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Briarwood House itself narrates some of the chapters. What did you think about this narrator? What do you think it added to the story?
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I think the house as a narrator added a little lightheartedness to the serious issues each character represented. It also showed the characters influence on the house, transforming it from a house to a home with vine and flowers, the decorative changes of flowers, curtains and suncatchers, the smell of good food, conversation and laughter.
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I thought so too, Nancy. The house “narrator” had a wise and sometimes humorous take on the events going on – like a silent observer who sees everything and judges what’s going on. I also liked the notion that a house can be revived – re-enlivened – by its inhabitants. I couldn’t help but think of the Hadley house in Three Pines and how it just got sadder and darker because of its former residents. But Briarhouse under the disinterest and neglect of Mrs. Nillson is in disrepair, just like her children are. But the more the kids are helped by the other residents, the more the house comes alive too (Pete repairs things, Lina bakes things).
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Briarwood House is a most personable and opinionated narrator, almost a character in its own right. Narrators usually come across to me as disinterested recorders of the story, neither character, plot nor setting, just connecting separate pieces of the story. Not Briarwood House!
It provides commentary, humorous and wise as Nancy and Maureen note, on the people who live in it. The house is an observer but not a dispassionate one. It has feelings, boredom until Grace arrives, disliked Mrs. Nilsson since the day she arrived, fondness and protectiveness of her boarders and a reservoir of stories about each one of them. The Briarwood House chapters certainly colored my view of the characters and created a sense of suspense and foreboding.
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