it doesn’t take long for Merit to long for the hours she spends in the office at Jane’s side. Their friendship quickly outgrows the bounds of a professional, working relationship and Jane becomes Merit’s person – the one who just gets her from all the ways her husband’s habits grate on her nerves (and why) to what Merit needs in terms of encouragement and reassurance as an architect, an artist, even as a mother. With her connection to Jane so strong, Merit begins to reexamine the other relationships in her life, especially her decade-plus marriage to her college boyfriend Cory and why things between them seem to have gotten so… dull. The answers Merit finds when she asks herself what she really wants surprise her and soon she’ll have to make decisions that will affect the lives of those she loves the most.
For the rest of my review, please visit my blog: https://wp.me/pUEx4-1bn