Castle

By J. Robert Lennon
(Graywolf Press, Paperback, 9781555975593, 240pp.)

Publication Date: April 27, 2010

Other Editions of This Title: Hardcover

Categories: Literary

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Description

Castle tells a terrific story, dire and confusing and convincing.” —Scott Bradfield, The New York Times Book Review

Eric Loesch, a private man with a shadowy past, returns to his hometown in rural New York, where he purchases a dilapidated house that he begins to renovate with steely determination. The adjacent woods on his property seem to beckon him, and he soon discovers a Gothic castle at the center of his land that he appears not to own. Loesch looks for an explanation, and the reader is drawn into a “terrifying and psychologically complex mystery signaling an important American writer in full command of his powers.”*




About the Author

J . ROBERT LENNON is the author of six novels and a story collection, Pieces for the Left Hand. His fiction has appeared in The Paris Review, Granta, Harper’s Magazine, Playboy, and The New Yorker. He lives in Ithaca, New York.




Conversation Starters from ReadingGroupChoices.com

  1. Eric Loesch evades the questions he is asked by the Gerrysberg townspeople, and at times he even grows belligerent in response to their prodding.  The reader does not initially know why he is keeping his distance from them or what he is being defensive about—what effect does this have on your perception of the protagonist?




Praise For Castle

“[This] slow-burning work turns into a quickly moving page turner, morphing into a brilliant, classical, psychological horror story that sticks to and gnaws at the bones. Comparisons to Jack London or Hemingway are obvious, but in Loesch, Lennon has invented his own dark-burning mythology.” —*JEFF BAKER, The Oregonian

“Lennon displays an expert ability to fracture his narrator’s iron resolve with a steady series of disquieting revelations.” —LAURA STOKES, Bookforum

“It’s only natural for novels to portray this chaotic moment in history, but few will tackle that task with the complexity and eeriness of [Castle] . . . [A] virtuoso performance.” —WILLIAM J. COBB, The Dallas Morning News

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