Castle by J. Robert Lennon

This book was mentioned in The Millions' post on books to keep an eye out for in 2009. They quote from Lennon's website: "A man buys a large plot of wooded land in upstate New York, only to find that someone has built a castle in the middle of it--and the castle is inhabited." Always looking for books that get me out of Oprah's trade fiction, I decided to try it.

What a weird and frustrating read. Lennon is a great writer - his ability to describe a situation or location or create a character's persona was excellent. However, his writing style did not carry the book past its challenges with plot and theme. Eric Loesch, the main character, returns to the town he grew up in after some set of not-known-to-the-reader circumstances, and immediately purchases a large plot of land. The first half of the book, in which Loesch is fixing up the house he bought and exploring the area, reminded me of Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go - detached, deliberate, and frustratingly hinting at dark secrets to be revealed later in the book. While Ishiguro delivers on the buildup, Lennon's payoff is just plain weird and unmotivated.

In the second half of the book, Loesch reveals a huge chunk of history about his past that explains much of his distant and anti-social behaviour. The mystery of the castle is resolved, then more recent events in Loesch's life are revealed as well. While there are some themes common to all these points in his life - compliance with authority for one - the second half of the book was pretty disconnected and choppy for me.

Obviously Lennon had some ideas he wanted to convey and a thematic way he wanted to tie them together but it did not work for me. I guess part of it is that Loesch is not very likable and delving into his past to find out why isn't something I cared about. I'd suggest that Hannibal Lechter is the only character I've ever disliked but become invested in finding out his personal history.

I would probably try something else by Lennon because he is well-regarded but this was not the book for me.