Egan studies the effects that trauma and loneliness have on the forlorn homo sapien, forever living in the past, bound by the past, enacting the past all over again. What is a keep but a fortress? And what does one do with emotions perhaps best left unexamined? They are put away, imprisoned. And so this study of loneliness and the gaps & traps that hinder human connection features both fortress and prison. Egan tells her tale in three threads: the story of the keep and the story of the prison in...

I picked this one up a month or so ago based on the NY Times Book Review writeup from forever ago, because was that review so positive that it glowed like a deep-sea anglerfish's esca? Oh, yes. But is that an apt metaphor? Also yes, because reading the book felt like being digested by an anglerfish (if you know what that feels like), plus guess what, and this is the most important take-away: A book review in the NY Times Book Review is different from a book review in the NY Times; did everyone e...

Here's another one of my "write the review as I go" commentaries. ** SPOILERS **1- I would NEVER have chosen this book on my own, which means someone recommended it to me, but I can't for the life of me remember who.2- I don't like the protagonist. I didn't from the start, and 1/4 into the book he's only just starting to have some redeeming qualities, but even so I just can't warm up to him.3- The swearing. Too much, I just don't like swearing in books, and I know many would say this is middle,

god, i am so glad jennifer egan won the pulitzer. when i heard she won, i said "her??" because i had read invisible circus and thought it was really average and not to my liking at all. but then i read goon squad, for science, which made me read this one, and i loved them both. and now i say loudly "HER!"this one has similarities to goon squad (and thankfully none to invisible circus). it is a weaving narrative swirling metafictionally between a criminal writing a story for his prison writing cl...

My review of this book will sound like it deserves more stars than I've given it, because overall, I only found one flaw in this fine homage to ghost stories and their tellers. Unfortunately, it's a major one, though I'm sure some will read right past it without so much as a blip. Egan sets up two fascinating threads, that of two cousins coming together in adulthood to play out the effects of a long-held secret between them, and the prisoner crafting their tale while taking a writing class from

I've had this conviction for a long time that Jennifer Egan should be one of my favorite writers. She's a SHE who writes popular-but-smart contemporary fiction with ideas and experimental stuff in it. My hero!Ex-punks from the Bay Area! A woman teaching writing in prison...?!!! It's like Jennifer Egan produces books especially for ME! Oh yes, my swooning Egan fangirl plan makes so much sense on paper... The only problem with it is that for some reason I can't stand her books. First I tried A Vis...

Video-review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jpa8...Featured in my Top 20 Books I Read in 2016: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X6OQ...Dope beyond words. An extraordinary Gothic novel that draws on its tradition to reflect upon the powers of the imagination, to stimulate the reader's, and to push the limits of first person narration TO THE MAX. Shares several similarities with The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and Oscar Wao is pretty much the best novel of all times.

The Keep is an argument in favor of dipping into living Pulitzer winners’ back catalogues. There are themes about imagination as a doorway to something else (Dungeons & Dragons, creative writing, an off-the-grid castle…) and themes of power (between cousins, between business associates, between cellmates…). Just as I was wondering if this one was for me, I hit the end of chapter one and the perspective tilted into metafiction, and my curiosity deepened. Egan wrote the novel during the years when...

Spoiler Alert!!! (But you may seriously want to consider whether you want to read this book.) I really liked "A Visit from the Goon Squad" so I was eager to read another novel by Egan, but something must have gone very wrong. Here is what I think happened: The author decided, ‘Let me write a book about a golden boy turned total loser who does something that makes him have to flee NYC (I won’t explain what he did because maybe the reader won’t care) and I will have him travel to a castle in some

I can't stop thinking about this book. Jennifer Egan is masterful at taking something (or sometimes a character) that's beautiful and forbidding and mysterious and slowly rendering it recognizably, imperfectly human. This book is particularly accomplished at just that. And the way she does it in two (actually three) parallel narratives reveals the shape of the over-arching metaphor in a particularly affecting way. I don't want to give anything away here, because the process of unfolding the myst...

i thought this was the most criminally over-hyped and misrepresented book of last year. clearly, Jennifer Egan has many well-placed friends (and fellow back scratchers) at the NY Times Book Section to fawningly and falsely fan the flames for this book. "The Keep" is two half-fleshed out novellas awkwardly crammed together. with a tacked-on third short story/chapter at the end. i cannot believe that any accomplished and previously published author would look at this fragmentary and sloppy work an...

This book is unusual. It is a modern gothic tale of imprisonment and escape, both physically and mentally. It is two stories that merge in an interesting way. Story one is set in a dilapidated castle in the wilderness of Eastern Europe, complete with a keep and tunnels. It is an eerie setting with elements that border on the paranormal. Protagonist Danny has been invited to the castle by his cousin, Howie, who is renovating it to turn it into a hotel. The cousins were involved in an incident as

Wow. This book blew me away on so many levels (although it’s a tricky one to review without spoilers). Egan is a master of her craft – she creates vivid, lively characters and puts them into strange and intense situations, which kept me on the edge of my seat. Deadbeat New Yorker Danny finds himself down on luck and escapes to his cousin Howard’s castle in Eastern Europe, which is being renovated into a tech-free resort in the 1990s. But Danny and Howie have unfinished business from childhood, w...

A very peculiar book, about two cousins who re-unite at an old castle in Germany after not having seen each other since childhood. Along with this, it's the story of an inmate in prison for shooting someone in the head. At first, the transitions seemed a little jarring, as well as the narration, but I found it pretty easy to get the swing of.A lot of readers seemed put off by the vague narration style, and how at times you don't really know what happened or if things were just a dream. I'm a fan...

This book is told (written) by an inmate in prison taking a writing class. The narrator (the inmate) isn't a great writer; he doesn't always know the "correct" word for things. (on the first page he refers to the top of castle having those "rectangle things that kids always put on the top of castles.") This "untalented" narrator allows for some of the best, coolest description of things and feelings I've ever read.A very fast read. The end is disappointing, but only b/c so much of the book is gr...

This book was such an enigma to me and only half way thought was when I started appreciating the delectable balance of realms changing from sanity to the reality that the author wanted me to appreciate. The Keep is unlike any other book I've read in the past year, it has more than one narrator, three to be exact, and all different people who become the strands of the rope binding the story. This tale reads like a surreal fairy tale switching between Danny who has lost his home, job and stability...

omg i read this in three hours and fifteen minutes and could not put it down and i am pretty sure it has restored my joy of reading and it's such a FUN and READABLE and ENGAGING book, why is jennifer egan SO good at pulling the reader in?? honestly how. look: is this a perfect book, no. is it a great roiling ride through guilt, what it means to be connected, how deus ex machina can blow up in your face? absolutely. is it also a perfect plane book, especially when flying back from 24 imaginary ho...

I picked up Jennifer Egan's The Keep because, well, Halloween, and for its premise: three different stories told by three different narrators that intertwine for an unusual twist on the gothic tale. The Keep opens with a seemingly traditional gothic tale. Danny arrives at the doorstep of a castle somewhere in central Europe after a maddeningly long and confusing journey. He's tired and disoriented and before him, in all its glory, is a mysterious castle, heavy with atmosphere and history, someth...

After reading (and loving) Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad almost two years ago, I purposefully didn't pick up anything else she wrote for a while. I didn't want to run the risk that the author of one of my all-time favorite books was a flash in the pan, a one-trick pony. Turns out I needn't have worried. The Keep is a rich, perplexing, wonderful book, and the less you know about it going in, the better.At first it appears to be about childhood resentments bubbling to the surface in

Even though I read this way back in 2007, I am posting my review now. I don't think Goodreads even existed in 2007. In any case I was not a member. But tonight I am posting my review of A Visit From the Good Squad, which is related to my feelings about The Keep. So here you go:Wow! Wow! Wow! So good. I've been fascinated about this book since I first heard of it, but even so all the reviews did not begin to explain what it is really about. Yes, there is a crumbling castle with a keep in eastern