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Summary: Faux pas
Review: I know many who use these reviews to get a sense of a book before they invest their time and money. The fact that the first review posted here gave away the ending of the book is unfortunate for those of us anticipating the story.
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Summary: an amazing journey
Review: I loved this book so much that I spent a whole six hours just reading it from start to finish without interruption. The descriptions were so rich and the characters, who of course are real people, so interesting. Though my family story is so different from Colts, I found myself crying by the end at the memories that this book invoked. I've recommended it to many friends and, of course, family.
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Summary: A Treasure
Review: I LOVED this book. It is, at the same time, the history of a family, the history of a place and the history of a culture woven together into a rich and complex tapestry. Thoughtful and psychologically astute, it is also colorful, compelling and warm-hearted. I bought it to read during a week's stay in Falmouth -- not far from Wing's Neck, the setting of the big house, itself -- which added to its impact. I loved the bits of Cape history that I had never known, and read passages aloud to everyone who would listen.
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Summary: the poet's vision
Review: I was initially drawn to this book by its initial presentation. A summer home. Cape Cod. A family's history. It was all of interest to me as a former Cape Cod summer star. But the real treasure was found as I ravished through the first few pages. Colt enters the home in its "wintered" version. Here we see the poet at work. The portrait of the out of season home in its sleepy state, frozen in form with careless summer toss abouts at rest is painted so vividly I could feel the terry cloth of the beach towels.
The family history was the bonus. I was delighted by the language, and compelled by the author's connection to the house. Thank You Mr. Colt for sharing with us your history. What a talent you have for writing. I could tell how much you struggled with each word and its value to the portrait.
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Summary: Memories and more
Review: If you enjoyed Jackson McCrae's BARK OF THE DOGWOOD or Baldacci's WISH YOU WELL, then you'll like this book. It's so moving and full of life--so heart-warming and touching. Full of memories and feelings that seems to spring to the surface, you'll never find yourself "having" to finish it. As a matter of fact, it's one of those "I hated for it to end" books. Do yourself a favor and read this one.Also recommended: BARK OF THE DOGWOOD and WISH YOU WELL
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Summary: Magical and Moving
Review: If you've ever spotted a big old romantic looking house and wondered what it was like to live there, this is your book. You'll never have a better guide than George Howe Colt. Here is the way he takes you on your first step through the front door of his family's 100-year-old summer mansion: "Inside, we are enveloped by an unmistakable smell, one that might be difficult for even the most expert chemist to break down, but that seems to be composed in various measures, of salt, wind, dust, sunlight, moonlight, sand, pine, mildew, mothballs, leather, old books, disintegrating bricks, and dead bluebottle flies. It is a smell so evocative and precious, so irresistibly redolent of both life and decay, that I wonder why it has never been bottled and sold as perfume." We follow him into 19 rooms, into secret passages, under eaves, into forgotten spaces, down to the beach and out into the harbor. We follow him into pictures of ancestors and relive the building of the house and the wonderful summer vacations of delicious leisure. It was an eye-opener for me to learn just how well Boston Brahmins loosened up in a family environment and laughed at themselves. One hostess, for instance, insisted everyone wear shoes for Sunday dinners, but did not care whose shoes you wore and kept a pile of them outside the dining room for your convenience. You might see a woman in a 30 year-old pink evening gown -- and keds. Once you've heard the wind in the rafters, felt the clam shells and gravel under your toes, raced the sailboat, and dreamed under the stars you're ready for the tales of family troubles. In one of the most splendid passages in the book Colt pays homage to parents who almost divorced, but didn't -- and the role of a large family pulling together to survive as family left me deep in thought. I join the chorus of those who are saying, "Don't miss it!"
DON'T MISS IT!!!
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Summary: A Superb Read on Family, History and Place
Review: If you've ever yearned for a family summer home and a connection to the generations that preceded you, this is your book.
George Howe Colt has written a superb, heartfelt tribute to his Atkinson and Colt forbears and to their summer home on Wings Neck, a rocky Cape Cod peninsula. The venerable and crotchety summer home, the Big House, towers above Buzzards Bay and serves as a faithful repository of the family history from 1903 to the next century.
Colt is among the fourth generation of his family to occupy the Big House-- his children represent the fifth. This beautifully-written memoir will transport you to summertime Cape Cod, educate you on the rise, flourishing and decline of Brahmin Boston, and allow you to enter the poignant, often difficult but ultimately loving history of the Atkinson-Colt clan.
The Big House works on numerous levels, as a travelogue, as a social and architectural history, as an intimate family saga, and as a musing on permanence, impermanence, change and renewal. At book's end, you will have steeped yourself in Atkinson and Colt lore and will believe yourself a honorary-- if temporary-- member of the family. And you will have acquired-- if temporarily-- a remarkable summer home.
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Summary: Great summer read.
Review: Terrific book! A wonderful, truthful, sometimes sad story written with great skill and compassion about a world so appealingly (strangely) far from today. Couldn't put it down.
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Summary: A Century of a Family's Togetherness
Review: The Big House is a wonderful story - and a true one. The book has captured a great picture of a unique family with its many endearing qualities and foibles over a century. It relates so well the story of a summer place bringing together all ages of a family, away from the daily cares of the world and enjoying together a variety of activities - swimming, sailing, fishing, tennis, their own things and each other.
Typical of many such houses, after a century, it appears that none of the family members, individually or together, could afford to keep the place, even though it held so much meaning in their lives. It ends with the struggle to save it for themselves and future generations.
A neighbor and friend of four generations.
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Summary: This book is in my top 10 favorites reads of all time.
Review: The Big House is so many things, evokes so many feelings and alerts all of your senses. I have never really felt compelled to write a review online for anything, but when I finished The Big House, I wanted everyone to experience what I felt. First of all, it's a great summer read because it's about summers on Cape Cod in a fantastic old house. But it's also a fabulous history of a family from the turn of the century to the present. It takes you back to a different era. This writer takes you through every part of this amazing house and the path down to the water. You can feel it, you can smell it and you can hear the wind blow! It reminded me of many summers at the beach with my family and even though it wasn't on Cape Cod, there were so many similarities. You can see the worn decks of cards in the drawer and the old Monopoly games, you can smell the muffins in the kitchen, you can even picture the photographs on the walls and see the old books in the bookcases...I can't say enough good things about this book. It's a book that I didn't want to end...and yet I needed to finish to see what happens to the house. George Howe Colt is a very gifted writer. You have to read this!
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