The House of Special Purpose

 

The House of Special Purpose by John Boyne

Fiction

2009

Finished on June 5, 2026

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

From the author of The Absolutist, a propulsive novel of the Russian Revolution and the fate of the Romanovs.

 

Part love story, part historical epic, part tragedy, The House of Special Purpose illuminates an empire at the end of its reign.

Eighty-year-old Georgy Jachmenev is haunted by his past—a past of death, suffering, and scandal that will stay with him until the end of his days. Living in England with his beloved wife, Zoya, Georgy prepares to make one final journey back to the Russia he once knew and loved, the Russia that both destroyed and defined him. As Georgy remembers days gone by, we are transported to St. Petersburg, to the Winter Palace of the czar, in the early twentieth century—a time of change, threat, and bloody revolution. As Georgy overturns the most painful stone of all, we uncover the story of the house of special purpose.

I bought The House of Special Purpose at Parnassus Books four years ago while visiting my daughter and son-in-law in Tennessee. I always make an effort to buy at least one or two books from an independent bookstore while traveling, and having read a few of Boyne's novels, this one caught my eye. Not wanting it to languish on my shelves much longer, I decided it would be one to read this summer, as I love a hefty book to sink into during the longer days. 

Spanning seventy years, separated by past and present, and clocking in at almost 500 pages, this one took me two weeks to read. At times I was thoroughly engrossed in the lives of Georgy and Zoya, but there were also moments when I grew impatient with the details, silently complaining about the drawn out length of the tale.

Ever the critic, I found one irritating error, which the editor should have caught. Boyne's main character, Georgy, has received birthday gifts from his wife and one-year-old daughter. Little Arina later asks, "Father," she said, sounding so serious now, the way she always did when she had a question she considered to be of the highest importance. "Whose present is the best, mine or Mother's?" Either Georgy has an exceptionally bright toddler or her age was misstated earlier in the chapter. 

I have now read five of John Boyne's novels, and while The House of Special Purpose was worthwhile, it's not one that I'd like to read again. Having said that, I would like to read more about that period in Russian history. I might give The Romanov Sisters (Helen Rappaport) a read later this year. If anyone has any other recommendations, please let me know.

My Reviews of John Boyne's Novels:

The Absolutist (5/5)

A Ladder to the Sky (4.5/5)

The Heart's Invisible Furies (4.5/5)

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2/5)

The Absolutist

The Absolutist by John Boyne

Fiction

2021 Other Press (first published in 2011)

Finished on April 8, 2022

Rating: 5/5 (Excellent)

Publisher's Blurb:

 

It is September 1919: twenty-one-year-old Tristan Sadler takes a train from London to Norwich to deliver a package of letters to the sister of Will Bancroft, the man he fought alongside during the Great War.

But the letters are not the real reason for Tristan's visit. He can no longer keep a secret and has finally found the courage to unburden himself of it. As Tristan recounts the horrific details of what to him became a senseless war, he also speaks of his friendship with Will - from their first meeting on the training grounds at Aldershot to their farewell in the trenches of northern France. The intensity of their bond brought Tristan happiness and self-discovery as well as confusion and unbearable pain.

The Absolutist is a masterful tale of passion, jealousy, heroism, and betrayal set in one of the most gruesome trenches of France during World War I. This novel will keep readers on the edge of their seats until its most extraordinary and unexpected conclusion, and will stay with them long after they've turned the last page.

What a marvelous novel! I read it over the course of four days and was truly bereft when I turned the final page. It was a great read for my four-hour flight to Nashville. I would have loved to have read all day; the time passed far too quickly!

Boyne's novel opens in 1919 with Tristan's visit to Norwich. The details of his story are deliberately vague, but as the narrative unfolds, we learn more about Tristan and Will's experience in the Great War. Alternating between their training and combat in the war (1916) and Tristan's visit with Will's sister, Marian Bancroft (in 1919), the reader experiences the horrors that these two soldiers suffered during their brief year in battle. As I read, I had to remind myself that Tristan (who lied about his age when he joined up) is just twenty-one when he visits Marian. While not a young boy, he comes across as a much more mature man. Sadly, war steals the innocence and care-free life of the young.

The Absolutist is the fourth novel by John Boyne that I have read, and he is decidedly one of my favorite authors. I wasn't enthralled with The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, but I loved The Absolutist equally as well as The Heart's Invisible Furies and A Ladder to the Sky. These literary works are worthy of multiple readings and discussion, and I'm eager to discover more by Boyne, who has written 13 novels (and 6 YA books). 

I feel as though my brief review does not do justice to Boyne's talent as a writer. Perhaps the following will help to persuade you to give this and any of his other books a chance:

A novel of immeasurable sadness, in a league with Graham Greene's The End of the Affair... Boyne is very, very good at portraying the destructive power of a painfully kept secret... this is a forbidden love story, a gay love story, but one with a terrible twist. ~John Irving, author of A Prayer for Owen Meany

A wonderful, sad, tender book [that] is going to have an enormous impact on everyone who reads it. ~Colm Toibin, author of Brooklyn

 

What begins as a slow-building World War I period piece…grows deeper, more curious, and uneasy as it progresses—and midway through this sad and beautiful story, you realize you’re in the hands of a quiet master…a taut and tragic tale of love and war, with a kick-in-the-gut ending. ~Amazon (Best Books of the Month)

My initial rating for The Absolutist was 4.5/5, but upon reflection while composing this review, I'm bumping that rating up to 5-stars. Highly recommend, particularly to those who loved All the Light We Cannot See and City of Thieves.

A Ladder to the Sky

A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne
Fiction
2018 Hogarth
Finished on March 30, 2019
Rating: 4.5/5 (Very Good!)

Spoiler Note: 

As is my usual practice, I didn't read the publisher's blurb before I began reading this novel. As I typed the blurb for this review, I was glad I hadn't learned some of the subtle details revealed below beforehand. I will keep the blurb for future reference, but you may wish to skip it if you want to be completely surprised by the early details of the narrative. The publisher doesn't give away major, significant details, but there is a bit more than I would have included. Fair warning.

Publisher's Blurb:

Maurice Swift is handsome, charming, and hungry for success. The one thing he doesn't have is talent - but he's not about to let a detail like that stand in his way. After all, a would-be writer can find stories anywhere. They don't need to be his own.

Working as a waiter in a West Berlin hotel in 1988, Maurice engineers the perfect opportunity: a chance encounter with celebrated novelist Erich Ackermann. He quickly ingratiates himself with the powerful - but desperately lonely - older man, teasing out of Erich a terrible, long-held secret about his activities during the war. Perfect material for Maurice's first novel.

Once Maurice has had a taste of literary fame, he knows he can stop at nothing in pursuit of that high. Moving from the Amalfi Coast, where he matches wits with Gore Vidal, to Manhattan and London, Maurice hones his talent for deceit and manipulation, preying on the talented and vulnerable in his cold-blooded climb to the top. But the higher he climbs, the further he has to fall...

Sweeping across the late twentieth century, A Ladder to the Sky is a fascinating portrait of a relentlessly immoral man, a tour de force of storytelling and the next great novel from an acclaimed literary virtuoso.

John Boyne did not become a favorite author after I read The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, but The Heart's Invisible Furies won me over early last year. When I heard about this new release, I made a mental note to borrow a copy from the library, but as always, other books called for my attention and I forgot all about it. It wasn't until a couple of weeks ago, as I was picking up a book for my husband, that I spotted A Ladder to the Sky. Thank goodness I didn't judge this book by its cover! It's one of the least appealing covers I've seen for a novel in a long time. 

But the book. Wow. What a great read! I started and finished the entire 362 pages in about three days, while we were on a camping trip. Granted, we spent a couple of days inside the RV due to the rainy weather, but the book called to me at every waking moment, so I ignored my email, Facebook, Instagram, and Bloglovin and curled up on the couch and read for hours on end. Bliss.

A Ladder to the Sky is divided into three parts, with an interlude between each, and with each new section, the point-of-view shifts from one main character to the next. Characters come and go, but one remains constant throughout the novel. Maurice Swift. It's rare that I enjoy a book so well when the main character is so unlikable and Maurice is one I grew to despise. He is calculating, heartless, ambitious and greedy. One might call him a charlatan or a sociopath, but whatever the label, he was not someone I would care to know.

While one part of the story is predictable, the outcome of that particular event was not. By the time I had finished the book, I was tempted to download the audio version and listen to it right away! This is one I will read again and recommend highly. 

On a final note, as I read this addictive, psychological thriller, I found myself comparing Maurice to Tom Ripley. Wow. Now glancing at the review blurbs on Amazon, I see I'm not the only one who felt this way. 

“Maurice Swift may not be much of a novelist, but he inhabits a literary tradition going to back to Patricia Highsmith. Boyne’s protagonist is Tom Ripley as literary climber... Boyne’s novel is about high literature but has lower, juicier ambitions, at which it wildly succeeds.”– Vulture

"For Patricia Highsmith fans, thriller aficionados, writers, publishers, literary wannabees, scoundrel sympathizers, John Boyne offers the perfect entertainment for dark winter days." – Boston Globe

"A Talented Mr. Ripley-esque novel of greed and deceit." – New York Post

“John Boyne’s new novel charts the rise and fall of an antihero cut from the same cloth as Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley…. Darkly comic and deliciously vicious, this mesmerizing portrait of a ruthless psychopath explores artistic endeavor, creative ambition and ‘whether our stories belong to us at all.’” – Minneapolis Star Tribune

"A Ladder to the Sky is clever, chilling and beautifully paced; a study of inner corrosion that Patricia Highsmith herself could not have done better... wickedly astute." –The Times (London)

"Maurice Swift is a literary Tom Ripley . . . a first-class page turner." –The Guardian

It's been a long time since I watched The Talented Mr. Ripley, but now I'm eager to watch the movie or read the book.

The Heart's Invisible Furies

The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne
Fiction
2017 Hogarth
Finished on February 8, 2018
Rating: 4.5/5 (Very Good!)

Publisher's Blurb:

From the beloved New York Times bestselling author of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, a sweeping, heartfelt saga about the course of one man's life, beginning and ending in postwar Ireland.

Cyril Avery is not a real Avery or at least that’s what his adoptive parents tell him. And he never will be. But if he isn’t a real Avery, then who is he?

Born out of wedlock to a teenage girl cast out from her rural Irish community and adopted by a well-to-do if eccentric Dublin couple via the intervention of a hunchbacked Redemptorist nun, Cyril is adrift in the world, anchored only tenuously by his close friendship with the infinitely more glamorous and dangerous Julian Woodbead. At the mercy of fortune and coincidence, he will spend a lifetime coming to know himself and where he came from – and over his three score years and ten, will struggle to discover an identity, a home, a country and much more.

In this, Boyne's most transcendent work to date, we are shown the story of Ireland from the 1940s to today through the eyes of one ordinary man. The Heart's Invisible Furies is a novel that sparks both laughter and tears while reminding us all of the redemptive power of the human spirit.

What a terrific story! I read The Boy in Striped Pajamas (reviewed here) several years ago, but I never would have guessed this was written by the same author. Spanning 70 years, this achingly sad, yet witty novel is reminiscent of A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving). There's tenderness that will bring a tear to your eye and laugh out loud humor to add levity to Boyne's tragic tale. After the disappearance of one of the early characters, and the promiscuity of another, I almost gave up on the novel, but I'm glad I continued reading as this is one of the best books I've read this year. I did find myself shaking my head at the multiple coincidences and chance occurrences that took place over so many years, but decided to suspend disbelief and just enjoy the story. It is fiction, after all. Now to get a copy of The Absolutist and Boyne's new release, A Ladder to the Sky!

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
Young Adult Fiction - Historical
2006 David Fickling Books
Finished on 2/26/10
Rating: 2/5 (Fair)




Publisher's Blurb:

Berlin 1942. When Bruno returns home from school one day, he discovers that his belongings are being packed in crates. His father has received a promotion and the family must move from their home to a new house far far away, where there is no one to play with and nothing to do. A tall fence running alongside stretches as far as the eye can see and cuts him off from the strange people he can see in the distance.

But Bruno longs to be an explorer and decides that there must be more to this desolate new place than meets the eye. While exploring his new environment, he meets another boy whose life and circumstances are very different to his own, and their meeting results in a friendship that has devastating consequences.

When I learned that The Boy in the Striped Pajamas was coming out on DVD, I decided I needed to make time and give it a read since I'm one who likes to read the book before watching the movie. Now that I've finished the book, well, let's just say I'll be skipping the movie.

Over the years I've become quite a fan of historical fiction, particularly that of World War II. As a matter of fact, my current book is set during WWII and is quite engrossing. And, one of my absolute favorite books is The Book Thief, which, like The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, focuses on the life of a young German child during the war. However, that's where the similarities end. John Boyne badly missed the mark with his simplistic tale of a young, naive boy (the son of a high-ranking German soldier), living literally next-door to Auschwitz. The story consists of one-dimensional characters, improbable situations, a ridiculous literary device (the usage of puns to describe Auschwitz and the Fuhrer), and a trivialized plot that barely held my interest and which does no credit at all to the weighty matters with which it attempts to deal.

As I read, I began to wonder exactly for whom this book was written. It lacks the sophistication of any teen book I've read in the past few years, and I found myself comparing the reading level to that of The Penderwicks, which was written for young readers. Obviously, this is not appropriate subject matter for a seven- or eight-year-old, unless handled much more carefully and delicately than Boyne manages here. Yet, it reads as if young children, not teens, were the target audience. What we have here is a book aimed at teens but which talks down to its audience.

Final thoughts: Meh. Read The Book Thief instead.