The Keep, by Jennifer Egan

The Keep
Jennifer Egan

Einstein famously said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge," but is that true? How important are "facts," really? How powerful is one's imagination? Jennifer Egan explores this theme as well as the illusion of freedom in her second novel, The Keep, in which two stories are interwoven and connected by the unknown.

Danny, drawn to his cousin Howie's newly-acquired castle due to various unpleasant circumstances, finds a mystery he cannot unravel. As his cousin and his workers renovate the castle, Danny finds the old baroness holed up in the keep, the strongest part of the structure. The baroness refuses to leave the estate that has been in her family for nearly a thousand years. Even more mysteriously, she seems to change and shift, at times appearing as a beautiful young lady even though she is nearly a century old. What exactly is going on at this castle? Danny, cut off from life back home (there are no cell phones, internet connections, or satellite dishes here), desperately tries to find himself and reconnect to the world.

Meanwhile, as Danny narrates his adventures at the castle, another man narrates his tale: Ray, in prison with no possibility of parole. To escape the dreariness that surrounds him, he begins to write. One can obviously draw parallels between Danny and Ray just from what I've written here. However, the real surprise is the way in which their stories finally do collide, and it is this mystery that is at the real heart of the novel, not the goings-on at the castle.

While I found this book to be a real page-turner, something prevents me from rating this book as greater than mediocre. It is undoubtedly an enjoyable read, but does not deserve the heaping praise delivered by some reviewers. And yet, I'm not sure why--perhaps it is because The Keep is a bit formulaic in parts, simply unnecessary in others, heavy-handed in still others.

In a nutshell: Pretty good for popular fiction, but too contrived to be more than that. As a page-turner, The Keep's final surprise will compel you to get to the end, but it won't resonate with you after it's over.

Bibliolatry Scale: 3.75 out of 6 stars