The Big House - A Century in the Life of an American Summer Home Description:

The Big House : A Century in the Life of an American Summer Home review:
4 stars (Great reading) - Owning a summer home that has been purchased from an extended family, the story is so familiar, but I could never tell it as George Colt has told it. I gave it four stars because I think you have to have lived the experience to appreciate the subtle touches in the story.


5 stars (The Big House - A Bigger Book) - If you have ever had a "summer place" - large or not so large - and people to take there whom you love, this is your book, assuming you are still able to read. Rich and sensitive, loving and intelligent, it takes you back to re-savor those days when the world was younger, better and hopeful.
3 stars (House is Interesting. WASPS: not so much.) - Both of my parents are from New England, and I've spent some time in both Cape Cod and Connecticut. I expected to enjoy this much more than I did.



It's written well and impeccably researched. But the forward motion really meanders, with only the question "will the house stay in the family or be sold?" to keep you reading. It makes sense that the author then tries to describe his family, to keep you invested.



But, though the author clearly adores his extended family, they never became vivid to me. He keeps telling us how charming and "attractive" (the highest WASP compliment) they are, but I keep saying people who are cold, antisemitic (a section where a mother refuses to let a duaghter who's married a Jewish man stay at the house is glossed over as if the genteel antisemitism is just another trait of a vanishing society).



The house itself does fascinate. Colt is most interesting when he writes about himself-- my favorite section was the section where he describes the books in the house.



I think the book will mean a lot more to you if you either are from that area (try as he might Colt never succeeded in making Wings Neck sound appealing to me-- full of rocks, poison ivy, weeds, and inscrutable people)... or know the world he's writing about.



Somehow Colt does NOT succeed in evoking the WASP-y glamour that for example playwright A.R. Gurney does with plays like The Dining Room (Colt mentions a scene from this play in his book).



Instead we see people with an enormous sense of entitlement, histories of mental illness, nice manners, cheapness, and not a whole lot of industry. (Hint: the house's fate ultimately resides in the Jewish upstart...)



They don't come across as horrible people, but neither does their way of life really seem worth preserving. Still, it's an interesting if occasionally baffling bit of history.