Review: The Carriage House by Louisa Hall

The Carriage House: A Novel by Louisa Hall

Publication: March 5, 2013
Publisher: Scribner
Format: ARC provided by publisher
Rating: 2/5

Summary

After suffering a stroke, patriarch William Adair wakes up in his hospital bed and realizes that his family has changed: they are less extraordinary than he had remembered. For more than thirty years, his faith in life was grounded on two indisputable principles: his three daughters’ exceptional beauty and talents and the historical resonance of a carriage house built by his grandfather. Now, both have begun to collapse.
The carriage house, held captive by a neighbor since a zoning error classified it as her property, has decayed beyond recognition and risks being condemned. William’s daughters—all tennis champions in their youth—are in decline. Having lost their father’s pride, the three sisters struggle to define themselves. William’s ailing wife is suffering from dementia. As she forgets her daughters, they forget themselves.
To help him recover, William’s daughters take on the battle for the carriage house that once stood as a symbol of their place in the world. Overcoming misunderstandings, betrayals, and wrong turns deep in the past, each of the Adairs ultimately finds a new place of forgiveness and love. The Carriage House is a moving, beautifully wrought novel about the complex bonds of siblings and about rebuilding lost lives.

My Thoughts

When I first read what this story was about I was really tempted to read it. I seemed like a great story of a family brought together after their father’s stroke. Boy was I disappointed. I couldn’t for the life of me get into this story. I tried several times but just couldn’t. I never like to not finish a book so I struggled several times to get to the end.

I wasn’t connecting to the characters. The patriarch William was a man who in my opinion was just plain mean and insensitive to his daughters. All he cared about was imagine, the old carriage house and what others thought of him and his family. All three daughters tried so hard to live up to his expectations that they failed to really live their lives for themselves. Not to mention their mother who was suffering from dementia was mainly unheard of since she was isolated upstairs most of the time. Then there was her caretaker, who if you asked me was a character one too many. I mean there were so many characters it was kind of hard to keep track of them all. If William had put more of an effort into caring for his daughters much as he did trying to save that carriage house maybe I’ve enjoyed the story more.

In the end there were just too many loose ends and things I didn’t get to truly enjoy this book. It wasn’t a bad book there were some good parts, just not enough for me to have this book worth it for me.