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The Keep

A Novel

By Jennifer Egan

(15)

| Audio CD | 9781572705609

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Book Description

Two cousins, devastated by a childhood prank, reunite twenty years later to renovate a castle in Eastern Europe. The fortress has a bloody history that stretches back hundreds of years. Amid extreme paranoia and eerie silence, the men reenact the signal event of their youth, with even more catastropContinue

Critics

Into the Labyrinth

Jennifer Egan is a refreshingly unclassifiable novelist; she deploys most of the arsenal developed by the metafiction writers of the 1960’s and refined by more recent authors like William T. Vollmann and David Foster Wallace — but she can’t exactly b ... (read full critics)

nytimes published on Sat, 18 Sep 2010

The Keep By Jennifer Egan

Egan's third novel is a chilling modern-gothic story set in Manhattan and Europe. The story's narrator, a convict named Ray, is spinning the tale for his prison creative writing class, in hopes of getting close to his teacher. The story he conjures u ... (read full critics)

bookpage published on Tue, 14 Sep 2010

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2 Reviews

1 person find this helpful

Leaves you wanting more, but not in a good way

I was really intrigued by the concept of 'The Keep' when I read reviews. Was it a mystery set in a medeval castle? A story of redemption for a former meth-addict writing teacher and/or the convicted murderer inmate?
As it turned out it's none of the above. Ms Egan starts with a tempting story ... (continue)

I was really intrigued by the concept of 'The Keep' when I read reviews. Was it a mystery set in a medeval castle? A story of redemption for a former meth-addict writing teacher and/or the convicted murderer inmate?
As it turned out it's none of the above. Ms Egan starts with a tempting storyline, and lets it drift away. The reader leaves the E. Europe setting with a story far from complete - that we've spent most of the book building up. As we enter the parallel confines of the prison (which, itself, has an insubstantial - almost irrelevant - subplot), we aren't given enough time/pages to appropriately transition the well-earned suspense to the new setting/characters. One track ends before its ready - the other is never really allowed to begin. It would be one thing to leave the reader dangling if the story pointed back to us - daring us to self-reflect - but it doesn't.
All said, the story has unrealized promise. I'm left wanting more - wishing Ms Egan had finished the thought she started, rather than abandoning it in favor of a story she has no intention of taking to a satisfying conclusion.

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Andyberschauer said on Mar 11, 2009 about the Hardcover edition | 1 feedback

twist upon twist a gothic novel you will actually like

If even last week you had told me I would be writng a favorable review about a castle and its cast of characters including a crazy dutchess, a goth party boy from New York and an excentric former fund manager with a dark past (not forgetting the parallel story of a prisoner in a modern jail), I neve ... (continue)

If even last week you had told me I would be writng a favorable review about a castle and its cast of characters including a crazy dutchess, a goth party boy from New York and an excentric former fund manager with a dark past (not forgetting the parallel story of a prisoner in a modern jail), I never would have believed you. Jennifer Egan does it again -a story that surprises you and makes you reflect on life choices at the same time. For once I love two books from the same author (don't miss Look at Me).

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Gail Paris said on Oct 8, 2009 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback