Monday, August 13, 2012

CBR IV # 18 - The Giant's House by Elizabeth McCracken


I didn't like this book. Mostly because the main character is so bloody unappealing.  I don't care if the boy is tall or wise beyond his years, he's still a fuckin boy.  And she is so amazingly emotionally stunted it's not even funny.


So there's this librarian in a small town who's only claim to fame is a boy who wouldn't stop growing up.  Librarian is a typical old maid.  Chilly and unable to form close relationships.  She is fascinated by a boy who is afflicted with gigantism and soon becomes close to him and his family.  The book tells the story of their sort of courtship and the short life of a very tall boy.

Now why did I not like this book?  As I said, it was mostly because of my distaste for the main character, the librarian.  It's actually not so much that she first met the boy when he was just a child, I mean the age disparity is really not that big.  It's more that she does not really have any reasons for her melancholy.  I think this is my failing, but I get very irritated by characters that can have, or do have, everything but is still so... sad. 

I wanted to know more about the boy, but he was never really fleshed out but was more the librarian's ideal of him.  So, no I didn't like it very much.

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