The House at Riverton – A Review

March 29, 2012 at 4:55 pm (Reviews) (death, family relationships, households, jazz, kate morton, secrets, servants, The House at Riverton, world war)

Title: The House at Riverton

Author: Kate Morton

Publisher: Washington Square Press

Genre: Fiction

Length: 468 pages

Buy The House at Riverton

I fell in love with Kate Morton’s writing when I first read The Forgotten Garden, Morton’s ode to her love for Frances Hodgson Burnett. How appropriate then that I fall in love with her work all over again while reading The House at Riverton, Morton’s ode to all things F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ian McEwan’s Atonement – appropriate because I recently wept and swooned over Tanya Egan Gibson’s own ode to her love of The Great Gatsby (How To Buy a Love of Reading) and felt compelled to re-read the work myself. Apparently it is to be a year of the jazz age. I’m even on a mission to read the entire Agatha Christie Crime Collection. In honor of it all, I may be a flapper again for Halloween this year, but what I really want is that green dress Keira Knightly wears in Atonement and for my husband to take me to a play while I wear it. Of course, I no longer have the boyish figure of the jazz age, emaciated with Kate Hudson sized breasts, I haven’t had that since college. Now I have the soft roundness of motherhood.

But of course, I’m not talking about me, I’m supposed to be writing a review. That’s the thing about Kate Morton though, her work is beautiful and intricate and secretive and it feels so real. Although I get completely engrossed in her story (because she is an amazing story teller), by the end all I can think about is my own story, my own secrets. Obviously, nothing so dark and grand as love-babies out of wedlock and murder and suicide, but still she makes you think about all the things in your life left unsaid that will remain unsaid even after you die.

Morton wrote the elderly Grace beautifully. I imagine that is exactly how it must feel to be old. I loved her so much, and she reminded me so well of people I have met in nursing homes when I used to sing there. She left so many little hints of other pieces of Grace’s life outside of Riverton, I was left longing for more of Grace even after Hannah and Emmeline’s story was over. I wanted to dive into a spin off story of Grace on her archeological adventures and reconnection to Alfred. I know it wouldn’t be a best seller, wouldn’t hold the same magic with Grace’s deep dark secret already revealed and the last thoughts at her death already documented, but I wanted to have a little more of Grace nonetheless. That’s what makes Morton’s writing so great though, you don’t get tired of the story. She wraps everything up so nicely for you, but still leaves an inkling of longing in your heart for what is now done.

One thing that I must say to the masses about this book… if you are one of those that reads the last page first – DON’T. You will ruin the charm and the magic. I can’t imagine reading the last page first without the whole book losing its adventure.

Check out this blog to read a more detailed and descriptive review: http://gigilovesparis.blogspot.com/2009/12/house-at-riverton-by-kate-morton-review.html

2 Comments

Tanya Egan Gibson said,

March 30, 2012 at 3:49 pm

Now you have me adding The House at Riverton and The Forgotten Garden to my way-too-long need-to-read list. (This is good for my brain and soul; this is bad for my carpets, which don’t get vacuumed as often as they should, due to my reading, writing, and making-crafts-with-children addictions.) Thanks for the great book rec–it sounds like something I’ll love.

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hadleykaden said,

April 1, 2012 at 7:32 pm

I loved the Forgotten Garden! The House at Riverton is my spring break book…can’t wait!

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