From Powells.com
The maturity of Elizabeth
McCracken's 1993 debut collection,
Here's Your Hat, What's Your Hurry?,
suggested the arrival of a major new literary talent. Her first novel more than
fulfilled this promise. Not only was
The Giant's House a finalist for the
National Book Award,
McCracken was also named one of the 20 Best Young American Novelists by
Granta
magazine.
McCracken subtitled The Giant's House "a romance," and this
is true. But her love story is hardly conventional. At twenty-six, Peggy Cort
is already an almost comically stereotypical librarian: reserved, orderly, sensible
shoes... She takes a very unconventional interest, though, in one of her regulars,
a young boy name James Carlson Sweatt. But James is not an ordinary eleven-year-old,
and not just because he reads so many good books. He has a very rare disease
commonly known as Gigantism. During the decade covered in the book, James grows
from being an unusually tall boy into, at eight feet seven inches, the tallest
man in the world. Aside from the many physical and emotional difficulties he
faces adjusting to both his unwieldy body and unwanted celebrity, James must
also struggle to deal with another fact of his disease: gigantism is ultimately
fatal. As Peggy comes to realize and eventually acknowledge her feelings for
James, their most singular pairing resonates with the loneliness and longing
inherent in all human relationships. Farley, Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Named one of the 20 Best Young American Novelists by Granta magazine, Elizabeth McCracken is a writer of fabulous gifts.
The Giant's House, her first novel, is an unforgettably tender and quirky novel about the strength of choosing to love in a world that offers no promises, and no guarantees.
The year is 1950, and in a small town on Cape Cod twenty-six-year-old librarian Peggy Cort feels like love and life have stood her up. Until the day James Carlson Sweatt--the "over-tall" eleven-year-old boy who's talk of the town-walks into her library and changes her life forever. Two misfits whose lonely paths cross at the circulation desk, Peggy and James are odd candidates for friendship, but nevertheless they find their lives entwined in ways that neither one could have predicted. And as James grows--six foot five at age twelve, then seven feet, then eight--so does Peggy's heart and their most singular romance.Named one of the 20 Best Young American Novelists by Granta magazine, Elizabeth McCracken is a writer of fabulous gifts. The Giant's House, her first novel, is an unforgettably tender and quirky novel about the strength of choosing to love in a world that offers no promises, and no guarantees.
The year is 1950, and in a small town on Cape Cod twenty-six-year-old librarian Peggy Cort feels like love and life have stood her up. Until the day James Carlson Sweatt--the "over-tall" eleven year-old boy who's talk of the town--walks into her library and changes her life forever. Two misfits whose lonely paths cross at the circulation desk, Peggy and James are odd candidates for friendship, but nevertheless they find their lives entwined in ways that neither one could have predicted. And as James grows--six foot five at age twelve, then seven feet, then eight--so does Peggy's heart and their most singular romance.
Review
"Such is the incantatory power of McCracken's eccentric tale that by its close we are completely in the grip of its strangely conceived ardor....I was reminded at various points of Harper Lee, Marjorie Kellogg, Carson McCullers and Walker Percy." Daphne Merkin, The New Yorker
Review
"A true marvel...thoroughly enjoyable from its unlikely beginning to its bittersweet end...McCracken knows all kinds of subtle, enticing secrets of the heart and conveys them in silky, transparent language." San Francisco Chronicle
Review
"This book is my kind of romance fated and complicated, with a heroine who is as difficult as I could want...a woman who wins you over the the audacity of her obsessions". Dorothy Allison, author of Bastard out of Carolina
Synopsis
Named one of the 20 Best Young American Novelists by
Granta magazine, Elizabeth McCracken is a writer of fabulous gifts.
The Giant's House, her first novel, is an unforgettably tender and quirky novel about the strength of choosing to love in a world that offers no promises, and no guarantees.
The year is 1950, and in a small town on Cape Cod twenty-six-year-old librarian Peggy Cort feels like love and life have stood her up. Until the day James Carlson Sweatt the "over-tall" eleven-year-old boy who's talk of the town walks into her library and changes her life forever. Two misfits whose lonely paths cross at the circulation desk, Peggy and James are odd candidates for friendship, but nevertheless they find their lives entwined in ways that neither one could have predicted. And as James grows six foot five at age twelve, then seven feet, then eight so does Peggy's heart and their most singular romance.
Synopsis
The year is 1950 and at 26, librarian Peggy Cort feels like love and life have passed her by. Until the day James Carlson Sweatt, the "over-tall" 11-year-old boy who's the talk of the town, walks into her library and changes her life forever. Two misfits whose lonely paths cross at the circulation desk, Peggy and James are odd candidates for friendship, but nevertheless they soon find their lives entwined in ways that neither one could have predicted.
Synopsis
The year is 1950. Peggy Cort, a librarian in a small Cape Cod town, is 26 and has begun to fear that she will live her life without ever experiencing love's transforming power. Until she meets James, 11 years old, six foot four, and still growing. Quietly heroic about his predicament, James checks out books on conjuring and gigantism, and they soon find their lives entwined in ways that neither of them could have predicted. In James, Peggy discovers the one person suited to encompass her love, and as he grows six foot five at age 12, then seven feet, then eight so does her heart and their most singular romance. This stunning first novel was a finalist for a National Book Award in Fiction in 1996.
About the Author
Elizabeth McCracken is the author of the ALA Notable story collection Here's Your Hat What's Your Hurry. She has received grants from the Michener Foundation, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and the National Endowment for the Arts, and, in 1996, was named one of the 20 Best Young American Novelists by Granta magazine. The Giant's House was a finalist for the National Book Award in fiction. She lives in Massachusetts, where, until recently, she was a full-time librarian. She is now at work on her second novel.
Reading Group Guide
For Discussion:
1. Elizabeth McCracken subtitles her book "A Romance." Why does she use this term? Does she mean it literally, or ironically? In what ways does the novel depart from the kind of story that is usually classified as romance?
2. Peggy begins her story with the sentence, "I do not love mankind." Do you believe this statement to be true? Do you find Peggy's real character to be different from the character she tries to present to the reader?
3. Why has Peggy chosen to be a librarian? What aspects of the work conform with her own character and predilections?
4. What are the reasons for Mrs. Sweatt's deep sadness? What differences, and what similarities, exist between Mrs. Sweatt and Peggy? What does Peggy mean when she says "We are the truly sad" (p. 74)? Do you believe that Mrs. Sweatt's overdose was deliberate?
5. Peggy calls herself "an unimaginative woman" (p. 120). Do you find this to be true? If not, why does she make such a claim? What roles do imagination and fantasy play in her life?
6. How do you interpret James's feelings for Stella? Does he fall in love with her? If so, what kind of love is it, and how does it compare with the kind of passionPeggy feels for him?
7. What is the significance of Rocket Bride in the story? Why does Rocket Bride, halfway through the novel, acquire a baby? What relation does Rocket Bride bear, not only to Mrs. Sweatt, but to Peggy herself?
8. How does James's character change and develop during the course of the novel? How do his feelings about his size, and his strange plight, readjust themselves? What effect, if any, does Patty Flood have upon James's outlook?
9. How do strangers, and even friends, react to James's size? Is anyone Ù including Peggy Ù able to forget his height for a moment? What do their reactions say about our feelings for the abnormal? Why do circus freaks continue to exert a fascination upon us?
10. Is Dr. Calloway's "Giantism: Report of a Case" an accurate or scientific study? In what ways does it present a false picture of James? What does this report say about Dr. Calloway's own character? What does it imply about the nature of scientific observation?
11. Peggy says that the act of giving oneself to others, of existing for other people, is "a selfishness" (p. 234). Is this true? Are Peggy's many "unselfish" acts in actuality an expression of selfishness?
12. "By now," Peggy says at the end of her story, "you are tired of me insisting, but it wasn't sex" (p. 250). To what extent in fact was, or was not, her passion for James a sexual one? Is it possible entirely to separate sex and love?
13. How would you describe Peggy's motivations for her sexual encounter with Calvin Sweatt? Do you believe, as she does, that subconsciously she wanted James's child? Given a chance, might she have grown to love Calvin himself?
14. Peggy says thatshe and James had "a true, real marriage" (p. 290), and states that they loved one another. Do you believe that James loved Peggy in the same way that she loved him? Do you think that he was "in love"? Was he drawn to her, or did he simply come to feel affection, and to accept her presence?
About the Author:
Elizabeth McCracken is the author of a collection of short stories, HERE'S YOUR HAT WHAT'S YOUR HURRY, which was named an ALA Notable Book for 1994. She lives in Massachusetts, where she worked as a full-time librarian until recently. She has received grants from the Michener Foundation, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1996 she was named one of the Twenty Best Young Novelists in America by Granta magazine. Ms. McCracken is now at work on her second novel.