The Easter House

by David Rhodes

Originally published in 1974, this gripping novel tells the tale of the Easter family of Ontarion, Iowa. Ansel Easter was a favored minister until he rescued a grotesque creature from a carnival sideshow. His sons, C and Sam, suffer in the shadow of their outcast father until his violent death. C and Sam leave the home their father built for a new beginning, and find fortune building a lucrative business called the Associates — but when a rash of deaths has the townspeople looking at C and Sam as suspects, they find their father's legacy reaches further than they expect. Taut, dark, and engrossing, The Easter House holds up as a brilliant work of fiction some 30 years after its initial publication.

Genres: Fiction

384 pages, Paperback

First published August 10, 2009

About the author

As a young man, David Rhodes worked in fields, hospitals, and factories across Iowa. After receiving an MFA in Writing from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1971, he published three acclaimed novels: The Last Fair Deal Going Down (1972), The Easter House (1974), and Rock Island Line (1975). In 1976, a motorcycle accident left him partially paralyzed. In 2008, Rhodes returned to the literary scene with Driftless, a novel that was hailed as "the best work of fiction to come out of the Midwest in many years" (Alan Cheuse). Following the publication of Driftless, Rhodes was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2010, to support the writing of Jewelweed, his newest novel. He lives with his wife, Edna, in Wisconsin.

“Rhodes proves that there is still vigorous life in the dark Gothic roots of great American novels.”

—Peter W. Jordan, The Tennessean

Reviews

[karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes, he was a miner, and was raised by woodsmen, protestant Protestants who had an ax-handle way of dealing with problems, to whom morality was not much more than fierce, communal bigotry, and who taught him to respect pain and avoid punishment and seek solace through physical exhaustion, and that any solace he might find even in that was was to be ashamed of because it indicated weakness—people who would never realize that difficulties were anything more than hunger, cold, and sprained muscles.

if only the whole book were so clear-eyed and grounded. yeah, i gave it four stars, but it is a tentative four. the parts that are good give me super-shivers, but there is a lot that makes you work a bit more more than the payoff deserves.

i think if this novel had had a more traditional shape, i would have loved it with five-star love, but its structure, although elegant, is also fragile, and hard to see all at once. this is a good book to try and read all in one go, because the book is porous: time weaves, and answers are doled out at rhodes' discretion, tantalizing the reader with fears of "are we ever going to find out about thus-and-such??"

mostly you are, but he shore does take his time.

meanwhile, a story does indeed spin itself. but how to describe it??

Isn't that about all that goes on over there anyway? C and his brother sitting around with the rest of the town gossiping, while the rest of his family goes mad?

that is one way. but there is much too much to cover in one of my crappy little reviews.

roughly, it is about a man, "c." who establishes a junkyard on his deceased father's property and moves here with his wife, cell, where they have two sons, glove and baron. (the names in this book are extraordinary) c. does not sell his junk, he lives off of the barter system and resists the concept of money. so people come from far and wide to trade with him, and only objects of the same general size and weight are acceptable trade. the yard also becomes a place for men to congregate, playing horseshoes and shooting the breeze. eventually, "the associate" forms; a group of these men who hire themselves out to fix problems. and that's where it starts going down a treacherous path.

a lot happens in this book.

you will learn about the ruined reputation of c's father, and of the sociopathic and disfigured creature he rescued from a sideshow. you will watch the easter family descend into madness or redemption, as the case may be. you will witness small-town jealousies and the extent to which these can fester into a hatred from which there is only one solution.you will watch terrible decisions being made.

and usually, the prose is teasingly gorgeous:

Fisher looked up to the third floor of the house, hoping to see The Baron staring out of a window, wrenching against his chains. Then he said goodbye to Glove and began walking home. Had Fisher been older, he might have wondered why several years ago half of Ontarion seemed to live at Easter's Yard, spending days and nights inside the giant house and out into the Yard—why in the summer full-grown men, without drinking or playing cards, would gather at Easter's Yard and watch the colored time move through the afternoons. He might have wondered why today no one went there—why even though the Easters and the other three men there were "good people," as his father called them, no one would go there...except at night. He might have wondered what The Associate was—what it had been and what it was now. But if Fisher had been older, he would have known these things. He might then have wondered about the killing and the money.

i mostly loved this book, but i just think it suffered a little bit in the style he chose for the story.

i feel like he is an excellent writer, harming himself by trying to be a little too experimental.

come to my blog!

[Donna J. Murphy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my up of tea. Bought it because of good revues but it was all over the place and just plain weird for me.

[Cynthia Byrne · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a strange tale! The members of the Easter family not only have strange names (like “C” and “Glove” and “Cell”) but live extremely odd lives starting with their father, Ansel, and down to Baron, the odd little boy who won’t speak but may be a genius. A fascinating tale of eccentrics, not all of them in the Easter family. It could have moved a bit faster, but overall it was pretty engaging, mostly because of the characters and “the Yard” containing all kinds of discards waiting to be traded for other discards. The most unusual discard is a sort of person, very deformed, who is rescued by the father, Ansel, in what he considers to be an act of charity.

[Susanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an interesting read! Kept my attention til the end. At first I felt like I was reading a novel by William Faulkner - it has that "strange southern family vibe." The book was displayed in our SW Wisconsin library as a 'local author' selection and the cover photo of a junk yard was intriguing.
The characters were unique, tho sometimes a bit uncomplicated, like Rabbit, and likable. The ending, while it wraps up the plot, is a bit off, but still satisfying.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Easter family in Iowa have some real issues-violence, mental illness, birth defects, a sliding moral compass, poverty. A bit dark but a good read.

[Greynomad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Different but just as all over the place as his other books

[Ralph P · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Irving of the Midwest. This book is awesome; can't shake Baron/Ernie out of my head.

[Patti]

Boy, I didn't get very far with this one. The characters were just too strange.

[David Carlson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very peculiar.

[Terry · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have nothing against bizarre novels and this certainly is one - from the plot to the characters (I am not certain there is a protagonist) to the images. However, when the progression of the book contains a couple of black holes that will rip the individual molecules out of your brain, you need perseverance and courage to keep reading all the way to what purports to be an ending. With Driftless Rhodes refines some of the raw technique and energy of this novel into a far superior novel.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This author lives in WI and wrote three popular books in succession in the 70's and then was in a motorcycle accident and was paralyzed. He hadn't written anything for over 25 years until last year when he published a new book(Driftless). I liked this book even better - it is a story about a Iowan family in which each character is completely bizarre, yet very likeable. Some of the most unique characters I've ever had the chance to get to know...

[Margaret]

This book was reviewed in the Strib today. Set in rural Iowa the book is characterized as "...as much about setting as it is about the characters who inhabit such a place." Milkweed Editions re-release of this book, first published in the 1970s, implies that is will be worth reading.

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my least favorite of Rhodes' books, slow going until more than halfway through, and characters that can be difficult to identify with. Having said that, MAN can he write! Be sure to read Driftless and
Rock Island Line, two 5+ star books.

[Kari · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love his writing. He captures amazing human detail. The setting and characters are unique and fascinating, as is the story.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Faulkner-esque. And riveting. Kudos to the Milkweed editor who "rediscovered" Rhodes, published the wonderful "Driftless," and brought this 1970s novel back into print.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read it when it came out & just re-read it. For anyone who's ever lived in, or just driven through, a small midwestern town & wondered about "that weird house" & the people it it. Faulker in Iowa.

[Maureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

beautifully written--spooky, scarey, puzzling, kept me on my toes the whole time.i can't even begin to describe this plot. this story is so unusual--you'll just have to read it!

[Christine Humphrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don't read Driftless prior to Easter House.....kind of different

[Barb · Rating 5 out of 5]

I stayed up a couple late nights in a row to finish this book because I really had to fine out what happened to the characters. Can't wait to read another book by this author.