Book Review: Heart of Stone, by Renate Dorrestein

Book Review: Heart of Stone, by Renate Dorrestein

In this novel, the protagonist, Ellen, retraces her past between ages 12 and 37 in order to confront the effects of very dark events in her family history. Growing up in the Netherlands of the 1960's and '70's, Ellen's family runs a business collecting Americana, or print media covering any and all things to do with America: Elvis and other pop culture, politics, gossip columns, the race to the moon, etc. While Ellen's is a happy family, her mother descends into a kind of psychosis after bearing her fifth child, leading to an act of horrendous violence against the entire family, leaving no bonds intact. Ellen's world is flipped upside down in a single day, and, having no one she is willing to trust who can teach her how to grieve, Ellen relies on her own devices of manipulating her relationships and of hearing and reacting to imaginary voices, all in order to generally avoid her inner conflict between memories of an affectionate family and of brutal loss. Ultimately the story resolves with a message of hope as Ellen consciously decides to enter into her past, to confront her current patterns of relating to other people, and to trust and build relationships anew. I give the book an R rating for violence, sexuality, and an extended section of neurotic narrative with a religious bent.

This story caught my interest immediately with its story of loss and a protagonist learning how to confront it. It keeps the pages turning by concealing Ellen's trauma, but revealing its effects on her life and her character, as if the reader were meeting her and getting to know her, bit by bit. The story proves very accessible to me because of its familiar Americana motif and because of a distinct Evangelical Christian undercurrent within Ellen's family life and her therapy, later on. The characters shine provocative and believable, especially Ellen's brothers and sisters, who each deal with entering adulthood in their own ways. I was impressed with a very well told moment of trauma, early in the story, which becomes a definitive moment for Ellen, though a red herring for the novel's overall focus. Brief moments of extreme violence lay in the latter half of the novel, but it's mostly clear the author has redemption in mind. I didn't quite understand why the climax of the story deals with Ellen's forgiveness of her father and not particularly that of her mother. If I had one critique, the protagonist fails to confront the true villain. If I take anything away from this novel, it will be a distinct woman's perspective on dealing with great loss.

philpirrip