Haunted Houses
Lynne Tillman
<p>In uncompromising and fresh prose, Tillman tells the story of three very contemporary girls. Grace, Emily and Jane collide with friends, family, and culture under dark and comic circumstances, presented in uncanny, disturbing, and sometimes shocking terms. In <em>Haunted Houses</em>, Tillman wries of the past within the present, and of the inescapability of private memory and public history. A caustic account of how America makes and unmakes a young woman.<br /></p>From Library Journal<p>Jane, Emily, and Grace are three young women growing up on the suburban edges of New York. As the narrative moves from a child's concernsJane's fear of her father's antics, Grace's singular relationship with her dolls, and Emily's resonant encounter with her second piano teacherto an adult'sfriendship, betrayal, and the inevitable sorrow of loveit juxtaposes the thoughts and experiences of each woman, giving collective meaning to their lives. Though the sequence of events is fragmented and deeper conflicts are only suggested, never made explicit, the women's search for meaning as they struggle toward adulthood is evident. A cryptic but intriguing first novel recommended for larger collections. Mollie Brodsky, English Dept., Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.<br />Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>Review<p>"In <em>Haunted Houses</em>, Lynne Tillman chronicles the loneliness of childhood and incipient womanhood, the salvation of friendship, and the neurotic chain that binds perpetually needy daughters to their perpetually self-absorbed parents. . . . Her style is spare and compelling, the effect of clinical authenticity." — <em>New York Times Book Review</em><br /></p><p>"Ms. Tillman's characters are rigorously drawn , with a scrupulous regard for the truth of their inner lives . . . this is one of the most interesting works of fiction in recent times . . . Fans of both truth and fancy should find nourishment here." — <em>LA Weekly</em><br /></p><p>“Lynne Tillman's protagonists are so lifelike, engaging and accessible, one could overlook, though hardly remain unaffected by, the quality of her prose, with its unique balancing of character interrogation and headlong entertainment. Haunted Houses achieves that hardest of things: a fresh involvement of overheard life with the charisma of intelligent fiction. Its pleasures pull their weight.” -Dennis Cooper<br /></p><p>“This complex and skillfully constructed novel has three separate storylines following the lives of three girls growing up in New York, maturing in a world of baffling freedoms and uncertainties.... Childhood fears, passionate friendships, sexual explorations, and the uncomfortable interdependency of parents and children are depicted with intelligence, honesty, and dark humor. But if you are looking for comfort and consolation, you must look elsewhere: Tillman writes about life as it is, not as we might wish it to be." — <em>Sunday Times</em><br /></p><p>Lynne Tillman's writing uncovers hidden truths, reveals the unnamable, and leads us into her personal world of pain, pleasure, laughter, fear and confusion, with a clarity of style that is both remarkable and exhilarating. Honest. Simple. Deep. Authentic. Daring... To read her is, in a sense, to become alive, because she lives so thoroughly in ...</p>