The Houseguest: A Novel

By Agnes Rossi

Book Overview

The Houseguest begins with a death in rural Ireland, a young wife killed by tuberculosis. Agnes Devlin leaves behind an emotional, flaky husband and a 6-year-old daughter headed for a life of neglect.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 052594365X
• ISBN13: 9780525943655
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Dutton Adult
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 1.1" x 5.6"

Customer Reviews

Stay a While

This was a happy find: a well-written, thought-provoking book that I had never heard of. The quiet tone and subtly shaded characters are reminiscent of Alice McDermott's best, and not only because they share an Irish heritage. The story moves forward and backward in time, building details introduced in passing into unforgettable characters. I especially admired the silk-dyeing lore -- I didn't know that Paterson, NJ had such a romantic history. A book to treasure.

The Read of the Year

This is simply a wonderful book, an elegant, straightforward masterpiece. It is a tearjerker without being maudlin, a love story without being overblown, a family drama that is poignant but never cliched. The story of a family pulled apart by death and circumstance‹and reunited in an unpredictable but thoroughly satisfying way, The Houseguest is a book you won't be able to put down‹and won't want to.

I read this wonderful book straight through

I read this wonderful book straight through, lost in the world of an Irish-American family during the Depression. Rossi is an amazing writer: her characters are so honestly and deeply observed that they are haunting, and the things she evokes--Sunday afternoons, a beach house in winter, the tension just before a love affair begins--are rich with clear-eyed but compassionate detail. This is one of the most moving novels I have read in years. It is romantic without being melodramatic, and the ending is so satisfying and lovely that I closed the book crying. The Houseguest will stay with me a long time.

A wonderful writer I hadn't heard of before.

A friend promised I'd love this, and love it I do--incredibly intimate, and deceptively simple story-telling. Reminds me of Laurie Moore and, a little, of Edna O'Brien--very different writers, obviously, but this writer shares common ground with each.

Saw the great New Yorker review...

The New Yorker review compares this to one of my all-time favorites, The Great Gatsby, so I bought a copy and read it this weekend. I see the comparison, though The Houseguest is actually a more redemptive & compassionate story--flawed characters who don't always behave honorably, but written with such depth & compassion. A powerful novel, and a beautiful love story. It'd make a great movie too.