Mini Book |Review: The Giant's House

by Elizabeth McCracken

National Book Award Finalist, 1997

In a small Massachusetts town, a quirky "romance" blossoms very gradually between a cynical librarian and a giant boy, who grows up to be more than eight feet tall. It is the little things about this book that are the best things. Here's how the librarian narrator opens the book:

"I do not love mankind.


People think they are interesting. That's their first mistake. Every retiree you meet wants to tell you their life story."

And towards the end:

"Library books were, I suddenly realized, promiscuous, ready to ready to lie in the arms of anyone who asked. Not like bookstore books, which married their purchasers, or were brokered for marriages to others."

My copy of The Giant's House was a real tart, moving from bookstore to second-hand store to St. Vincent de Paul store to my arms. Lucky me.