Review: The Good House by Ann Leary

Hildy Good has lived in Wendover, MA her entire life - she knows virtually all the town's residents either from growing up with them or because she sold them their house in the town as the local realtor. She is a fixture of the town - she is wise and exudes a rugged New England practicality in all she does but she also has her flaws. Her struggles with alcohol, although well concealed, gradually undermine her otherwise straightforward, reliable reputation. The Good House by Ann Leary presents a coastal, provincial New England town replete with the accompanying gossip and its long standing, flawed resident, Hildy Good. There is humor but also the sobering reality of a alcoholic in denial.

 Hildy Good's family has been in New England since the early days post the Mayflower - one of her ancestors was tried during the Salem Witch Trials. She is a successful realtor who sells the increasingly pricey homes in this small New England town. Hildy has almost a sixth sense about homes and what they say about their owners - with just a quick home tour she can see the secrets its owners are hiding and detect what they would like people to think of them even if it is untrue. She uses this insight when she meets Rebecca McAllister, her husband and their two boys. Hildy sells them a mansion in Wendover but Rebecca is having problems acclimating to the town and wonders whether she and her husband have made a mistake to move there from Boston. Hildy befriends Rebecca and, although she believes she sees Rebecca's flaws, she is drawn to the woman and becomes her confidant. Rebecca is intense and her behavior becomes erratic as she starts an affair with a local, married man. Hildy didn't see this erratic behavior coming and is rattled at the failure of her insight to understand Rebecca.

 For someone with so much insight into others including their motivations and secrets, Hildy remarkably lacks insight into herself and her own flaws. A recovering alcoholic who never believed she really had a problem but went to rehab at the behest of her adult daughters, Hildy can't see how her addiction drives her own behavior and clouds her judgement. Slowly, she begins to cross the boundaries she had set for herself post rehab - first no drinking at all, then no drinking in public, then no drinking hard liquor and only wine. Gradually, she loses the control she had on her drinking and she begins to unravel. She is defiant in the face of this unraveling insisting that she is one of the most successful businesswomen in the area and that she doesn't have a problem. Even her friendship with Rebecca is cloaked in her alcoholism - when she first shared a drink with Rebecca she realized how much she missed having friends and each night she looked forward to sharing bottles of wine with her new friend. Despite her alarm at Rebecca's irrational behavior, Hildy wants to continue drinking with her friend and knows Rebecca knows how much she drinks even though those closest to Hildy believes she is a teetotaler. Her alcoholism has entangled her in in the gossip of the town and she can't extract herself.  

My Thoughts
 The Good House offers an interesting peek into a small, close-knit New England town and its established resident Hildy Good. In addition to the insight into the town and its residents, we also get real insight into Hildy and the demons she fights despite her calm, practical exterior. Hildy is the quintessential unreliable narrator - her disease begets contradictions in her behaviors which make her unreliable. At first, I was a little taken aback by Hildy's contradictions - there is scene in the latter third of the book where Hildy takes an action which betrays a trust - I was stunned and actually felt a little let down by Hildy. Until that point, she seemed solid, though flawed, but after this scene I began to question her values. I realize now that it makes her a more interesting character and illuminates how her disease controls her. This book is funny at times but also serious in that it deals with the downward spiral of a woman addicted to alcohol. If you enjoy books with flawed protagonists and where the setting is a character itself, pick up The Good House .