The House of the Wind by Titania Hardie
The House of the Wind is the second novel from Australian author Titania Hardie, best known for her international chart topper The Rose Labyrinth.
Hardie is a psychologist by training, with a postgraduate degree in the Romantic poets and a vast knowledge of esoterica – all of which she uses to great effect in this, her second literary offering.
The House of the Wind is essentially two parallel stories, set centuries apart, and yet somehow connected. The 21st century portion of the book follows Madeline Moretti, a twenty-something Italian-American lawyer living in San Francisco and grieving for the death of her English doctor fiancé, Christopher, killed in a car accident hours before boarding a plane to visit his love.
The medieval section of the book concerns Mia, a young Italian living in 14th century Tuscany living with her spinster aunt, who hasn’t spoken since she witnessed the death of her mother.
In many ways, The House of the Wind is something of an Erin Brokovich meets Time Team type of story. While Madeline takes on an evil technology corporation accused of making its factory workers sick, Mia is getting to know the beautiful pilgrim who arrived at the front door of their villa the middle of the night – a pilgrim with a secret who is reluctant even to reveal her name.
Madeline’s archetypal Italian grandmother, seeing her granddaughter suffering, buys her a plane ticket to go and “find her wings.” Funnily enough, that plane ticket takes her to Tuscany, where we start to see the connection between the two stories.
Sounds like it has potential, right? Too bad it doesn’t fulfil it.
The plot is overly complicated and takes too long to get to where you know it’s going. The author spends so much time setting the scene and describing various elements of esoterica (from augury to astrology via unicorn gardens), meaning the conclusions of the various plot lines have to be crammed into the last 100 pages and you’re left feeling rushed.
This feeling that the author “ran out of space” also lends itself to a certain number of plot conveniences (like the frightfully handsome Danish landscape architect who shows up in Tuscany just as Madeline is starting to heal) and more than a few unanswered questions (precisely how does Madeline’s family know the dastardly Pierce Gray, boss of the company whose employees Madeline’s firm are representing?).
Having said that, there are some fascinating elements to the book – Mia’s part of the novel starts as the bubonic plague breaks out in Italy and has a great line in the role of homeopathy and pre-Florence Nightingale cleanliness in the prevention of the disease.
Overall, the book has great potential but just misses out by being too complex and at times a bit overwhelming. If you’d like to give it a try, though, you can pick up a paperback copy now for £5.59 or get the Kindle edition for £4.99.
Rating: 2/5
Recommended for: Someone with endless patience and a pre-existing knowledge of the tangle thought-forest that is esoterica.
Other recommended reading: This is a tough one to find recommendations for – mainly because I can’t think of any book like it. However, if you’re interested in medieval Europe, I can highly recommend Karen Maitland’s Company of Liars.
Boomskilpaadjie
Pretty much my thoughts too! Some of the writing was lovely, but Maddie was just too good to be true, and the story was so long winded. Would have benefited from being 100-odd pages shorter, I thought.
Also – SPOILER COMING UP!!!…………….Maddie went out on a date with Pierce, with no repercussions at all, while a secretary was vilified for having lunch with Piere’s solicitor. Only a small part of the story, but that really rankled with me.
I know right? She comes across very much as a character that things just happen to, never taking much responsibility or owning her actions. And likewise that date annoyed the living daylights out of me.
I thought I may have been a bit harsh but I’m so glad you agree with my analysis.
Hmmmm. I think this sounds right up my alley. I’m not crazy about long books (so many books to read, so little time), but I’ll make an exception for this one. I have an interest in esoterica, and I enjoyed Orlando by Virginia Woolf (which spanned almost 400 years of the protagonist’s life, over different genders & time periods) but it was a short book. I’ll add this one to my TBR.
Judy, South Africa