Okay, so except for the fact that this book had about 300 more pages than necessary, I actually enjoyed it. When I wasn't reading a chapter long description, I thought it was a well written easy read.
It took me a while to figure out what was odd about this book. I finally realized that though it is a ghost story, it's not a ghost story from the perspective of those suffering. Every story we heard was from the other characters, not from the doctor. I don't think the doctor every actually sees anything, which allows him to keep up with the idea of mental illness. I thought this was a really clevel way to revamp the traditional gothic ghost story. I imagine it would have been filled with more action if we had heard the story from the family, but this narration allowed me to think more about how the family sounded to outsiders. I thought it was fun to see how the family's reputation changed even with just the doctor as they experienced these phenomena. Any thoughts on the author's choice of narrator?
I think Meg posted about the doctor's love for Caroline bothering her. I also found it weird and unsettling. However, I thought about the thing Caroline says to the doctor at the beginning about the house pulling you in and taking your time. I feel that the more time the doctor spent at the house, the more attached he became. If you were to say something supernatural actually occurred, then I guess you could say the house made the doctor love Caroline in a way to pull him further into the estate. Maybe this is a survival instinct that the house has developed. It pulls in people and money however possible. I think the doctor's sudden change from describing Caroline's ugliness to speaking about her lovingly could be used as proof for this idea of the house being alive.
I can easily see how this could have all been in the family's head, but the supernatural also seems at fault. Either argument can hold ground I think, however, I just can't decide who or what the ghost was. I do like the thought that it was the house itself similar to "Hill House". Maybe the house began to take care of itself when the world around it began to change. I guess it could have been the mother's dead child, but I cannot understand why the child would want everyone dead instead of just attaching the mother. The theory that ghosts are something projected by a person is pretty cool too. Maybe the ghost was the hatred the mother had for losing her money, status and friends. Thoughts?
2 comments:
The entire book just kind of made me angry, because, yes, it has about 400 too many pages. If I can sum the whole thing up in three sentences, 500 pages is too many to tell a story, especially when our narrator is narrating the book's action in extreme brief side descriptions, hidden deep about every 100 pages of description about nothing. Seriously, do we need to know your life story doctor? Don't think so. Waters should have left it out. It really takes away from the story and I kept wanting more about the actual events.
Interesting thinking about it as a thing rooted in the house. Also, I found myself wondering about the mother, too...
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