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A review by tcbueti
Heap House by Edward Carey
5.0
Fantastically inventive, at times funny, then terrifying: Clod Iremonger, who can hear objects say their (more normal) names, and supposedly half-Iremonger Lucy Pennant, meant to be only a servant, tell their stories in alternating chapters, eventually meeting and falling in love.
The weight of bizarre traditions (like Downton Abbey on acid), the power of one's name and story (servants all become just "Iremonger", and briefly adopt the stories of newcomers), classism as survival, the extreme, fantastic danger of rampant consumerism and throwaway mentality.
Glorious language, descriptions of a living sea of objects, things taking on personhood, of disturbed and frightened people clinging to their way of life at all cost, fills page after page with a bizarre beauty and suspense.
The weight of bizarre traditions (like Downton Abbey on acid), the power of one's name and story (servants all become just "Iremonger", and briefly adopt the stories of newcomers), classism as survival, the extreme, fantastic danger of rampant consumerism and throwaway mentality.
Glorious language, descriptions of a living sea of objects, things taking on personhood, of disturbed and frightened people clinging to their way of life at all cost, fills page after page with a bizarre beauty and suspense.