Jennifer Egan The Keep

The Keep

Jennifer Egan

Knopf, Aug 2006, $24.00

ISBN: 1400043921

Wealthy retired bond trader thirty four years old Howie buys a castle in Austria, Germany or the Czech Republic, as he is not sure which country hosts his new (make that old) abode. He sends a plane ticket to his thirty-six years old party hardy cousin Danny to come over from New York to help renovate the dump into a luxurious hotel. Needing to leave town as he has alienated some mean dudes, Danny flies to Europe though he fears that Howie might still have lingering resentment from a prank he pulled over two decades ago when he deserted him in a cave where he almost died.

At least that is what Ray insists happened while attending a prison writing workshop. Is Ray writing fiction or providing a real account of something that happened to him that led to his drug addiction? His prison writing teacher Holly needs to know.

THE KEEP is a strange tale that has the audience wondering what is real as the narrative rotates between Danny's central European adventures and Ray's prison time. Real or not, the cast seems genuine whether they are a figment of Ray's imagination or his recall of true people perhaps himself; either way the audience believes that Ray, Danny, Howie, and Holly are three dimensional characters; ironically some of their escapades seem over the top. Readers who appreciate something entirely different will want to peruse Jennifer Egan's fine thriller that questions reality in a digital age.

Harriet Klausner