Playing House

by Fredrica Wagman, Philip Roth (Foreword by)

When Playing House appeared in 1973, Publishers Weekly hailed it, “A probing descent into madness that will fascinate the same audience that appreciated I Never Promised You a Rose Garden.” This nationally bestselling story of one woman’s struggle with the lasting effects of a childhood sexual relationship with her brother shocked American readers; it remains a literary work of enduring quality and value. In his foreword Philip Roth writes, “The traumatized child; the institutionalized wife; the haunting desire; the ghastly business of getting through the day – what is striking about Wagman’s treatment of these contemporary motifs is the voice of longing in which the heroine shamelessly confesses to the incestuous need that is at once her undoing and her only hope.”

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

Reviews

[Danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alright, here's the thing: this was a sort of personel dare for me. When I saw a post on BookBlogs about how they were distributing review copies of Playing House, I was a bit hesitant. This is completly out of my comfort zone--hell, it's probably out of everybody's comfort zone. It's about an unnamed women, living in a haze of what was once real life after years of a slightly abusive, sexual relationship with her brother. The prose is hard to describe...a combination between childlike confusion and detached surealism, laying out the women's slow, painful dessent into madness like a thin, muddy blanket. No one in this book is given a name--the closest it comes is the nickname the narrator has for her husband, the Turtle. It is the women, her brother, her mother, her father, her shrink, her children, her husband. Never named, giving the entire novel a hazy feel to it, perfectly reflecting the narrator's state of mind.

It's remenisent of other novels such as Girl; Interupted and The Bell Jar, in that it demenstrates a women's fall to insanity during the late sixties, when insanity was basically banishment. Except Playing House touches an entirely new spectrum hardly understood in today's society (much less the sixties), taking something taboo and avoided and slapping it in the reader's faces, forcing them to look and see and hear what the narrator has to say, no matter how much we don't want to. This isn't to say that the entire novel is an expanded "The More You Know" segmant. It isn't. It's not preaching about how "this is a real problem, we must save da children!!!!!" or anything like that. It really is a character piece, a love story if your able to look that deep into it. In no way does the narrator show remorse for her relationship with her brother because he's her brother; it's her trying to find something like him, after they have grown and are unable to continue anything with each other and they must move on. She walks through life, feeling nothing, wanting him and missing him and thinking of him, hating him and loving him all at once to the point where her mind snaps like a rubber band stretched too far.

I have to admit; this book was something of a chore for me. Not because I didn't enjoy it, or because it was poorly written or even because of the disturbing content. It was because it was just plain sad. The depth and madness in Ms. Wagman's narrative style is so all-consuming, so draining to read, that I found myself pausing every few pages and taking a huge breath. The word's surround you, forcing you to keep reading and reading and reading even though you want nothing more then to forget the entire scenerio exists. Which is strange, because the relationships in this book are...well, they're not really there. The narrator feels nothing for anybody; not for her husband, her children, her mother, her dead sister. Not even her brother, by which this entire story is built around. Everything is a whirl-wind of emotions that don't lead to anything. Like she knows what she should be feeling, but she can't bring herself to feel it. This novel is by no means endearing or relatable; sure, she seems rather friendly with a swan taking refuge first in the pond behind her childhood home, and then her bathtub as she moves in with her future husband. But even that is like reading about two bricks interacting; neither really acknowledge the other as entities, just things that are there and they have to live with. I don't know if this is making sense, but I'm not saying this is a bad thing. In fact, it just adds to the utter dread that cloaks every paragraph, every sentence, every word.

Playing House in one word: haunting. Utterly, completly haunting that will leave you sitting up at night and wondering how the hell something as disturbing as this novel could keep you reading until the very end. In only 160 pages, Wagman creates characters that have seemingly no personality other then each other, only in a way that works. She was able to pack more emotion and meaning in one sentence then most authors can in 500 pages. The whole thing just...worked. It worked so well I doubt anyone will be able to get it out of their heads any time soon.

Now, I'd be lying if I said I'd reccomend this to everyone. That'd be really fucked up. I'd hardly reccomend it to myself, upon reflection. In some countries, Playing House is shelved in the 'restricted' section. It's disturbing in a way even Stephan King can't pull off. It explores things that we as humans tend to avoid. It's raw, uncensored, pure feeling trapped inside madness trapped inside the shell of a human living inside the pure audacity of her actions. It is not for everyone, hardly anyone. There are few people in the world who could stomach it, I'd say, and I'm barely among them. So, no, I won't reccomend it. This is a book for adults, over-eighteen, and even thats a stretch. I'm unable to place a rating on it, because it's so undefinable I would be doing a grave injustice to put it into a 1-10 category. All I'll say is this; Playing House is a haunting, memorable novel that will endure the centuries to come, if not for the lovely prose then for the subject it deals with.

So, that's that.

[Dixie Theriault · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I began this book I wasn't quite sure what to expect.
I knew it was about incest.
I quickly realized that I needed to put other thoughts aside to be able to fully grasp the story.
If you've ever read I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, or even to some extent, The Catcher In The Rye then you'll know what I'm talking about.
This novel is a first person narrative told by someone with a shattered psyche.
You hear the child and the woman's voices interwoven throughout the story.
The voice is different, yet it is one and the same.

I could feel the intense anger and the deep yearning for something that she could never get back. She could never rationalize her feelings, or the events that took place. In telling the story, she never tries to. She simply can't. Everything stopped for her.

While some readers may perceive that the narrator was longing for the taboo relationship she had with her cruel sociopath brother,
I felt that what she truly wanted was her childhood.
Unspoiled. Pure. Innocent.
She was never a child. But she also never matured.
Everything was frozen in time with her lost innocence.

While one is tempted to make the brother the one villain, the whole dysfunctional family dynamic comes into play in this tale.
The absentee father. The cold uncaring mother. The suicidal sister. They are not without blame. And one senses that they are also victims with their own stories to tell.
This narrative is a haunting portrait of one woman's life in a curious and sad limbo.

[Morris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Playing house is a book that is hard to describe. I read the synopsis of the book and had an idea what I was going to be reading about before I started. But, reading it, I realized it went a few steps beyond what I had expected. The subject matter is intense and dark at times. But your mind will be engaged the entire time you read this.

The main character is a woman that began having sex with her brother when she was younger. However, you do not feel sorry for her. In fact, she compares her more recent sexual encounters to those of her brother. Then her brother leaves and things go down hill for her.

This book is written using the stream of consciousness literary device, much like her most recent novel, The Lie. I found this one to somewhat better structured than her most recent book, the punctuation and paragraphs are much more organized. However, the mind of this woman and the subject matter are quite a bit darker.

I am glad I read this book. This one is far from cookie cutter and you will have so many conflicting opinions when you are done. At one point I wanted to smack this woman and at others I wanted to hug her and tell her that things will turn out. It is very dramatic and full of twists. It is rare that a book can surprise me, this one shocked the hell out of me in one place.

Be warned, this book is not for everyone. If you have trouble reading difficult and objectionable subject matter, you may want to pass on this one. However, if you can wrap your mind around the struggles this woman has and causes, you will enjoy the book.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

As you start reading the novel, Playing House, you realize that you are in the mind of a woman, experiencing her thoughts and memories. She recalls her childhood and especially incest with her brother. There was pleasure with him, but there was also abuse of her by him. Yet she still wanted him. She wanted to marry him, but he rejected that idea. You realize that the woman is now married. Her husband brings a priest to her, not as a therapist exactly, but as someone to whom she can talk and reveal her life. As you read, experiencing the woman's mind, you learn more of her family, and of the swan who lived in the stream near their home. Both the brother and sister fed the swan and talked to it. You learn of the older sister who died. You learn that her brother left when they were both young, He went to boarding school, leaving her alone. As you continue reading, you continue to be in her mind as her adult, married life goes on.

Her interactions with her husband, her brother, and a doctor are told from her point of view. All her interactions and encounters are presented from her point of view. I believe this is called a stream of consciousness narrative style. I can somewhat appreciate this kind of novel, even though I am generally drawn to other kinds. I was mostly able to follow the story, but some parts were less clear than others. After the last chapter, there is A Reader’s Guide, which is a series of questions that might be discussion topics for a group of book enthusiasts reading this book. They highlight moments in the book that I thought were significant.

This is definitely an interesting book. Some reviews from famous publications call it “passionate and moving,” “a haunting tale,” and “a probing descent into madness.” I think that three statements from the foreword by Philip Roth are the most insightful.

"It would appear from Playing House that the prohibition forbidding sibling incest is designed primarily to protect impressionable children against sex thrills so intense, and passionate unions so all-encompassing and exclusive, that life after the age of twelve can only be a frenzy of nostalgia for those who have known the bliss of such transgression.”

“This remarkably persuasive first novel about one who was a woman when she might better have been a girl — and as a consequence is still a little girl when she would herself prefer to be a woman — is as much of a love song to childhood incest as it is a perverse validation of that universal taboo.”

“The traumatized child; the institutionalized wife; the haunting desire; the ghastly business of getting through the day — what is striking about Wagman’s treatment of these contemporary motifs is the voice of longing in which the heroine unashamedly confesses to the incestuous need that is at once her undoing and her only hope.”

I recognize that this story is about how her childhood experiences with her brother caused her emotional problems in adulthood. I recognize that point of the book. However, to me, the problems in adulthood were caused by the combination of childhood incest and abuse by the brother, not the incest alone. He continued to be harsh towards her in adulthood. I wonder if it is possible for a young boy and girl, a brother and sister, to extend their familial love from platonic to physical. I wonder if it is possible for that incestuous love to be a positive experience, providing a lifetime of pleasant memories. As they grew older, in their later teens, they could find partners who were considered more appropriate by society. They could get married to these other people and raise families, while still recalling their youth when they shared love with each other and then grew to love others. Perhaps there is a mainstream novel with a story like that. Or perhaps not.

One final comment: Turtle was my nickname in high school. It is part of my entry in the yearbook. I feel an ownership of that name. I donate to the Turtle Conservancy, have a Turtles calendar on the wall, and have a collection of ceramic turtles. When I see the name Turtle in this book or on the TV show Entourage, I feel that I’m a victim of theft. I had that name before the book was published or the TV show was produced. If it is used for a character in any medium, then I wish it would be used in a positive way. I don’t feel that is the case in Playing House.

[Leslie Hayden · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book left me mind blown and not for a good reason. This was not the type of book I would've picked up and read but the short description had caught my attention. The description of the book describes a girl growing up in a world of incest, bad relationships, and mental instability. I thought it would be ok considering I've read books by V.C. Andrews and her first series involved incest. I was wrong! This book is like the x-rated jerry springer edition of fifty shades of grey. It was hard to read because the author didn't know when to end a sentence. It seemed as though every sentence was full of a description that would've described an entire chapter.

The book was filled with explicit sexual occasions an unlike other books it went to the nitty gritty details. I was not very fond of that. I assumed from the description it would involve the main character's mental instability based on her familial and non-familial relationships in accordance with her own sexual relationship. It did that sort of. In my opinion it fell short entirely. It was more along the lines of reading a really mentally and physical rape scene.

I stuck it out with this book because it was like a train wreck, you don't want to look but it's so hard to look away. I was intrigued by the mental aspect of the main character and had I not been intrigued by her I wouldn't have finished the book. It was confusing, overly detailed, and would've done better as a novella instead of a full book. After reading it I was just stunned like why did I read this book, how did I finish the book.

I don't give out a lot of one stars because I try to find the upside of a book or an author but this book was just one that was entirely worth just the one star. Would I read another book by this author? Probably not.

[Emmie Must · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful wonderful. Poetic and lyrical like a fever erotic dream, painful and frustraiting and again painfully honest. Some of the most wonderful beautiful writing I've ever read. I didn't understand a lot of things the events were happening like in an alternative reality but they seemed so common at the same time and when I was back to the story it was painful yet again I suffered with the MC and I suffered with what all the people around had to suffered because of her pain and selfishness.

Beautiful heartbreak

[LuAnn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This may be a difficult book to read for some people. It's so raw, describing a woman's descent into madness and her attempt to get back out. Fredrica Wagman is one of my favorite authors. I wish she had written more books, but I have read all of hers.

[Pat Andreana Leschen]

Interesting about a taboo subject.

[Shellie (Layers of Thought) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Synopsis:
This is a narration of a woman’s movement in and out of various stages of madness, linked to both choice and circumstance. The key factor in her descent is her incestuous relationship with her older brother. There is also a history of familial mental illness, and instability. It is a complex and multilayered tale where the main character tells of the many convoluted and morally questionable reasons why she has “lost her grip with reality”.
The story is told in the first person where the narrator never really names herself and is not sequential and moves back and forth through time. As the narrator clearly loses her contact with what is real, the writing becomes a free association of emotions, metaphors, and actions.
Originally published in 1973, this issue is the 35th anniversary of its primary printing. The book was an international best seller at the time, and has a forward by the award winning American author Phillip Roth as well as a reader’s guide at the end of the book for groups and discussions.
My Thoughts:
Critically looking at Playing House, you can see why in the early 70s it was a best seller. On the “tail end” of the sexual revolution it was just addressing another sexually taboo subject, but beyond what was and still is considered socially unacceptable. Today with a swing to a more conservative view this subject becomes even more difficult for many modern readers to digest.
In a purely intellectual and academic sense this novel includes many literary, metaphorical, and psychological elements which can be of interest to those who desire to discuss them. Some of these themes/issues include:

monogamy and the image and involvement of the swan
marriage partners chosen for security rather than passion
the nature of dominance and submission and their role in sexuality
religious stereotypes and metaphors and a link with madness
morality seen as grey vs. black and white
the shadow of ill-made choices
madness and memory
apathy/depression as a indicator to the beginnings of madness
women and madness – hysteria
art and writing as catharsis
mythology and fables i.e.. the golden archer and the turtle
Stockholm Syndrome where the abused over time empathizes with/loves the abuser

All in all this novel is not one that most readers will “like” or even enjoy. It is a difficult, intense, and emotional read, dealing with subjects we would mostly likely choose to ignore, but one where the reader will be affected. There is no doubt that Ms. Wagman captures madness well, and within the main character’s ramblings little nuggets of insight are revealed.

The Turtle couldn’t stand lies, he didn’t understand them, not a bit. To him a lie was just that, something untrue, evil, or wrong. But lies aren’t always, you know. Sometimes lies are art too, sometimes lies are creating, sometimes lies are wonderful, they can lift and soar and take you all away.

Highly recommended for book group discussions whose interest are of an intense level. As stated above there is a lot to discuss. I did not “like” this book but give it 4 stars because of it’s metaphorical connections, its intense emotional content, and its ability to make the reader feel some very difficult emotions.

[Sensitivemuse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Playing House is about a woman who's had an incestious relationship with her brother when she was younger. At first, you'd think, she would struggle against this sort of thing. It's obviously not normal and it's certainly psychologically devestating. However, things starts to take a darker twist as she starts to accept this, and actually like it. As she grows older, and has different relationships with other men, she still has her mind on her brother and compares these men to her brother. As you read through the pages you see what goes through her mind and how her life just always revolves around her brother.

I knew it was going to be a hard topic to swallow. I read the synopsis before agreeing to review this book. Even though I was a little hesitant because Wagman's writing style is very different. I was wrong. You won't have that many problems reading this book it's almost lyrical and poetic if not for the haphazard thoughts the narrator goes through. As for the topic, I knew what I was getting myself into, but I didn't think it would be as bad as I thought it would be. There's just parts that now stand out in my head and I can't get it out and it just feels dirty. Don't get me wrong it's not as if I don't like the book, in fact I thought it was interesting because of what goes through her mind and what the narrator does to go through her life always comparing everything to things she's done with her brother. It's just because of the topics you just feel almost dirty reading it. Perhaps Wagman had that in mind for her readers. I'm not sure.

I found it hard to sympathize with the narrator. She actually liked having sex with her brother and she wanted to be with him for the rest of her life. She starts taking a turn for the worse after her brother leaves and it's just hard to like her. Her brother is just as bad, he's cruel he's horrible and everything about him is just wrong. You'd almost have to wonder if they're both really meant for each other (even though they're related) since he's corrupted her and made her this way (at least, I think so).

The things I didn't like about the book? the narrator's thoughts are a little haphazard and all over the place. Also they blend in from the past, into present time so it's a bit hard to follow. Otherwise, those that are a little sensitive to this kind of taboo content, it's really not for you. There's also some beastiality content so if you're really not into any kind of sexual explicit material this is probably not the book for you.

Overall a very shocking book. One of the most psychologically draining books I have ever read up to this point. I really liked the narration though, despite its' content, Wagman made it sound lyrical and poetic at times and I thought it was a job well done. It's a short read (less than 200 pages) and although I don't really recommend it, I wouldn't say ignore it either as it's something that should be read. It's not everyday where you come across a book with taboo content but written well enough that it's not trashy.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Warning - this book is NOT for the faint of heart or squeamish! Honestly, there were times where it was almost too much for me (and I read Lolita and Lady Chatterley's Lover with no problems whatsoever and spent two days wandering the Red Light district in Amsterdam and loved every minute of it). I found that the madness of the main character was so intense that I could only read a few pages at a time. However, I was equally disturbed and fascinated by the tumultuous mind of the heroine and found that no matter whether I was reading or not, the book and the main character constantly haunted me.[return][return][return]I warred between absolute horror at her relationship with her brother and wanting to enfold her in my arms and try to heal her. The entire book is a cry for help; she struggles to be normal but realizes that she cannot. She idolizes and hates her brother, and those two emotions play out in everything that happens to her. She has more bad experiences that would make any person insane, which sparked my need to nurture and protect. However, her relationship with her brother and subsequent behavior violates some of our most innate cultural mores, and it is difficult to overcome those feelings of revulsion. Upon objective reflection, the reader can realize that these opposite feelings are the point because if the reader is feeling such warring emotions, just how violent are the feelings of the heroine? [return][return][return]In simple terms, this book is completely haunting and gut-wrenching. Take this line, ""I didn't love anyone, and that was death"" (p. 89). It punches you in the stomach with its simple need. The entire book was like that - simple statements that packed such an emotional punch that leave you gasping for breath, wanting to take a break but needing to continue to read. I've never read anything quite like it. [return][return][return]As I said, this is a tough, tough book to finish. Incest is never easy, but some of the main character's behavior as a result of that incest is also quite disturbing. It takes a strong stomach and open mind to get through the book but well worth it in the end. Based on what I read here, I'm less inclined to judge people for their decisions because you never know what is driving them to make them. [return][return][return]This is the second book I've read by Ms. Wagman, and I was not disappointed. I highly recommend her books, although I again caution you that her subject matters are not easy. Thank you to Julie Harabedian from FSB Associates for the opportunity to review this book!"

[Jennifer · Rating 1 out of 5]

This review was originally posted on my review blog : Falling Off The Shelf. I received this book for review from FSB Media, as compensation for my honest opinion.

This book was really confusing to me. I usually like to put into my own words what the book is about before I go on to say my feelings about it. I can't do that with this book. The only thing I can tell you is that this book disturbed me a great deal. I've read so many books in my short life, but I've never been as disturbed as I was while reading this one.

This book was written the same way as a previous book that I reviewed by Wagman, The Lie, which was kind of annoying. While the words flow together very easily, and make for a quick read, there is hardly any punctuation at all. I guess it works out well though, because the main character is completely insane. The way that this book is written really makes the main character, the narrator, seem even more insane. I literally had to stop reading this a few times and turn on the TV because I needed some sanity. This is saying a lot, because normally I don't go near a television.

I have read books in the past that feature incest, and while that is by far one of the worst things I have ever read about, this book made it even worse. I used to read a lot of V.C. Andrews' novels, and more often than not her books feature some kind of incest. Most of the time the characters in her books are usually being raped, or don't realize that they are sleeping with someone that is blood related. It was different here, and I think that's why I cringed at every turn of the page. This was consensual incest, and I could't wrap my mind around why someone would do something like that, or even write about it.

I can honestly say that I was going to finish this book, but I just couldn't. At the mere mention of beastiality toward the middle of the novel, I closed it. I couldn't bring myself to read any further. I'm sorry that I didn't enjoy this book as much as I did Wagman's previous novel, but my stomach just couldn't handle what it was being served.

I wouldn't recommend this book to a lot of people. If your against incestual relations, beastiality, or high sexual content. I would also highly recommend that religious people not pick up this book, as there is quite a lot of conversation toward a priest where the narrator continuously confesses her sins, and there are many.

[Christine (booktumbling) · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be honest, I had not heard of this novel by Fredrica Wagman. I had run across it on a few sites since it is the 35th anniversary of it’s original release and it seemed so compelling, I decided to embark on the reading journey. I must say, it is truly a….disturbing book? This may be a harsh word but it is how I felt as I was reading it and for quite a while after I finished. The unnamed main character was involved in a incestuous relationship with her brother from a young age. This did not start out consensual but her longing for the closeness she experiences with her brother haunts her through her adult life. Her brother is unscrupulous and just plain mean, her father was basically non-existent and her mother seemed to have knowledge of the horrific activities. The book is written in first-person from the girl’s point-of-view as she is an adult. It is a disjointed, jarring, surreal look at her thoughts as she tries to come to terms with her past through speaking with members of the clergy, doctors, psychiatrists and her husband (The Turtle). The effects of her youth haunt every relationship and aspect of her life.

This is not a book with a tidy happy ending. It is dark, sometimes humorous, with a couple of scenes I had to close my eyes and skip over. I am by no means a squeamish sort – but the imagery in certain sections crossed my lines. I may be wrong, but I believe this was the author’s intention. There is not a silver lining when it comes to the subject matter and Ms. Wagman treated it as such. It is a deep look into a deeply shattered psyche.

Following is a short excerpt from Playing House: A Novel taken from Ms. Wagman’s website (http://www.fredricawagman.com/). You can also find information on her newest book The Lie and follow her on Twitter to guess who is telling the lie.

"Can’t concentrate. My mind is wandering over him crouched on top of me, over his shoulders to a summer day again, always back to then when a room was filled with sun gold, when the walls were white, when the window glass as crystal clear and there was sunshine always dancing on the floor. Heavy brown silk rugs made a border all around the bed where he pinned me there and said that if I told he’d beat me with the branches of the tree and I never told, no matter what he did I never told, he was my brother."

[Greenfairylv · Rating 2 out of 5]

Its a older book I have never heard of and is celebrating its 35th anniversary. I knew this book was going to be about incest, but boy I was not prepared for what I was about to read. The story is told in first person by the victim of incest by her brother. We never learn her name. The characters are not named, besides "turtle", the main characters husband. And I guess there is really no need for their names.
This sick, disgusting book is written almost lyrically. It is almost like reading a journal of a mad deranged woman. The book is full of long flowing sentences, that are beautiful, insane and funny at times.
I was expecting to feel sorry for this character, but I felt nothing for her. She was/is just a sick twisted individual. She enjoyed her sexual relationship with her brother, who is just a horrible individual. I think she was just born into an odd family to begin with. Her sisters suicide is something that haunts her her entire life making her ask constantly "Does it run in families?"
Although her relationship with her brother has ended years ago, she still longs for him, looks for him in every man she sees. The ultimate dream is to be with him.
It was like looking it to the mind of someone I would want nothing to do with. I found the book just so disturbing I can't even tell you. I stopped a few times and didn't think I would be able to finish it even though its not even 200 pages. When I read, like most of you probably, I see it like a movie in my mind. I see the action, the places, the characters, usually their faces are blurry, but I see them. Well now I'm stuck with some images I wish I could erase. Around page 70 or so with the whole dog. Yes I said dog. Lord some of it was just so sick. And this is where I stopped reading the second time. "Nope. I just can't do it," I said out loud. Took me three times of stopping to actually go back and finishing the book.
I was feeling bad about thinking of what I was going to say about this book. I don't like to be negative. But then I thought, well I'll just tell the truth and maybe someone will say "I wonder if I would find it as disturbing?" and read it. Be prepared to be left with some images you might not like to have stuck in your brain.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review published on www.luxuryreading.com on October 15, 2009

Sibling incest is forbidden because “impressionable children” having “passionate unions so all-encompassing and exclusive” will cause “life after the age of twelve [to:]…be a frenzy of nostalgia for those who have known the bliss of such transgression.” So says Phillip Roth in the Foreword of Playing House. Originally released in 1973, this tale of a woman’s insanity brought on by consensual incest as a child is both gripping and chilling. Written in the first person, the traumatized woman takes the reader on a trip through her disjointed mind and her less than ideal life.

The narrator in the story never names herself or the people in her life. Instead, she refers to everyone by either their relationship to her or what they represent in her life. The story begins with the narrator puzzling over her husband, “the Turtle,” and yearning for the incestual relationship she had with her brother as a child. Through the many depictions of the narrator’s mental instability it is revealed that life (and sex) has taken on a surreal quality since her last taboo encounter, all brought on by the normal and abnormal feelings she has for her brother. Her timelessness fugue state allows the reader to not just understand her insanity but to experience it.

Fredrica Wagman presents a mesmerizing account in Playing House that is timeless enough to warrant its rerelease 35 years after it first shocked and awed the nation. So compelling are the narrator’s desires that the reader finds his/herself almost hoping that she and her brother finally do achieve their “house by the sea.”

[Mishel Forte · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really thought I'd like this novel but I had such a hard time reading it. Incest is not a troubling subject matter for me to read about. But the layout of the story was very confusing for me. I realize it may very well be that way on purpose because of the nameless main character's state of mind. The effects of her sexual relationship with her brother consume her entire life. I appreciate the honesty in Wagman's writing but I found myself literally scratching my head after each page I read.

I did like the forward of PLAYING HOUSE. I'm not familar with Philip Roth or his work but I enjoyed reading his thoughts on the book. It did make me think I was going to enjoy it a lot more than I did, but that's okay. After reading other people's thoughts on this book I can see that the problem for me was my comprehension skills and not so much the writing. I just didn't see it the way others have but I do enjoy seeing what others have to say. It actually helps me better understand the novel.

It was tough for me to keep the sequence of events straight because of the fact the narrarator herself jumps around in her story-telling. It didn't really "read" like a book or anything I've ever read before and I suppose I was just WAY out of my comfort zone and therefore didn't enjoy it as much. I've read praise of PLAYING HOUSE and I'm glad there are readers that can appreciate the author's unique way of writing. I will be trying out her other books. I like the honesty and emotional feeling of her words and I hope to enjoy the other books more than this one.

[Julie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I knew the topic but this is one book I couldn't finish at all.

[Jayse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finished it yesterday, so so bizarre and inserting