A stranger's house Book

Having read Jewel, I was prepared for the transparent rawness of Brett Lott's writing style, that intensity in which he peels back the veneer of coping with life and shows the hurt, anguish, and truths of what it means to live with our humanity. The story still affected me with its intensity.

In this story, Claire and her loving, and notably long suffering, husband are coping with not being able to have children. Claire's disappointment stymies her work and her work relationships, as she cocoons herself in her hurt. The purchase of their fixer upper serves as a metaphor of building a life together, with a hope of building a family.

Lott's style is commendable and thought provoking, yet sections are disturbing. Intense detail of Claire's work with research rabbits, as well as a repeating dream of the children she believes she might have had make it difficult to like her as the protagonist. There is little joy and hope in this story; however, it is still mesmerizing as Lott exposes the underlying emotions of the characters words and actions. There is also the mystery of Grady and Martin.

Not an uplifting story, rather one to admire for its power to dive down below the stilted surface banality found in lighter character driven novels. Reminiscent of Wallace Stegner's All the Live Little Things for its imagery and introspective switching from past to present.