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The House at Belle Fontaine: Stories Hardcover – April 23, 2013

by Lily Tuck (Author)
3.6 3.6 out of 5 stars 43 ratings
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“‘Ice’ encompasses whole worlds, the landscape of the heart imposed upon the landscape of Antarctica.”—Kirkus Reviews

The elegantly conceived, intimate stories of The House at Belle Fontaine span the better part of the twentieth century and almost every continent, revealing apprehensions, passions, secrets, and tragedies among lovers, spouses, landlords and tenants, and lifelong friends. In her crisp and penetrating prose, Tuck delicately probes at the lives of her characters as they navigate exotic locales and their own hearts: an artist learns that her deceased husband had an affair with their young houseguest; a retired couple strains to hold together their forty-year-old marriage on a ship bound for Antarctica; and a French family flees to Lima in the 1940s with devastating consequences for their daughter’s young nanny.

All published or soon to be in prestigious literary quarterlies including the PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories 2011, these tales make up a crowning collection by one of our most revered American authors.
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    160 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Atlantic Monthly Press
  4. Publication date
    April 23, 2013
  5. Dimensions
    5.25 x 0.75 x 7.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0802120164
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0802120168
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Tuck packs a small universe and decades of emotional history into each story."—Entertainment Weekly (A-)

"Impressive . . . Evocative stories of beautiful language and masterful economy . . . Tuck [has an] unflinching eye for detail and faithful ear for dialogue bring. . . . These striking, compact narratives are reminiscent of the exquisite short stories of Edith Pearlman . . . [and feature] a rich complexity the magnetically draws in the reader. We become intimate witnesses to these private lives falling apart and, in some cases, coming back together."—The Boston Globe

"For me, the most thrilling short stories conjure the psychological depth and chronological sweep typical of the novel. The ten stories in Lily Tuck's The House at Belle Fontaine all do this, their remorseless sentences meticulously deploying the powers of implication. . . . Her stories explain no coincidence, justify no twist of fate, and let no character escape the absurd workings of memory, whim, and desire. . . . Writers adamant about proportions are too unusual these days, all the more reason to celebrate The House at Belle Fontaine."—The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)

"Tuck proves she is gifted in the short form with stories reaching far into the physical and emotional senses. . . . Tuck's agility and grace as a storyteller are quietly evident throughout her impressive collection. This is a writer at the top of her form."—Library Journal (starred review)

"Compact, intense, and finely crafted . . . Packs a punch . . . Tuck opens private windows into the lives of women in foreign lands. . . . These women, unsatisfied with their lives, go searching for answers to their longing, and though they do not find them, the reader understands that the act of striking out away from the known is somehow, itself, enough."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Tuck's fiction is filled with strong worldly women who travel or live wherever they want—whether their men join them or not. Her work is always elegantly concise, capturing intimacies and emotions with just a few words of description and telling dialogue. . . . Tuck's fundamental focus [is] on the vicissitudes of relationships between men and women—and in this she is a master."—Shelf Awareness

“Remarkable for its technical expertise . . . Impressive work from a virtuoso.”—Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

Lily Tuck is the author of five novels: I Married You for Happiness; Interviewing Matisse or the Woman Who Died Standing Up; The Woman Who Walked on Water; Siam, or the Woman Who Shot a Man, nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award; and The News From Paraguay, winner of the National Book Award. She also wrote the biography Woman of Rome: A Life of Else Morante and the story collection Limbo, and Other Places I Have Lived.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Atlantic Monthly Press (April 23, 2013)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 160 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0802120164
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0802120168
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 0.75 x 7.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.6 3.6 out of 5 stars 43 ratings

About the author

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Lily Tuck

Lily Tuck

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Lily Tuck was born in Paris and is the author of four previous novels – Interviewing Matisse, The Woman Who Walked on Water, the PEN/Faulkner award finalist Siam and The News From Paraguay, which won the National Book Award – as well as a collection of stories, Limbo, and Other Places I Have Lived. Her fiction has appeared in the New Yorker and the Paris Review. She lives in New York City.

Customer reviews

3.6 out of 5 stars
3.6 out of 5
43 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Lola092563
3.0 out of 5 stars Short Glimpses Rather than Short Stories
Reviewed in the United States on June 4, 2013
Verified Purchase
The thing that I disliked about this compilation of short stories was that they had nothing to do with the title, "House at Bellefontaine", save for the very first one. I had imagined when I bought the book that somehow all the short stories would relate back to the "Bellefontaine" house or interconnect with each stories characters, but they did not at all and so I had to sort of fight that bit of aggravation/disappointment as I read. I think if the author had all connected them somehow to the first story/the house at Bellefontaine - it would have been more clever and enjoyable.

As well, as my title for this review states; many of the stories were a bit irritating in that they only provided a "glimpse" into the middle of a story, and when the chapter was finished on that tale, there was no conclusion to the events - the reader is left to wonder, "Well, what happened?" That device of denouement just didn't work for me in those stories because the basic plot wasn't strong enough in the first place to give the reader lots of exciting scenarios to ponder. They were mostly ordinary events, and perhaps that was the author's intention - for the reader to glimpse ordinary life & its unanswered questions. But frankly, I can experience that by sitting at a cafe & watching someone argue with a friend and wonder "Hmm, what was that all about?". Two minutes later, I won't care. I felt "cheated" when the author gave me the opportunity to "glimpse" the same type of thing in a short story, but then (as in life), she leaves me hanging. And that made them largely forgettable.

I think all the stories deal with "angst" and maybe "unfinished business", and that might tie them together thematically, but again, for me it just left me irritated. The author's writing style was excellent, but I'd like to have had more cohesion and plot fulfillment.
9 people found this helpful
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Lisa Martinese
5.0 out of 5 stars Just read this today in a few hours....Believe it or not
Reviewed in the United States on September 25, 2016
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Just read this today matter of fact while enjoying an unusually Sunny Fall day here in upstate NY. I enjoyed each shirt story, though I was hoping some of them would magically tiie. together in some way. I'm going to send it to my Mother as I know she'll enjoy it as well!
One person found this helpful
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Brian
4.0 out of 5 stars GREAT STORIES
Reviewed in the United States on May 29, 2013
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I read the entire book in one sitting on a trip to New York. It took me about 2 and a half hours. The stories flow smoothly. Some are alittle hard to follow but you figure them out in the end. The reason I gave it only 4 stars is because I wanted to keep reading. Some of the stories could have kept going and made great books. It made me make my own conclusion of what happens next and I wish I did not have too. She is a great writer and knows what she is talking about because of her age. It even has alittle history in it if your into that. They could also make good short films. All in all this is a great book and I recommend it whole heartily

My Personal Favorites:
-Lucky *****
-My Flame
- The Riding Teacher

They all could have kept going.
6 people found this helpful
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Judy M. Gruhn
2.0 out of 5 stars Not my kind of book
Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2013
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Sorry - I couldn't get into this book of assorted stories that have no connection. I rarely quit a book but this time I did after 1 and a half chapters
3 people found this helpful
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Kathryn S
3.0 out of 5 stars Assorted short stories
Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2016
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Easy to read and convenient for stop and go situations because no story is too long to finish in one reading. Nicely written with an English 'feel' about it somehow.
One person found this helpful
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Molly Haskell
5.0 out of 5 stars a brilliant and haunting collection of short stories
Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2013
Lily Tuck is one of our best prose stylists and these stories grab the reader in quite mysterious ways. Like her beautiful novel I Married You for Happiness, in which a wife at the bed of her dying husband remembers their marriage, she uses minutely observed details to bring relationships, obliquely and teasingly, to life. I'm not even sure how she works her wonders but because she's always suggesting a great deal more than is being said, her characters--ordinary people in midlife, in crisis--keep yielding up meanings long after we've finished the story. This is one of the great reading pleasures.
9 people found this helpful
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Jackie
3.0 out of 5 stars Three Stars
Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2016
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Not one of my favorites.
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Sandra Iler Kirkland
4.0 out of 5 stars An Anthology Of Relationships
Reviewed in the United States on October 16, 2022
In this anthology, Lily Tuck explores relationships between men and women. There is Helen whose ex has just died in a car accident. Alison and Mark take in his niece Leslie and Alison finds out years later that her husband slept multiple times with Leslie. Claire and James are stationed in Thailand and worry about the effect the military is having on their best friend. Anne leaves her husband and goes to Paris where she learns that she is just as well off at home. A woman muses about the impact music has had on her life. A couple go on an Artic cruise hoping to repair their marriage. Chingis, a riding instructor and descendant of Genghis Khan, falls in love with one of his pupils, Lena. Jeanne follows the family for which she is a nanny to Peru.

In the title story, a young woman has come to France after her divorce. She is renting a cottage from an elderly man who has both a name recognized in society and a fortune he made in business. He lives next door in a mansion he had built but this is the house he grew up in and lived in with his wife. He invites the woman to dinner and she goes where she learns about the history of the house and his life.

These stories demonstrate the difficulty of finding and maintaining a relationship. These couples are either in the throes of ending a relationship or have done so. Sometimes the end is dramatic, sometimes boredom sets in and kills the love that existed. There are affairs and deceit but through it all Tuck writes the truth as she sees it. Her writing style is spare yet eloquent and readers will be intrigued by these differing views of doomed relationships. This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.
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