Shut the Door

By Amanda Marquit

Book Overview

In the vein of "American Beauty," "Shut the Door" offers a glimpse into the world of a family in crisis. It focuses on two teenage sisters struggling to carve their identities as young adults, taking risks and undergoing disturbing transformations that go unchallenged by their emotionally absent parents. Meanwhile, their parents' marriage is disintegrating and no longer provides the support the girls so desperately need. Their father's prolonged absence on a business trip provides the impetus to reevaluate family roles and relationships--and the choices made are shocking. This evocative family portrait reveals just what happens when our support system falls away and we become disconnected from the ones we love the most.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312319290
• ISBN13: 9780312319298
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.2" x 0.9" x 5.2"

Customer Reviews

intriguing look at a middle class family

Harry is in Cleveland on business for two weeks. His wife Beatrice misses making him breakfast as their daughters seventeen years old Vivian and sixteen years old Lilliana make their own meals. To pass time as she waits for Harry to return, Beatrice continues to prepare her spouse's favorite meals. Harry, on the other hand, is elated to escape his two tedious roles of husband and father. He plans to risk everything to find some fun and perhaps even purpose while in Cleveland. Neither seems aware that two teens live in their household. For instance Lilli has sex with older males in her bedroom while mom cooks. However, she has met her match in her guitar teacher Paul who rejects her siren's lure so she reacts by mutilating herself. The studious virginal Vivian decides to reengineer herself with a piercing, dye, a tattoo, and a food disorder so that she can gain entrance to the in crowd, but that fails when high school Queen Katerina tricks her into lesbian posing. Still she is on her way to sexual freedom even as her sibling turns to chastity. SHUT THE DOOR is an intriguing look at a middle class family whose set roles no longer provide solace so except for Bea still making brisket each seeks something new that devastates the "truce" between them. The character driven story line is at its strongest in the first three quarters of the novel as the audience becomes intimately involved with each character as perspectives rotates between them. Ironically the tale loses a bit of steam once the cast is fully known though the plot contains a surprisingly powerful closing twist. Amanda Marquit provides a fascinating family drama starring four individuals who no longer know one another though they live under the same roof. Harriet Klausner

Amazing..

I loved this book, i absolutely could not put it down... i always wanted to read it...i was obesessed with the characters and their "wants" it was intriguing...i could realate to vivian in many ways as well as liliana..Amanda did a great job and i cant wait for her to write more books...

Shut the door--America's real families

After reading "shut the door," I realized how much the family in this story is almost exactly like many families I know. Marquit did an awesome job of portraying the american family, which is not so perfect. I recommend this book to all who understand the feeling of being lost in their own family.