Hausfrau: A Novel Paperback – August 4, 2015

Extolling the virtues of the novel, Hausfrau, by Jill Alexander Essbaum, published in 2015, you might want to begin with the fact that the author takes the reader on a personally guided tour of a serene and scenic wonderland, a place where most of us have never been, but have always have wanted to visit; namely the Switzerland of "Heidi," maybe not exactly a classic fairy tale kingdom, but as interesting and intriguing a dream destination as could well be imagined. The novel's leading character initially gives you the impression that she is a worldly woman who knows the city of Zurich and the surrounding cantons, practically as well as any native. Fact two, you quickly learn that she is well-versed in the finer points of the English language and its antecedent grammar. Specifically, she dissects and conjugates sentences faster and easier than I could catch a fish in the creek, clean it, and have it on the table in time for supper. Moreover, she becomes so well acquainted with the Swiss version of the German language as to its structure and meaning in such detail, that she would suitably impress both linguists and ethnologists alike. She also translates Swiss concepts into the English vernacular rather well in the process. Fact three, you are just as surprised by her in-depth knowledge of philosophical inquiry and deeply religious discourse. She presents valid, metaphysical lines of reasoning and complicated ontological arguments. For example, she openly questions free will, the nature and existence of a Supreme Being, and the After Life. Fact four, you become fascinated by the progress she makes in revealing and explaining certain subtleties in the sciences of psychiatry and psycho-analysis regarding mental health, in general. You may feel awkward and uncomfortable about it at first, eavesdropping on weeks and weeks of regularly scheduled therapy sessions, like some sneaky, hedonistic voyeur, but at the same time, you become intensely curious about what actually happens in the condensed, underlying, transpiring thought processes. You think, there's one hard and fast rule: "You can't fool your shrink!" "Or, can you?" Then it slowly begins to dawn on you, "Nobody gets very far on booze, tranquilizers, pretentiousness, and modulating self-esteem on the road to recovery." "Or, do they?" Moderation and modernization seems to be the key. Personally, at this point, I began reading between the lines, splicing plots into the story that simply weren't there, and interjecting subterfuges. "Is there a hidden agenda I'm missing?" I must have been reading too many pulp detective stories or watching too many episodes of "Greed" on television in recent months. Not to mention, the hot topics of war and spying that cropped up and crept into my meandering thoughts. Even today, four decades later, there are people walking around out there who never got over the war in Vietnam. It just goes to show you, "Not everybody can be as neutral and unaffected as the Swiss." Fact five, the author sets the reader up with her character's complete lack of knowledge about high finance and the Swiss banking system. So, my mind is working overtime and operating in overdrive trying to figure out the best angles for how such tremendous quantities of bank funds are efficiently and effectively translated into private hands and individual pockets. But this tangential inquiry would be revealing too much and stepping on too many toes, I suppose. The author's leading character might have been so much more, but surely she was never meant to be an ordinary, conniving gold-digger, or a conspiratorial, over-achieving socialite. Not that I wouldn't accuse her of emulating either one or the other. Besides she might have been pushed too far, too fast, and too much. R. Royce checked his precision Swiss watch. "Let me see if I have this correct," he said, looking up. "You know someone who lives in a townhouse complex adjacent to a party who plays his stereo home theater system much too loudly on week-ends, and often late into the night. You told him that you would help convince this party that it would be in his best interest to keep the sound level to a minimum." "That's about right," said Cornelius Korn, his friend of many years and a close business associate. "Exactly how do you propose that we achieve this lofty goal?" inquired Royce. "I assume Sparky and the motorcycle gang, including 'Spud Mackenzie,' the original pit-bull party animal might not want to cooperate and go along, peacefully and quietly." "Right again," said Korn. "You're on a roll. But I've considered that possibility." "So, what are we going to do about it?" asked Royce, in a non-committal tone. "Interestingly enough, and fortunately for us, Sparky, Spud, Spike, and their three vivacious girlfriends have solved their own problem for us," said Korn, obviously pleased with his recent discovery. "How so, if you don't mind my asking?" said Royce, not yet entirely convinced. "The gang has stolen two delivery vans to use as getaway vehicles, and they are in the process of holding up a large bank, as we speak," said Korn, resisting the urge to smile and suppressing the tendency to gloat at having learned inside information. "Let me guess, damage control. You know where they're going!" said Royce. Korn continued. "The guys will drop off the cash they've obtained, at the rendezvous with the girls, who will then transport it to the townhouse and put it in a hidden safe. The guys will drive to an isolated and abandoned warehouse, where they will leave the empty vans. From there, they will climb in their own vehicles and travel south for relaxation on a fishing trip that is long overdue. Their plan is pure and simple, but not fool-proof." The terrific trio made the ten o'clock news that very same evening. They had been surrounded, apprehended, and swiftly taken into custody by the sage Delaware County Sheriff and his deputies without further incident, in the vicinity of the second spillway at the Grand Lake recreational area. The next day, Royce rapped gently on the townhouse door of the friend's noisy neighbors. Dolores opened the door and was confronted by someone she'd never met before, but would have liked to get to know better. He took his time looking inside the living room and saw Pebble and Fawn seated wide-eyed and innocently on the living room sofa. "Good afternoon," he said, amicably. "I'm your 'Good Neighbor Sam,' with the Homeowner's Association. I hope I'm not disturbing you with this intrusion, but would like to take this opportunity to remind you of our 'quiet hours' policy. As you may be aware, we do not permit excessively loud music in the picture-postcard cottage setting of our lovely gated community. The first time you're given a verbal warning. The second time we issue you a nominal penalty, a token fine, if you will. We call it 'hush money.' Can we count on your full support in this matter of great import?" "You've convinced me. We're certainly going to be much quieter in the future. We'll be on our best behavior. We've obviously been warned," spouted out Dolores, defiantly. "I'm turning over a new leaf, beginning today," pouted Fawn, slightly modifying her original position. "We'll be as silent as tiny little church mice on Sunday," said Pebble, reluctantly, but outspoken nonetheless. "Thanks a million," said Royce. "We truly appreciate your understanding and cooperation. Have a nice day." "They had to see what they could get away with, didn't they?" said Meghan. "Do you think we can find them jobs with the CIA? They seem like such nice girls." "Enterprising, too. Perhaps something part-time during the party season," said Royce. "They'll require passports. Our former station chief would have been proud of us after this little escapade. He's always held such healthy, pro-active, and open-minded views concerning our extra-curricular activities. "Who? Hugh?" asked Korn, in disbelief.

Such an interesting book. So well written. Such an unlikable main character--and unlikable minor ones. Anna seems to need sex the way other addicts need drugs. It is the thing she thinks is salving her wounds. But here is the thing that kept me from fully embracing the book: We receive no information that clearly illuminates where these wounds and Anna's depression/addictive behavior/self-destructive tendencies came from. The glimpses we are given of her childhood seem to indicate she was well-loved and nurtured and that she had friends, cousins, and mentors. One scene shows her sobbing in the high school library, where she is gently comforted by someone, but even that episode did not illuminate where this sadness arose.Anna's husband, Bruno, is a pretty cold, withholding sort, but he seems to be an engaged, loving father to their three children, and their own sex life seems to be--if not thriving--at least present. And they have a good, well-appointed if small home.Anna's mother-in-law, Ursula, is supportive at least in her availability to look after the children (perhaps if Ursula hadn't been so available, Anna wouldn't have had so many opportunities to stray, but I digress). Ursula does not trust nor fully embrace Anna, but she is there for her in her own way.The therapist is, to me, thoroughly unlikable. She seems to be providing nothing at all that helps or motivates Anna. In her defense, however, Anna is not telling everything the doctor needs in order to be able to provide any actual help. I found the scenes with the doctor to be frustrating. We hear almost nothing of what Anna IS telling the doctor, but a lot of how the doctor responds. And her actions when Anna comes to her in obvious, blatant need is one of the cruelest scenes in the book. If Anna had been the type to phone the doctor or bang on the doors at all hours with petty needs or selfish demands, I could see the doctor turning Anna away as she did. But her dismissal of such a desperate person seemed almost beyond the pale.The scene where she finally calls Stephen is brilliant. I was screaming inside for Anna to tell! tell! tell! Someone should know who this poor child's father is! Someone! He shouldn't be able to go through the rest of his life so innocently! But the author is stronger than I am. It was shattering.But the final scenes sealed it for me. She is shedding, shedding, shedding. She is summarily shoved out the door by her husband who has allowed her to take with her only the smallest amount of material things from their life, their marriage, her motherhood. She sheds these when she leaves them on the train. She then sheds her last link to her world when she tosses her phone into the water. Then she ends it.The comparisons to Anna(!) Karinina and Emma Bovary are obvious, as the author intended. This will probably not be entered into that pantheon, however, but this was a great read nonetheless.

Hausfrau tells the story of housewife, Anna Benz, who lives outside Zurich with her husband, Bruno, and their three children. Anna, who is American, is unable to drive and cannot speak either German or Swiss German.I finished the book last week and immediately wanted to re-read it (I did). There were a number of things which appealed to me about it. I loved the Swiss setting and, as I have known people who have lived the ex-pat life in Basel for many years, it was easy for me to substitute the references. One of my friends who lived there also didn’t drive or learn the language and I remember the issues that this raised.Anna is a strange woman. When the novel opens she is clearly unhappy with her life and, perhaps more importantly, with herself. This leads her into affairs with various men, most of which she embarks on impulsively and extremely quickly. One of these has taken place before the novel opens. It is clear that this was a significant relationship for Anna, the loss of which she has not got over. Anna sees a Jungian psycho-analyst weekly, and the reader is privy to some of the questions and observations of both Anna and her analyst. In addition, she has finally enrolled for German lessons. There are repeated sections which explore the relationship between language (specifically grammar and vocabulary) and concepts. Having studied French and German at university I found these explorations fascinating. Other sections meditated on how language and thought might be inter-connected. I was interested in these also as this is something which Psychology considers. In addition a number of philosophical questions are raised, and many psychological ones. I found all of these utterly transporting.I think that Hausfrau is an extremely brave book. Essbaum has taken a number of risks and has, it would seem, stuck to her guns and written the book she wanted in the way she wanted. Anna is not particularly endearing. She is self-destructive, self-regarding and deceitful. Whether these traits have arisen as a result of her unhappiness, or whether it’s how she is, is interesting to consider. It is indisputable that Anna’s actions and behaviour hurt others – in the way that many people who are unhappy, sadly, are unable to stop themselves from hurting others. But I didn’t find her irritating, and I didn’t see her as ‘a bored housewife’. I felt extremely sympathetic towards her. She came across as someone who was lost, who did want things but was split off from many of her own feelings, desires and motivations, perhaps as a result of depression, to the extent that she didn’t really know what she wanted. Her day-to-day existence seems to be one of anxiety and suffering and dissociation. To this extent I see her as immobilised by many of her feelings rather than globally passive. Anna has been compared to other characters in literature who have greater passion than her, and less passivity. I think this is a bit unfair: Essbaum wasn’t writing those stories. She was writing a different one.Some of the sections with detail on Zurich and Dietlikon (where Anna lives), language, and Anna’s psycho-analysis may not appeal to everyone. For me there was a bit too much geographical and ‘tourist’ information but it’s clear from what the author has said about the book that this information is important to her. Everything else I found completely delicious. Some of it didn’t add to the plot or characterisation but I didn’t mind at all as I simply found it interesting. Much of Essbaum’s writing is lovely. There are phrases, images, metaphors which made me hold my breath. There is quite a bit of jumping around in the narrative and timeline, and between various parts of the story. Sometimes this jars in books, and pulls the reader out of the story, but I didn’t find this with Hausfrau.It isn’t a plot driven novel, nor particularly character driven in my opinion. It is Anna’s story and I would describe it as a theme driven book. This doesn’t mean that there isn’t a plot. There is. But it is quite leisurely and takes a back seat to themes. The events which unfold felt inevitable in their nature. Anna is hurtling out of control, taking risks and not attending fully to areas of her life. As I was reading I sensed that something bad was going to happen. What I loved about Hausfrau was that it made me think about how much control we have over our lives, how easy it is for a person to change learned behaviours and responses, where responsibility and accountability lie, what unhappiness is … and a whole lot more. I was also aware of thinking that there were a number of directions the plot could go in and would have been happy with several of these. The above may sound quite analytical and neutral. All I can say is that Hausfrau is an extraordinary book. It kept me spellbound for several days. It left me completely breathless and unable to move.

Hausfrau proved to be an absorbing tale that preyed upon my mind a number of days before I felt able to review it. On a simplistic level it appears to be about a bored expat housewife who spends her time bouncing from bed to bed. With more reflection, the reader can appreciate Anna's quest for belonging, a greater meaning of life and even 'some version of love'.This book is well crafted with numerous threads running in tandem. The main story is about modern day happenings of Anna and her family interwoven with excerpts from her German class, her sessions with her therapist and flashbacks from a couple years before. It takes a talented story wrangler to keep those threads running smoothly without causing confusion. Complete mission success on that front! I found the therapy sessions most informative. It showed how intelligent and witty Anna could be whether captured in her comments or thoughts. She is much more than a mindless adulterer.I felt for Anna. There is a pointless element of tragedy about her existence. Though I figured out where the story was headed, I was not turned off by it. I wanted more for her than, perhaps, she wanted for herself.Hausfrau is a beautifully written, well balanced novel that sticks in your mind long after finishing the final page.

I really wanted to love this book - I'd heard lots of good things about it. However, I found it an immensely frustrating novel. The characters' relationships with one another were entirely lacking in humanity/humour and sort of inexplicable beyond the basic 'I quite like having sex' angle. There was a certain inevitability to how it all played out. I skimmed through the last fifty pages. It's very risky and brave to have a main character who is struggling with depression since it leads to a somewhat affectless take on events, but I don't think it was a risk that paid off here, sadly. Having said that, I think the author really accomplished what she set out to do and demonstrated considerable talent in doing so.

I loved this book. the writing is exquisite, so layered, so deep. There is no shock value, just honesty; no hook, just the desire to stay with the characters, especially Anna. I rooted for her, hoped she would find her way through the stultifying boredom that drives her to seek solace in meaningless sexual encounters. Then we learn that she has loved, still loves. Anna is distant, detached, losing hope. I didn't warm to the analogies with grammar (Anna is taking German classes) or the sessions she has with her psychiatrist which I didn't feel added much for me, but this book is worth reading for so many reasons: the descriptions of Zurich, the detailed portrayal of a woman who is struggling to find meaning, the honesty and rawness of the writing. If nothing else, read it for the killer last line!

Hausfrau is one of those rare novels that buries deep into your psyche, right from the first page. The protagonist, Anna, is troubled and unlikeable, but this makes for an interesting read. I liked learning about the different aspects of Zurich and Switzerland - from topography to character traits - and the comparisons of German vocabulary to Anna are a nice touch. What's more, the third-person narrative has been a revelation to me. I'm used to reading first-person viewpoint texts, but I enjoyed seeing the story unfold from an objective stance. Warning: this probably isn't the best book to read if you're feeling down or depressed due to the frank and uncompromising tone.