Rebecca Makkai’s new novel, The Hundred-Year House, is a mystery that takes an unusual form: the Chicago author begins with a happy ending, then progresses backward in time, simultaneously revealing the origins of various deceptions that got the narrative so tangled in the first place and laying down the clues that have already been uncovered in part one. It’s one of those books that improves on a rereading, so you can see how all the pieces fall into place. (And there’s no cheating: you won’t learn anything by reading the last page first.)
A novel with a plot so tightly constructed runs the risk of becoming overly determined and airless, but Makkai gives her characters enough space to breathe and plan and act so that the story feels like a natural progression of events, told with a mixture of humor and foreboding. “As [Zee] sped to town she developed the leaden sensation, though, that she hadn’t just been right in her fears, but had actually caused something, yet again, to happen. . . . She was getting everything she wanted, but also—like in a nightmare, where you’re the author and also the victim—she was getting everything she feared.”
by Rebecca Makkai (Viking)
Reading Sat 8/9, 7 PM the Book Cellar 4736-38 N. Lincoln 773-293-2665bookcellarinc.com Free
