Letting the House Go

by Robert Crooke

Overview

Richard Morris learns that his former wife, Irene, has entered a Long Island hospice and wishes to see him before she dies. Surprisingly, she has named him her executor. For two weeks he embraces his duties, visits Irene's bedside, and seeks reconciliation with their angry son, Henry. As Irene's death approaches, family and friends gather to support her. Richard feels drawn ever more deeply into their lives. Yet his place within their circle is uncertain until the final moments of his trip to the past-when he must confront a faulty memory, bitter grievances, and the stunning truth about his life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781956692259
Publisher:	Unsolicited Press
Publication date:	08/02/2022
Pages:	350
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.78(d)

About the Author

Robert Crooke is a journalist, media executive, and author. His poetry has been published in the West Hills Review: A Walt Whitman Journal, and his short fiction has appeared in The Paragon Journal, Literary Orphans Journal, and Linden Avenue Literary Journal. He began his career as a sports reporter and columnist for the Newhouse-owned Long Island Daily Press, and for thirteen years, he served as North American press spokesman for Reuters. Letting the House Go is his fifth novel. He and his wife reside in Bridgewater, CT. Catch up with him at his website: www.robertcrooke.com

Editorial Reviews

Letting the House Go will compel you to read it twice: The first, straight through, to discover where and how Richard Morris's journey will end. The second to savor the lyrical descriptions of Long Island and absorb Robert Crooke's profound insights into the human heart. His masterful prose guides the reader through a storm of memory and sins not easily forgiven towards faith in the notion that we can change who we are.
—KATIE KING, literary translator of Someone Speaks Your Name and A Form of Resistance, by Luis García Montero

Robert Crooke's haunting, elegant new novel is a meditation of regret, a contemplation of past sins—real and imagined—that asks whether cruel and selfish mistakes can be forgiven. Richly detailed descriptions of Long Island and its complex social history make Letting the House Go a first-rate read that affirms our faith in love's ability to endure.
—ANNE LEIGH PARRISH, author of an open door

Letting the House Go is a compelling voyage of discovery with all the elements that readers of Robert Crooke's luminous novels have come to expect: telling detail, poetic phrasing, intersections of class, race and gender, and explorations into the deep recesses of the human heart.
—EILEEN CHARBONNEAU, author of Mercies of the Fallen

From the Publisher

2022-08-02
A family novel focuses on rehabilitating ruptured ties and weaving new ones.

When the world looks at Richard Morris, it sees a successful novelist. But he is also a father and an ex-husband who has only glimpsed his son “a handful of times” in 20 years. When an attorney calls Richard and tells him that his ex-wife, Irene, is dying of cancer and would like him to be the executor of her estate, he is puzzled, but he hopes for a chance to rebuild his relationship with his son. Richard visits Irene in a hospice and learns that she has built an art collection worth more than $2 million. The focal point of the collection is a mysterious William Sidney Mount painting that had disappeared from public view until Irene’s attorney—once a suitor, now a friend—bought it at a Bridgehampton barn sale on Long Island and gave it to her without knowing its worth. As Richard learns more about the painting, he is glad that Irene has given him one “last, brief chance to be her husband.” But he also has to finish revising his new manuscript, which just happens to be “thinly veiled fiction about a youthful love affair and a ten-year marriage that end in bitter sadness.” He is pleased to find that his daughter-in-law and grandchildren welcome his appearance, but there is a mysterious tension surrounding his son, Henry. As Richard connects with meaningful people and places from his past, his life and the management of Irene’s estate become exponentially more complex. And that’s before the painting vanishes. Crooke’s restrained, subtle prose allows the plot to move swiftly, and Richard is a well-drawn protagonist. The supporting characters might be more believable with less dialogue and more characterization, and for a story set on Long Island’s East End, there are relatively few glimpses of the landscape and the white sails that “speckle the blue Long Island Sound.” But the solemn novel’s marriage of Long Island lore, art history, and family drama is ultimately a moving one.

Looking back is the only way to move forward in this poignant meditation on loss.

Kirkus Reviews