DREAM HOUSE by Catherine Armsden (F)

I wonder how many of us pass by houses like the one in this story and wonder who lives there and what secrets the house holds.  Occasionally we might see a shadow pass inside or light go on in an upstairs bedroom as we hurry by in the dark.  Catherine Armsden has let us in on the secrets of one such house, the family who lived there, and the girls who grew up there.  Like the characters in this book, the place we call home has meaning in our lives.  Whether happy or unhappy, our childhood home is more vivid in our memory than any other place we lived.

This is the story of a successful architect named Gina Gilbert who lives in San Francisco with her husband and two children.  Gina is reasonably happy until her parents die in an automobile accident and returning to the old home she grew up in causes her to reevaluate her life and her past.  More than just a story of Gina and her sister Cassie, the novel is the story of two old homes on the Maine coast, each hiding a secret.  The house Gina and Cassie grew up in is about to be sold and while Cassie takes it in her stride, it is profoundly unsettling to Gina.  The other house in the same coastal town is the historic Banton House, the old family homestead which has been turned into a museum of the colonial period.  Their Banton ancestor was an aide to George Washington.  Sometime in the history of the family, an historically important cache of letters written by Washington have gone missing.  It would seem reasonable to suspect that one of these houses contains the letters.

The author is an architect herself and her best writing is in the descriptions of these lovely old homes.  She also grew up in a similar home on the Maine coast, and the descriptions of the seaside  and townspeople are realistic and will be familiar to most New Englanders.

Gina's attachment to her home is real, but her relationship to her husband, children and family doesn't substantiate the anxiety she suffers and some of the choices she makes.  There are a number of interesting characters who play a part in Gina's life and I would like to have known more about them.

I especially like that the author begins each chapter with a quote by an architect or about a house.  Gina muses, "Perhaps in this world there were no owners or enters, only borrowers choosing a bit of ground to call home during their short stay on earth."  It is a nice sentiment as she struggles with saying good-by to the the most important place in her past.  Armsden has chosen to write a lovely tribute to past memories.