The Big House
A Century in the Life of An American Summer Home
Book - 2004 | 1st Scribner trade pbk. ed.
National Book Award Finalist and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year
Faced with the sale of the century-old family summer house on Cape Cod where he had spent forty-two summers, George Howe Colt returned for one last stay with his wife and children. This poignant tribute to the eleven-bedroom jumble of gables, bays, and dormers that watched over weddings, divorces, deaths, anniversaries, birthdays, breakdowns, and love affairs for five generations interweaves Colt's final visit with memories of a lifetime of summers.
Run-down yet romantic, The Big House stands not only as a cherished reminder of summer's ephemeral pleasures but also as a powerful symbol of a vanishing way of life.
Faced with the sale of the century-old family summer house on Cape Cod where he had spent forty-two summers, George Howe Colt returned for one last stay with his wife and children. This poignant tribute to the eleven-bedroom jumble of gables, bays, and dormers that watched over weddings, divorces, deaths, anniversaries, birthdays, breakdowns, and love affairs for five generations interweaves Colt's final visit with memories of a lifetime of summers.
Run-down yet romantic, The Big House stands not only as a cherished reminder of summer's ephemeral pleasures but also as a powerful symbol of a vanishing way of life.
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Publisher:
New York, NY : Scribner, 2004.
Edition:
1st Scribner trade pbk. ed.
Copyright Date:
©2003
ISBN:
9780743249645
074324964X
074324964X
Branch Call Number:
974.492 COLT
Characteristics:
viii, 327 pages ; 24 cm
Alternative Title:
Century in the life of an American summer home
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Add a Commentmore a history of cape cod.
Excellent book for anyone who has ever owned a summer home, especially a family one that has been in the family for many years. Author's detail is superb in his description of the home and the family who lived in it. While it is a large Cape Cod home in the family for over 4 generations so the activities and setting might be different from those of us who own summer homes in the Midwest, the feelings and sentiments will be readily identifiable and appreciated by all of us.
Colt tells the story of a summer home on Cape Cod that was built in 1903 and that he spent summers at regularly all his life. Not only is it the story of an interesting house, but it is also a social history of summer homes on the Cape and a family history. Colt talks about the last summer he spent at the house with his wife and young children, and reminisces about the time he spent as a child. He also delves back further into the lives of his grandparents and great-grandparents. Also included are aunts, uncles, and cousins. He talks about the family secrets, including mental illness, and about the summer family relationship with the locals. This is an interesting book, that I thoroughly enjoyed. It made me want to explore and pick through all the things in the Big House, to see what interesting things came to light. It also reminded me of the farmhouse I spent some of my summer vacation at for most of my childhood, a house that my grandparents lived in.