A Fever Dream
A review of Mariam Petrosyan's The Gray House.
Personal rating: 4/5
Recommended if you like:
- One Hundred Years of Solitude
- Never Let Me Go
- Logic of God, Magic of Humans (神のロジック 人間のマジック)
The Gray House is a truly bizarre book. After reading the ending of this 720-page doorstop, I became utterly conflicted whether it is a rare gem or a stack of nonsense. I believe that almost everyone who read it will either love it dearly or hate it bitterly; very few would be neutral towards it.
The story tells of the titular House towards the end of its lifespan, in which young students marginalized by the society live and learn, and interact with each other. Through funny moments and cozy days we gradually gain a view of the house at different angles, displaying a lovely paradise, a save haven.
Of course, the real story has only just started: as deaths and strange events happen inside the House, a shade of gloominess and mystery covers the atmosphere, and no one is safe from the storm that will alter their lives. The previous Graduation ended in a carnage; with the new, final Graduation arriving soon, the situation accelerates; nobody may tell what will become of them.
But this story is far from a detective or mystery novel. To understand it, you must stop playing the detective: stop trying to analyze it, forming different theories, overthinking. Follow them to a regular meeting at the Coffeepot. Or take a bus trip to the sea. Or read an issue of their internal magazine. Watch and be awed by the house working its magic before you. Most importantly: hear their backstories and feel for them.
Fortunately, the book is not hard to follow. The writing is spectacular: despite a huge cast of more than seventy characters, each one is a vivid personality, so much that I can often feel one “pop out of the page” at me. As time pushes on, character names may also change without a two-week notice, but you will always figure out that someone from the present is the same as another from the past, known by another name — because of how clearly depicted they are. Following a narrative of fun sandwiched with melancholy, we see all the metaphor tying together at the end, prompting us to think of fate, and our actions when that time comes.
The Gray House is a truly bizarre book. It feels like a fever dream, or these strange images behind your eyelids before you fall asleep. A carnival of merry people and festive beasts parading through the city in colored gowns and loud music, drenched in the sweltering summer heat wave boiling above the asphalt roads. At certain points you may ask: Does the magic truly exist? Is this all an illusion? The answer, however, will come to you naturally. Overall, I really enjoyed the parade, and it would visit me again when the time is right. The metaphor may be different for each person, but for me it has a clear form: