Miranda Cowley Heller

Although entirely readable, this was a book I felt uncertain about from the word go. Not because it's written in the voice of a woman who, despite being happily married, can't let go of thinking about a future with her childhood sweetheart, her very best friend. Perhaps there was too much going on? A capricious mother who's got through any number of husbands; a deeply unhappy stepbrother who's a rapist; a snobbish and unsympathetic mother-in-law; a blow-cold-and-hot relationship with an older sister; an uncomfortable-to-account-for accidental death? And the sweetheart? That's a lot.
The time line - successfully - alternates between an almost hour-by-hour account of just one day, spent at Elle's slightly ramshackle family holiday home near the coast, and a resume of the fifty-some years of her life. I liked the ending. It's clear that the ends are not tied up. There are hints that the drama we have been following has not been fully resolved, and will go on to further scenes, possibly over an extended period.… (més)

Wow, there is a lot to unpack here. The Paper Palace is one of those Jodi Picoult-style (think very detailed) books where you can see, taste, and feel every. single. thing. Miranda Cowley Heller writes a beautiful book about Elle and her family.

We follow Elle throughout her life as she hops from one time to another in a mostly seamless way (but occasionally, in the beginning, I couldn't keep straight if we were in today's Elle life or her younger Elle life).

The Paper Palace is the main cabin, with a few outlying cabins that have been in Elle's family for generations. The Paper Palace holds all of Elle's fondest and worst memories. It's where Elle and her big sister Anna argued and would come back together; it's where Elle met Jonnas, her lifelong love, it's where Elle takes her husband Peter and their children every year to join her mother for vacation; it's where Elle lost her innocence.

There is so much to love about this book; the writing is superb, it just flows, and you know Elle, Jonnas, Peter, Elle's mother, and all the other characters intimately. (I love Elle's mother - she's truly a bitch, but one of those that is also so endearing you just can't hate her, most the time.)

Rich with family dynamics, I thoroughly enjoyed navigating life with Elle in The Paper Palace.… (més)