The Keep, by Jennifer Egan

The New YorkerAugust 21, 2006Friday, April 14, 2006

"This neo-gothic tale conjures a wicked form of therapy for BlackBerry-addicted urbanites...Egan's clever scenario presents Danny's mental liberation as both thrilling and dangerous--imagination is the ultimate drug, she suggests--and the novel luxuriates in Wilkie Collins-style atmospherics."

And from Jennifer Egan's website:

"Two cousins, irreversibly damaged by a childhood prank whose devastating consequences changed both their lives, reunite twenty years later to renovate a medieval castle in Eastern Europe, a castle steeped in blood lore and family pride. Built over a secret system of caves and tunnels, the castle and its violent history invoke and subvert all the elements of a gothic past: twins, a pool, an old baroness, a fearsome tower. In an environment of extreme paranoia, cut off from the outside world, the men reenact the signal event of their youths, with even more catastrophic results. And as the full horror of their predicament unfolds, a prisoner, in jail for an unnamed crime, recounts an unforgettable story—a story about two cousins who unite to renovate a castle...—that brings the crimes of the past and present into piercing relation."

We had a good discussion about this book, because of all of the various plotlines. There were different views on interpretation, especially concerning the story of the prisoner v. the story of the cousins and what they each represented....