The Keep by Jennifer Egan

I requested this book from the library and then took it back again after reading the first few pages. I hated the narrator with all his fashionable quirks, thought the style was precious, and the story was just too far out. Not my kind of thing, I thought. Then a friend loaned me a proof copy she had snagged through a book swap site. Somehow this poor naked little proof copy seemed like much less of a commitment than a big old hardback book, plus my friend had recommended it, so I gave The Keep another try. Am I glad I did.

My friend had described it as a “story within a story.” I would describe it as a story within a story within a story. It’s a story about a man who travels to Europe to renovate his cousin’s castle, within another story that I won’t give away, which turns out in the end to be another person’s story entirely. Everytime I thought I knew what was going on, the book took another turn. Best of all, it’s a story about writing stories, and the magic that writing and reading can work in our lives.