On My Night Table


THE KEEP BY JENNIFER EGAN

I loved this book. The Keep is part of a castle that Danny and his cousin Howie are renovating in either the Czech Republic, Germany or Austria. These two childhood friends grew apart due to a prank that went wrong and are in very different places in their lives. The story is told with forward momentum and the more you read the more you will see layers upon layers of smart writing. What started out as a possible travelogue turned into a family drama then spun into a ghost story and a bunch of other things before it ended in a way that totally surprised me.  And I’m one that is rarely surprised by plot. 

This book is so smart but isn’t hard to read and doesn’t show off how smart it is.  It explores themes of redemption, identity, power, punishment, escape, and the technological as supernatural and if you don’t devour this book as fast as you can, I’d be surprised. The more I think about this book and it’s awesome trickery, the more impressed I am. I love discovering the work of a writer who has a body of work that I’ve not read. I already have another of Egan’s books from the library on my night table and I’m fighting the urge to move it to the top of the stack.