House of Wonder (2014) by Susan Healy

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

House of Wonder (2014)

by Susan Healy

Harwick, New Jersey

New Jersey: 3/13

    New Jersey is another literary territory that raises low expectations in terms of anticipated merit.  If you wanted me to make an argument for the best art that has come out of New Jersey I'd probably say the Sopranos television show, which is as New Jersey as it gets and lightyears better and more entertaining than any of the novels from this state of the country.   These low expectations were brought into sharp focus by House of Wonder which is a New Jersey variation on the "city girl comes home the country/suburb/etc" to resolve outstanding childhood issues.   Here, the outstanding childhood issue is her Mom and her twin brother, who is autistic but lives in a place and time before that was something that people acknowledged.  I had to keep glancing at the publication date- 2014- although I assume she is talking about a time period from decades ago, to convince myself House of Wonder wasn't actually written in the 1980's instead of just taking place there-ish. 

  House of Wonder also has a strong storyline about the Mom and generally speaking the theme is that of inherited mental illness/disability and the way that history is often disguised and occluded over time, often on purpose to avoid someone not wanting to have children with someone else.  It's a theme that hits pretty close to home, so I didn't really have to read a book about this boring lady, her poor life choices (she gets knocked up by a New York City chef, has the kid and then he leaves her to open a restaurant in Tokyo, so she has to move back to her hometown where she makes a living as a corporate interior designer or something similar), and her boring family problems.  

  House of Wonder is another in what feels like a plurality of titles inside 1,001 Novels: A Library of America where every important character is a member of the same nuclear family.  I can't think of a single book so far that is substantially about a work environment, and few that are set at a school.  Based on the books selected by Susan Straight, editor of the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America it is clear that she thinks family relationship are essentially the only thing worth reading about in fiction.