House

Steven Lehman teaches English at John Abbot College in Montreal.

This novel tells the story of an illiterate young woman searching for
her identity, in the form of a document that will reveal the names of
her parents. The search is set in the aftermath of an
environmental/nuclear Mishap, which has laid waste to North America and
all but destroyed London where the House is located.

The narrative is highly symbolic. The reader gets few details about the
causes, nature, or extent of the Mishap. Rather, it stands for the
ultimate collapse of our patriarchal society. Likewise, the House is a
symbolically broken-down wreck haunted by its own historical
obsolescence. The heroine, Tots, and others are trapped there during the
Master’s final days in power. She never manages to find the document,
but does manage to blow the top off the House, the old patriarchal
structure of society. In the end she is liberated to create her own
identity.

The premise of House is familiar, but the novel has style, even flashes
of poetic brilliance. Some of the characters are strikingly portrayed,
but only Tots has any real depth. The elements of an exciting plot are
all present, but are not conscientiously developed. Unfortunately,
dramatic conflict has become suspect because it is a standard ingredient
in the old patriarchal literature.