
The House on the Lagoon by Rosario Ferre is a multigenerational family saga set in Puerto Rico, delving into the country's history, culture, and social issues. The novel follows the Mendizabal family, focusing on Quintin and Isabel's tumultuous marriage as they navigate personal and historical complexities. Through the lens of Quintin, a historian, and Isabel, a writer, the narrative unfolds as a story within a story, blurring the lines between fiction and reality. The book intricately weaves together themes of greed, lust, violence, control, societal struggles, and the impact of Puerto Rico's colonial past on its people.
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Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
Content warnings include themes of sexual nature, generational trauma, and references to the slavery and colonization.
Has Romance?
Romantic elements are highly present, exploring both personal and familial relationships with significant emotional stakes.
From The Publisher:
Finalist for the National Book Award: “A family saga in the manner of Gabriel García Márquez,” set in Puerto Rico, from an extraordinary storyteller (The New York Times Book Review).
This riveting, multigenerational epic tells the story of two families and the history of Puerto Rico through the eyes of Isabel Monfort and her husband, Quintín Mendizabal. Isabel attempts to immortalize their now-united families—and, by extension, their homeland—in a book.
The tale that unfolds in her writing has layers upon layers, exploring the nature of love, marriage, family, and Puerto Rico itself. Weaving the intimate with the expansive on a teeming stage, Ferré crafts a revealing self-portrait of a man and a woman, two fiercely independent people searching for meaning and identity.
As Isabel declares: “Nothing is true, nothing is false, everything is the color of the glass you’re looking through.” A book about freeing oneself from societal and cultural constraints, The House on the Lagoon also grapples with bigger issues of life, death, poverty, and racism.
Mythological in its breadth and scope, this is a masterwork from an extraordinary storyteller.
What can you read after
The House on the Lagoon?
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