Book Review: The Storm at the Door

'The Storm at the Door'
Author: Stefan Merrill Block


Format: ARC
Published: Random House; June 2011
Pages: 368
Genre: Literary fiction
Grade: C
Source: TLC Tours


Synopsis: The past is not past for Katharine Merrill. Even after two decades of volatile marriage, Katharine still believes she can have the life that she felt promised to her by those first exhilarating days with her husband, Frederick. For two months, just before Frederick left to fight in World War II, Katharine received his total attentiveness, his limitless charms, his astonishing range of intellect and wit. Over the years, however, as Frederick’s behavior and moods have darkened, Katharine has covered for him, trying to rein in his great manic passions and bridge his deep wells of sadness: an unending project of keeping up appearances and hoping for the best. But the project is failing. Increasingly, Frederick’s erratic behavior, amplified by alcohol, distresses Katharine and their four daughters and gives his friends and family cause to worry for his sanity. When, in the summer of 1962, a cocktail party ends with her husband in handcuffs, Katharine makes a fateful decision: She commits Frederick to Mayflower Home, America’s most revered mental asylum. Inspired by elements of the lives of the author’s grandparents, this haunting love story shifts through time and reaches across generations.

My Take: I have a confession to make, books set in mental asylums freak me out. Anything set in mental asylums do really. I think it dates back to when we had to read One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest in AP History because it's based on a true story set near where I grew up and it all was just a little too close to home. Ever since then I avoid books and movies with insanse asylum settings like the plague. So why did I say I would participate in this tour? Who the heck knows! Perhaps I was having a brain fart that day. Honestly, I think I saw the cover and the part about WWII and thought, yes I love books set during WWII so I will read it. This book is not set in WWII, like at all. It's deals with it's aftermath. Which is fine. I made it through, without nightmares. I'm growing.

I find the concept for this book fascinating. As a kind of enduring tribute to the author's grandparents he has written a fictionalized story about their love life. It's an interesting concept having this story based on real people. Each section starts with photos which I can only assume are of the author's grandparents. The story, which centers on Katharine and Frederick is not a particularly flattering one. You can see how before the War, Katharine would have been swept up by Frederick. He was passionate and enigmatic. Like no one she had ever met. Then he left for war and came home and real life started. The books opens in earnest twenty years later. It's set in the early 1960's so they've been married for twenty years. He hasn't swept her off her feet in quite some time. Katherine wants her and her children to just feel safe.

For me, more than the scenes that take place in the mental asylum, what I had a hard time with was the progression of the story. It jumped around through time a lot. It started in the present with Katherine's grandchildren talking about her, and then back to Katherine in the '60s talking about 'that one fateful' night when Frederick was committed, then it would go further back in time to when they met, then over to Frederick to talk about his past and present, then to other patients. It was, for me, too much, too inconsistent, however interesting the story they were trying to tell may be.

Cover Lust: I think this cover is beautiful. To me it's the couple walking together hand in hand, towards the autumn of their lives, whatever that may bring.

For other opinions about this book, here's the full TLC Tour Schedule.