Similarly to how Heather noted that A Long Way Down is not about suicide, Hausfrau is… well. I mean. It’s not. Truly.
Cheating on her husband with one lover, then cheating on the lover with another, Anna makes a habit of collecting lovers, one after another: it’s almost as though a compulsion to ease the anxiety from her obsession with loneliness. Essbaum takes the reader through Anna’s repetitive and unhelpful thought processes, jumping from one point in time (the present) or one place (a session with her psychoanalyst) to another (in bed with lover #1, with lover in the past, idealized and thus impossible to surpass all the more because unrealized), capturing the disjointed nature of Anna’s thoughts. As Anna becomes more and more self-aware – not that she is not aware all throughout, which serves not to make her less likeable so much as to render her the victim of her own mind, because she does realize what she’s doing, and she knows what for – she spirals further and further into the past, into her escape from her ordinary life, and starts to crumble. So this is rather a novel about the nature of thoughts that you cannot shake and that subsequently consume you.
But Anna does as Anna desires, and if following Anna on her journey to nowhere in particular appeals to you, then Hausfrau might just be for you.
Also available as an audiobook.
If you’re interested in reading up on the subject of suicide as it appears in literature, A. Alvarez’s The Savage God is quite interesting, though it was published in 1990 and I’m sure there have been changes in literature trends since. Furthermore, he really only covers the Western canon (in addition to which, if you’re reading Dostoevsky’s Demons, I’m going to give you a heads up right now: SPOILER ALERT in The Savage God. You’re welcome.) I’d be interested to find out if suicide in literature has undergone any changes since, as well as read a comparison between – and I realize this is a gross oversimplification of things – the Western and the Eastern portrayals of suicide in literature, coupled with its associations and changes in literary trends.
I read this, didn’t see were it was going until far into the story. Despite the depressing subject matter I really enjoyed it, thought it was well written and true to life. Also the themes of adultery, depression, suicide plus the heroine’s name are a tribute/parallel to Anna Karenina one of my all time favorite novels.
Absolutely! Part of me thought that she would come to a conclusion in which she would be able to live alone, and that the outburst at the end would wake her up, but the entire novel does prepare you for what happens in the end.