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A review by sarahfonseca
House Rules by Heather Lewis
5.0
Given our culture's evergreen fixation with elite lives in spiral, I'm baffled that House Rules hasn't experienced a second wind like Heather Lewis' Notice. Perhaps this has something to do with the novel's rights: House Rules was a New Narrative gem published by Serpent's Tail during the early days of the UK house's short-lived US division. Then again, existing US NN house Semiotex(e) doesn't have a good record of intuitively republishing books when their authors reenter literary work consciousness (cough, Shulamith Firestone, cough).
It's easy to call Lewis' work explicit, unnecessarily violent, or harrowing without taking note of what she does on the page: describing agony succinctly, vividly, and humorously without launching into a trauma studies lecture; using metaphor when one least expects it; immerses the reader in trauma's patterns of behavior and disorientation ("am I supposed to be finding this sexy?"); uses first person, knowing full well that it indicts her own personal history.
Set in the strenuous and haphazard equestrian world of the Northeastern Eastern United States, House Rules immerses the reader as effortlessly as its 15 year-old protagonist breaks in a horse. There is sex that masquerades as a drug and drugs that masquerade as sex, which obvi means the center cannot hold. This is a page turner that even the most iron-gutted of readers will have to put down from time to time, if only to remember that it isn't their experience.
It's easy to call Lewis' work explicit, unnecessarily violent, or harrowing without taking note of what she does on the page: describing agony succinctly, vividly, and humorously without launching into a trauma studies lecture; using metaphor when one least expects it; immerses the reader in trauma's patterns of behavior and disorientation ("am I supposed to be finding this sexy?"); uses first person, knowing full well that it indicts her own personal history.
Set in the strenuous and haphazard equestrian world of the Northeastern Eastern United States, House Rules immerses the reader as effortlessly as its 15 year-old protagonist breaks in a horse. There is sex that masquerades as a drug and drugs that masquerade as sex, which obvi means the center cannot hold. This is a page turner that even the most iron-gutted of readers will have to put down from time to time, if only to remember that it isn't their experience.