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"This house, this place, knows all my secrets."A story of summer, secrets, love, and lies: in the course of a singular day on Cape Cod, one woman must make a life-changing decision that has been brewing for decades.It is a perfect July morning, and Elle, a fifty-year-old happily married mother of three, awakens at "The Paper Palace"--the family summer place which she has visited every summer of her life. But this morning is different: last night Elle and her oldest friend Jonas crept out the back door into the darkness and had sex with each other for the first time, all while their spouses chatted away inside. Now, over the next twenty-four hours, Elle will have to decide between the life she has made with her genuinely beloved husband, Peter, and the life she always imagined she would have had with her childhood love, Jonas, if a tragic event hadn't forever changed the course of their lives. As Heller colors in the experiences that have led Elle to this day, we arrive at her ultimate decision with all its complexity. Tender yet devastating, The Paper Palace considers the tensions between desire and dignity, the legacies of abuse, and the crimes and misdemeanors of families.
The rot, decay, and various vermin infestations of the protagonist’s family summer camp on Cape Cod is an obvious clue this will not be a frolic-y, frothy, “lite” summer romp of a read, in the spirit of, say, Elin Hilderbrand's Nantucket-based romances. Not that there’s anything wrong with Hilderbrand’s novels, which I truly enjoy and devour like snack bags of cheese doodles. By contrast, Miranda Cowley Heller’s deeply lyrical writing style, which in some places reads like Creative Writing 101 on steroids – i.e., no adjective or description left unturned – takes “some getting used to.” And then, she settles into an elegant prose reminiscent to me of the beauty of Donna Tartt’s evocative details in “The Goldfinch,” and bam – I was hooked. The novel, in “real time,” takes place over a 24-hour period, and yet covers 50 years of memories and the backstory of a deeply troubled family. In my humble opinion, the author’s method of storytelling, though at times whipsawing, meandering and even maddening, is brilliant and compelling. Yes, there are deeply disturbing and graphic episodes of child neglect, rape, and molestation, but these were essential to propel the plot – and the protagonist -- toward conclusion. And yes, some characters are underdeveloped, overdeveloped, obtuse, and/or unlikeable. But, though fictional, they are human, including the protagonist and her mother (whose actions, at some points, left me scratching my head). And readers may disagree with me, but the ending is PERFECT. In sum: go for it! I read tons of popular (and unpopular) fiction, and this is the best novel I've read this year. But, if you are looking for the literary equivalent of a beachy summer read (to which you are certainly entitled), turn elsewhere.
