Book Review: The Irresistible Henry House

Every week I read Entertainment Weekly so that I can stay up on my movies and music because I am pretty pop-culture resistant. Therefore, I save the book section for last as my reward. I am used to EW giving most books in the "B" or "C" range; so when I saw that they gave The Irresistible Henry House an "A" I knew that I just had to read it! I was not disappointed. Since its publication in March, it has received a lot of publicity and been compared to Forest Gump and the World According to Garp among other modern classics. While it does have elements of these two novels, I think that it stands completely on its own and does a fantastic job!

The foundation of the plot is based on the historical practice from the 1940s-1960s in which orphans were used as "practice babies" in home economics classes. College home economics instructors would go to orphanages and request babies that were younger than a year old. These children would then live in a "practice house" for about two years where students were taught how to be a mother and practiced on the children. After the two years were up, the orphan would be returned to the orphanage where they were adopted by another family. Henry House was a practice baby who won over Martha Gaines, the instructor, and was later adopted by her. Out of the dozen children that she helped raise, Henry was the only child she wanted as her own. However, Henry was raised by 12 different mothers over the course of two years and therefore was never able to bond with Martha or any other woman in his life. Their relationship becomes even more complicated when Henry discovers a secret that Martha has tried in vain to keep from him.

The novel spans from Henry's first year through his personal development (or lack thereof), to his multiple failed relationships, a stint working for Walt Disney and eventually his landing of a job working for the Beatles. Throughout all of this, Henry remains unlikeable to the reader though completely irresistible to all of the women in the book. This makes the reader wonder how one can love a book whose main character is completely unlovable. Whatever it takes...Lisa Grunwald has it! At times I did think that Henry was too hard on Martha and his grudges were a bit too unrealistic, but I believe it suited his character even if it was unlikely. I have to say that the ending was a bit of a letdown and felt too much like Forest Gump but a weak finish cannot nigate the beautiful performance. Though I can see why EW gave it an "A", my personal scale would give it a B+ though I encourage readers to pick it up because it is quite entrancing!

-DLP