When I walk into a new apartment or house, the smell of fresh paint on the walls gives me all kinds of possibilities. After all, the perfect home is an eternal fantasy; HGTV, magazines, and social media fool me into thinking that if I spend a little more money, arrange the dishes in the closet, and adjust the height of the clock the same way, perfection can be achieved. When I meet my new neighbors I think we will be good friends. I tell myself that I will do well this time .
Having moved four times in the past five years, I'm used to the cycles of packing and unpacking and the psychological stress of faulty air conditioning or plumbing, but that doesn't mean they've gotten any easier. Now that I'm feeling a little more settled in our last home, and as my books move from the box to the shelf, I'm drawn to novels where the houses mean something to the characters who live in them.
These books feature homes from all over the world and people who have moved away for various reasons. They also capture the small moments that turn a house into a sanctuary; Imagine how perfect it would be to capture the skylight because you have it indoors.
Home Mr. Biswas vs Naipaul
This epic novel by Nobel laureate Naipaul follows a man's search for a home to call his own. Born in Trinidad in the 19th century to an Indian Hindu family, Mohun Biswas grew up moving from one relative to another. After marrying a woman he never wanted to marry, he moves into a large communal mansion owned by his oppressive in-laws. The book's pages are filled with controversial family drama, but the objects he and his wife collected - "he hated dirty glass and broken hooks" and a beloved wooden wardrobe that was "difficult to fix" - are nevertheless very familiar. mistakes The hilarity continues even after Mr. Biswas achieves his dream of having his own house, which has been haunting him since the beginning of the book. "It seems that the builder forgot the need for a staircase to connect the two floors and what he proposed seems to be unexpected," Napaul wrote. But Mr. Biswas applies the same sympathy to the house as to the furniture; The house is not perfect, but at least it is his.
Field of Light , Yuko Tsushima (Translator: Geraldine Harcourt)
Tsushima's narrator is looking for a new beginning after separating from her husband. The decision to move to the top floor of a four-story office building with her almost 3-year-old son seemed perfect at first. Guess you don't have to worry about noise complaints since half of the third floor is still empty. They are surrounded by windows on all sides, and the narrator congratulates himself by saying: "I have successfully protected my son from the chaos that surrounds him with a mass of light." While living in this low-rent house, he does some administrative work, such as closing the shutters and running the water tower on the roof. However, building maintenance problems begin to arise and your home becomes dark both physically and psychologically. The narrator is juggling the ever-increasing demands of the building, her office job, and being a single mother. It's amazing. "Why did the children melt?" He has other options, but this building is a symbol of his freedom, and he wants it to last as long as possible. Her determination to prove to her ex-husband and critical neighbor that she can support her child on her own, even in a world that seems deliberately cruel to unwed mothers, echoes a surprising inner desperation.
A Company , by Ashley Hutson
In this debut novel, Hutson's narrator, Bonnie Lincoln, wins the lottery with an unknown but obscene amount of money. It's enough to take his name from a shabby trailer in an unknown American town to a remote mountain region, where he builds an exact replica of his favorite series Three Company from the 70s . He lives there alone, acting out scenes (played by each of the main characters) to an audience that does not include him. She breaks up with someone she knew before she got rich, but as her isolation deepens, she begins to reveal a series of traumatic events that forced her to take refuge in this fantasy, "Breaking the Gap Between Patients" B: True and my favorite. Novel Get in and Suck My Back Hole. Bonnie in one of the most satisfying scenes. He entered his copy for the first time and "When the air in the apartment washed over me like baptism, it carried me away." I am here. a new state
White on white , in Ishgul Savash
It can be said that this novel is beautifully written. It would be nice to think so, but on closer inspection, it becomes clear that White White challenges preconceived notions of beauty. It urges readers to see glamor as a covering or covering device. The book tells the story of a young art historian in an unnamed European city. He is on a one-year scholarship to study the "nudity" of medieval art. You'll stay in a stylish, low-rise apartment in a quiet, tree-lined neighborhood; Her husband is a teacher who lives there and occasionally uses it as an art studio. Our narrator agrees with this mutual and ambiguous agreement. why not? The rental price is low, the apartment "spreads with light every morning" and fascinates with "unknown beauty". Sharing space with an artist is also an informal way to discuss art history. However, the boundaries between guest and resident, witness and intruder, acquaintance and friend, bully and victim gradually blur. The smooth facade gives way to a psychological horror story that will make you rethink this wonderful rental ad.
Transportation by Rachel Kusk
Although it is the second novel in the Cusk Schema trilogy, Transit can be considered a masterpiece. It follows Fay, a recently divorced author in London who recreates 'A Bad House on a Good Street'. Faye and her school-aged children finally live in the house, even though it is "reasonably unlivable" if bought. But it won't be easy, the contractor warns of the cost of making a "silk bag out of a pig's ear". Even worse, the basement dwellers insult and complain when they walk the floor. Other novels might use a similar structure to facilitate the emotional breakdown of the protagonists, but Kush's narrator is still powerful and entertaining. Her children call the townspeople "trolls," but Faye, a deep thinker, says, "The hatred for me was so pure ... it almost turned into love again." The same can be said for what you find creepy and scary. The never-ending renovation project says that it has the potential to transform a home into something wonderful, no matter what you fear.
Memphis , Tara M. Stringfellow
An international saga that follows a black family in Memphis from the 1930s to the 2000s, with a special focus on the Civil Rights Movement, this beautiful first novel captures Southern home from the opening sentence. "The house seems alive." The kitchen has "the intimacy of an old Italian restaurant" and the daughter explores the house "like a calico cat, always hiding in the holes of the old furniture". But Stringfellow does more than house humans; People will also be at home, they explained that the woman's lap is "wide and attractive as an arcade". The chapter revolves around four women from a Northern family, following multiple timelines as they experience love, tragedy and self-discovery as they navigate the same ancestral compound. This kaleidoscopic structure allows us to think of their home as a symbol of themselves, providing these women with a physical and emotional shelter from whatever is happening in their lives.
Here by Richard McGuire
The premise of this graphic novel is simple. The 300 pages contain examples of moments that happened in one place, in the corner of the house, for hundreds of thousands of years. The book is not in chronological order and the pages contain images from many eras. The panel includes decades of Halloween parties where participants danced or played in similar venues; In another, it shows speech bubbles of all the insults to people who have passed through the room over the years. In this one house, one place, readers approach the cosmic spectrum of humanity through kisses, dances, fights, accidents, spills, and disasters—natural and man-made. Wallpapers change as history repeats itself. Using colorful and eclectic watercolor panels depicting prehistoric landscapes and detailed 21st-century furniture, McGuire argues that everyday life has meaning and fleeting comfort.
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