Cover of A house in earnest

A house in earnest

"A House in Earnest is a story of alternative forms of love and commitment that evolved for a generation coming to terms with the aftermath of Vietnam. On April 30, 1975 - the day Saigon falls to the North Vietnamese - Deborah Getsinger meets by chance a twenty-nine-year-old veteran, Christy Mahon, who is spending the day in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the hometown of a friend he saw blown up by a land mine.

Read more

After an erotic encounter, nineteen-year-old Deborah follows the haunted and edgy veteran to the White Mountains, where he teaches history at Franconia College and lives in a commune whose most vibrant and idealistic days have passed. From this beginning, this novel follows the intertwined lives of five people during the final twenty-five years of the twentieth century.".

"Deborah and Christy marry and form an extended family that includes their son, Ian, Deborah's friend, Sonia, and Sonia's daughter, Patience. In time Christy becomes more isolated and obsessed, as if human relationships pose the same threat as a live grenade, liable to explode at any moment. Through the years, Christy, Deborah, Sonia, and their children move in and out of each other's lives, facing changes in the culture and themselves.

When the "family" gathers for a Christmas in the mountains the adults reflect on the choices they made, and how those choices shaped their lives and those of their now-grown children."—BOOK JACKET.

Audience
adult
Length
medium · 261 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked A house in earnest? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked A house in earnest. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. The things we do to make it home Shares vietnamese conflict, veterans, vietnam war
  2. The mystery of the madman at Cornwall Crag Shares vietnamese conflict, veterans, vietnam war
  3. Jungle Jews of Vietnam Shares vietnamese conflict, veterans, vietnam war
  4. Homecoming Shares vietnamese conflict, veterans, vietnam war

“If you want more of the same, start with these.”

  1. Identity Crisis: A mystery with more twists and turns than an old country road
  2. Linkedin for Military: A Warrior's Guide for Changing Careers
  3. A Town Called Immaculate
  4. The Veteran's Survival Guide: How to File and Collect on VA Claims, Second Edition

“If it was the vietnamese conflict that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. Grey ghosts
  2. Carter Clay
  3. Behold the Fire
  4. A child's night dream

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Being Santa Claus: What I Learned about the True Meaning of Christmas
  2. The Things Our Fathers Saw: The Untold Stories of the World War II Generation from Hometown, USA-Voices of the Pacific Theater
  3. Bloodroot
  4. They Stood Alone!: 25 Men and Women Who Made a Difference