The Giant's House: A Romance
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Recommended By
Jodi and MaTitwonky.
Book Details
Written by Elizabeth McCracken.
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($13.95)
Editorial Review (from Amazon.com)
The year is 1950, and in a small town on Cape Cod twenty-six-year-old librarian Peggy Cort feels like love and life have stood her up. Until the day James Carlson Sweatt -- the "over-tall" eleven-year-old boy who's the talk of the town -- walks into her library and changes her life. Two misfits whose lonely paths cross at the circulation desk, Peggy and James are odd candidates for friendship, but nevertheless they find their lives intertwined in ways that neither one could have predicted. And as James grows -- six foot five at age twelve, then seven foot, then eight -- so does Peggy's heart and their most singular romance.
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MaTitwonky thinks this book is Worth Reading.
The Giant's House is the story of James Sweatt and Peggy Cort. Peggy is a spinster librarian who meets James when he is 11 years old and she is 25. James has a pituitary gland disorder and grows to be 8 feet 7 inches tall. James has a mother and an aunt who both care for him, but it is Peggy he turns to for advice on books to satisfy his need to know about both what is happening to him and about the world at large. Eventually Peggy realizes that she loves James, and she devotes herself to helping him in whatever ways he needs. This includes fixing a car that will accommodate his height, building him a cottage with furniture scaled to his size, and helping him achieve his few goals which he would never be able to accomplish alone.
There are segments of this story that strain credibility, but overall I really liked this book because I enjoyed the writing of its author, Elizabeth McCracken. She has a way with metaphors that I found to be very moving at times and always creatively unique. She tells the story of James and Peggy in a very straightforward way, and her gift for understanding people and what motivates them is very special. The character of Peggy Cort could sometimes make me want to throttle her, and at other times she brought tears to my eyes.
I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a simple tale told with insight, and characters that are hard to put down after the final page is read.