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There are currently 21 member reviews
for The Barrowfields
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Cam G. (Murrells Inlet, SC)
The Borrowfields
Henry Aster was a good man, really. He loved his wife and cherished his children. He was also a failed writer, and perhaps it led to his depression, and what happened after.
His son, Henry, Jr. returns to the family home and finds he is ready to accept his father's death.
Phillip Lewis has written an excellent book, despite of its dark theme. I truly enjoyed reading it.
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Jill F. (Blackwood, NJ)
Beautifully written
From the opening passages the story of the Aster family draws you in and engages all of your senses. The characters are written with depth and nuance. The sights and sounds of Old Buckram leap off the page to the point that you feel like you are experiencing them as you read. The house is a foreboding presence that lords over the family within and seems to change their personalities and their destinies.
While the ending surprised me at first at the end, in hindsight, it seems like a foregone conclusion, a repetition of history, a debt owed by its' inhabitants.
Henry Aster Sr. is a damaged soul, who never fit in, never fulfilled his potential and never forgave himself for it. He passed that pain on to his loved ones. The man that the family saw and the man that the community saw were two sides of the coin. Do we ever really know what goes on behind closed doors? Can we ever escape our childhood and shed the identity given to us by our family histories, loved ones and the opinions of others to become who we are truly meant to be? I'm hoping there will be a sequel that explores these things and shows us the future of Henry and Threnody and who they become.
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Carm D. (Omaha, NE)
The Barrowfields by Phillip Lewis
This book was interesting and the subject was kind of unusual. The surprise ending, I did not see coming. But it was very hard for me to grasp that the actions of the narrator were believable. His poor sister! I would recommend with some reservations.
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Liz D. (East Falmouth, MA)
The Barrowfields
I enjoyed Phillip Lewis' debut novel of the Appalachian town of Buckram. The reverence with which he portrays the family of his protagonist Henry Aster is realistic and gives the novel its background tone. Lewis' use of lyrical language add to this feeling.
The author shows how Henry Sr. is not truly part of this world in his choices of a house that does not belong to the town's landscape. Its forbidding presence and the family's tastes belonging to another way of living foreign to the mountains way of life. The classical music, the emphasis on great literature, the father's constant drinking show the father's wish not to really engage in
a real life. This greatly confuses his children and affects their approach to how to get on in life.
Henry Jr.'s stumbling approach leads him to reenact some of his father's life. He ultimately returns to Old Buckram to return to his roots or to resolve the mystery of his life? The future we do not know.
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Barbara O. (Maryland Heights, MO)
A Different Love Story
A dark coming of age story. The relationship between father and son can be challenging no matter the setting but in this story, the isolated mountain town adds another layer to the tale. The author uses language that paints wonderful visual images and will delight wordsmiths and music lovers. His characters will feel real to you and leave you thinking about them long after you reach the end. I devoured this book.
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Lauren T. (Orlando, FL)
The Barrowfields by Phillip Lewis
The prose in this book is so beautiful, I loved reading it from the very beginning. Although the story the author tells in this debut novel is often dark, the writing style made me want to keep going no matter what happened. The Barrowfields is a coming of age story narrated by a young man growing up in the Appalachian town that was his father's place of birth. How he got there and how he reacts to the things that happen to him and his family are the basis for this novel. I look forward to reading more by this new author.
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Jill S. (Chicago, IL)
Wonderful writing but overly ambitious
The Barrowfields is a wonderfully promising debut novel that loses its way by trying to be too ambitious.
At first, I was entranced by Philip Lewis' majestic and evocative prose, which reads as if it could have easily been penned in the 1940s. Henry Aster, our narrator, relays the tale of his father, also named Henry, who returned to his small Appalachian town with his pregnant wife and eventually purchases a gothic haunted house, where horrendous murders took place.
The house is a red herring and that trail goes nowhere. It appears to serve as the metaphorical embodiment of the senior Henry's haunted mind, as he struggles to write a novel and fit in with often small-minded neighbors. The sense of time and place is truly exquisite.
Had the book pursued this angle – Henry, who is inexplicably drawn to the Barrowfields and his son Henry who also struggles with "you can't go home again" – this book would have been an unqualified winner. The second half of the book, however, focuses on Henry Jr's pursuit of an impossibly beautiful (sigh!) college girl named Story, who is very damaged by her past. In this section, melodrama rules.
I felt as if the first half and the second half didn't naturally coalesce and the way too familiar story of Henry Jr's connection with the exquisite blond and luscious Story didn't engage me anywhere as much as Henry's complicated family relationship. 3.5 stars.
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