In a weird way, Hausfrau made me quite keen to read Essbaum's poetry.

But to me the voice is positioned in a much more consciously American tradition actually Anna reminds me of no one so much as Esther Greenwood from The Bell Jar, which, like Hausfrau, is also a poet's first novel. It has been compared to Madame Bovary or Anna Karenina, presumably because the central character (also an Anna) feels trapped in an unfulfilling marriage and because it is obviously building to a grand tragic climax. Her story reveals, with honesty and great beauty, how we create ourselves and how we lose ourselves and the sometimes disastrous choices we make to find ourselves.Ī well-written novel about a depressive, narcissistic American expat in Zurich which I can't say I really enjoyed. Navigating the lines between lust and love, guilt and shame, excuses and reasons, Anna Benz is an electrifying heroine whose passions and choices readers will debate with recognition and fury. Intimate, intense, and written with the precision of a Swiss Army knife, Jill Alexander Essbaum's debut novel is an unforgettable story of marriage, fidelity, sex, morality, and most especially self. Having crossed a moral threshold, Anna will discover where a woman goes when there is no going back.

Tensions escalate, and her lies start to spin out of control. When she wants to end them, she finds it's difficult. Adrift and increasingly unable to connect with the emotionally unavailable Bruno or even with her own thoughts and feelings, Anna tries to rouse herself with new experiences: German language classes, Jungian analysis, and a series of sexual affairs she enters with an ease that surprises even her.īut Anna can't easily extract herself from these affairs. Though she leads a comfortable, well-appointed life, Anna is falling apart inside. 3: A novel by Jill Alexander EssbaumĪnna Benz, an American in her late thirties, lives with her Swiss husband, Bruno-a banker-and their three young children in a postcard-perfect suburb of Zürich. A striking debut novel of marriage, fidelity, sex, and morality, featuring a fascinating heroine who struggles to live a life with meaning.įor readers of Claire Messud and Mary Gaitskill comes a striking debut novel of marriage, fidelity, sex, and morality, featuring a fascinating heroine who struggles to live a life with meaning.

Hausfrau by Jill Alexander Essbaum