Rating: 
Summary: Cape Cod As it Was
Review: Mr. Colt has brought anyone who knows Upper Cape Cod an historical and amusing look at how New England lived at mid 20th century. For me it was a revelation, for my book "Cape Cod Summers", published the same year, takes place not more than a long stone's throw from Colt's "The Big House". Written "differently", still our books cross in word usage, familiar sites and an undying love for our Cape Cod similar childhoods which made us who we are today.
Colt's book is chock full of tiny facts about the life and times of not ony summering on the Cape but living off-Cape in the other seasons. Simple, if you love the Cape, if you know its vernacular, its distinct nuances and you enjoy entertaining vignettes, you'll love this book and savor each story.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful, Thoughtful, Heartbreaking
Review: "The Big House" is a big piece of work by George Howe Colt.
For a century, "The Big House," an eleven bedroom architectural gem on Cape Cod, has been in the Atkinson/Colt family. At the start of the book, Colt describes taking his young family to the house for what may be the last summer. Alas, the extended family can no longer afford to keep the home and it must be sold.The house has served as a center of gravity for this family, a place which pulls them back each summer to live out graceful and simple Boston Brahim traditions. The house also serves as a metaphor for the fading fortunes of this once wealthy, once socially prominent family whose entire caste-the Brahmins of Boston--has become irrelevant. Through the prism of the house and its meaning to his family, Colt also delves into his family's history of mental illness, of marriages that become estranged, of boys that start out as golden children and end up tarnished old men. He also recounts his own story. He began his adult life as a young Brahmin with disdain for his heritage. Now in mid-life and a New Yorker, he is deeply proud of the many traits (e.g., thrift, reverence for family) bred deep in his bones. I would recommend this book to those who gravitate towards serious memoirs and thoughtful accounts of profound issues (e.g., meaning of family). It is a beautiful read.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful, Thoughtful, Heartbreaking
Review: "The Big House" is a big piece of work by George Howe Colt.
For a century, "The Big House," an eleven bedroom architectural gem on Cape Cod, has been in the Atkinson/Colt family. At the start of the book, Colt describes taking his young family to the house for what may be the last summer. Alas, the extended family can no longer afford to keep the home and it must be sold. The house has served as a center of gravity for this family, a place which pulls them back each summer to live out graceful and simple Boston Brahim traditions. The house also serves as a metaphor for the fading fortunes of this once wealthy, once socially prominent family whose entire caste-the Brahmins of Boston--has become irrelevant. Through the prism of the house and its meaning to his family, Colt also delves into his family's history of mental illness, of marriages that become estranged, of boys that start out as golden children and end up tarnished old men. He also recounts his own story. He began his adult life as a young Brahmin with disdain for his heritage. Now in mid-life and a New Yorker, he is deeply proud of the many traits (e.g., thrift, reverence for family) bred deep in his bones. I would recommend this book to those who gravitate towards serious memoirs and thoughtful accounts of profound issues (e.g., meaning of family). It is a beautiful read.
Rating: 
Summary: Have local knowledge of these waters...
Review: ...both literally and metaphorically.
I found The Big House a fascinating read for several reasons. First, Colt's story hits awfully close to home; my family, too, had a Buzzards Bay 'Shingle' house just a few miles south of the Colt homestead, and lost it for similar reasons. The discussion of 'Cold Roast Boston' Brahmin culture and values - and the pressures these place on its scions - cuts close, too. Even grew up (winters) in the same Connecticut town, at the same time. I'm surprised we never met.
I need to be clear here: Colt is a hugely gifted writer. His prose is rich and sensual; his observational powers are wonderful, and his ability to describe place - sight, smell, touch - is remarkable, as is his ability to respectfully and still accurately tell the stories of his family. In lesser hands, The Big House would be a maudlin bit of nostalgic pap and of interest only to those who know the area and the culture. The book avoids this trap... barely.
Even so, there's something slightly self-indulgent about The Big House. Obviously, the creation of a book like this creates a catharsis for its author, and it was interesting - mostly - to go along for the ride. But in a book that's ultimately all about learning to let go of things we love, it's kind of ironic that the author didn't seem able to let go of the book, either. WASP families, for all their virtues, can become somewhat stifling after a while, and so does The Big House. Fifty or sixty fewer pages would have left me amazed, moved and wanting more. As it is, I ultimately felt like I'd stayed with the relatives a few days too long.
Rating:
Summary: When They Summered in America
Review: Built by the author's great-grandfather 100 years ago on a peninsula stretching out into Buzzards Bay from Cape Cod, the big house is a landmark. The four-story, 19-room jumble of roof lines, gables, bays and dormers is the emotional home and the center of gravity for the Colt family through the 20th century.
The big house is a wonderful place. Anyone who ever understood the use of the word "summer" as a verb can feel the emotions, smell the smells, hear the creaks in the floors and appreciate the melancholy of the fading glory of this monument to family, local history and old New England aristocracy.
The big house silently presided over five weddings, four divorces and three deaths. There were countless anniversaries, reunions, birthdays, nervous breakdowns, conceptions and love affairs. Author George Colt blends humor and affection as he describes the rise and fall of the significance of his family's social class while saluting his ancestors' deliberate manner and their deep-seated pleasure found in this place at the shore.
For a century everyone returned and worshipped the familiar. It was an unchanging place in a changing world. It was sanctuary for 100 years. But even the best summers come to an end, and people must move on.
The context for this memoir is Colt's pilgrimage to the big house with his own wife and children as his extended family comes to grips with the impossible task of maintaining or renovating the old house in a time when "new money," sterile architecture and thoughtless development are the norm. The big house is being sold.
Colt's book is a gift to anyone with memories centering around a family place and the legends of parents, grandparents and great-grandparents who went there before.
Reviewed by Carroll Colby and the North Star Monthly, Danville VT
Rating:
Summary: A Memory Walk
Review: For anyone who has ever had a family summer home, or been a frequent guest at a summer home, this book will surely bring back memories. It doesn't matter whether the house is on Cape Cod, New Hampshire, or elsewhere, there is something that will resonate with everyone. I found myself underlining passages and writing in the margins and I know that when I pass the book along to other family members, they will add their own commentary and memories.
My family is also faced with the possibility of losing its beloved summer home, or at least parts of it, and I am very saddened that my children will miss out on the "experience" a summer home provides. This book captures my feelings exactly.
Although the book does get a bit bogged down with family history (a family tree would be helpful) it more than makes up for this in its unsweetened sentimentality.
A good summer read, particularly curled up in a favorite spot in your summer home.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Book, do NOT miss.
Review: George Colt's book The Big House is one of the BEST books I have ever read. DO NOT MISS THIS WONDER. It is so engaging, humorous, sad and wonderful. You will tell everyone to run out and buy it! It reads like great fiction. Cannot put it down.
Rating:
Summary: A great read!
Review: George Howe Colt writes a loving, truthful portrait of his family through the lens of the great summer home that ties them all together.
I read most of the book on a winter vacation, and was brought back to Cape Cod summer days even as gray February skies hovered.
Rating:
Summary: A Big, Wonderful Read
Review: George Howe Colt, please write another book!
This is a wonderful book. I grew up spending summer vacations on Cape Cod - although we rented little cabins rather than returning to an 8,000 square foot, 19 room family summer home, as the Colts did - and reading it returned me to the lazy warm days of my youth. But this book evokes much more than just memories of summer.
Mr. Colt combines an extraordinary family history, architectural details, a history of the Cape and of the enormous summer homes built along the Eastern seaboard, and beautiful writing. It is a poignant story about the heirs to a summer house that can no longer afford the upkeep and so decide to sell. The book is a memoir and elegy to a house that was an important part of the author's life.
If you like good writing and summers by the shore, you'll enjoy this book. But don't wait until next summer to read it.
Rating:
Summary: Loved this book
Review: I have to give this one 5 stars. I absolutely loved it. I don't even know why. I live in the southeast and haven't been to Cape Cod since I was about 5. Our (half WASP/half Catholic) family rented various summer houses over the years, returning to one in particular in Weekapaug, RI,which had a huge trap door in a ceiling that we kids jumped out of onto a creaky old bed, so maybe it evoked old memories. I guess it was also the history of the Cape, the history of his family....(I'm fascinated by turn of the century events.....)and how all of this was wrapped up in this big old beautiful house. I too can just smell the inside of it. I can see the nooks and crannies...all the old books and pictures. Every time I finished a chapter I felt an ache in my heart...more than nostalgia.... it had to be the author's writing. I loved the book so much that I am keeping my copy and bought 2 more: one for my mother and one for my brother. I especially enjoyed reading this in August as the summer winds down. Thank you Mr. Colt!
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