Readers go for
romance — even when it's platonic and there isn't a happily
ever after. That may explain why Elizabeth McCracken's first novel, The Giant's House, has
many fans and was a Book of the Month Club selection.
The retrospective novel is narrated by Peggy Cort, a librarian who was
25 when an 11-year-old boy who was already as tall as a man came into
her Cape Cod library. Peggy, an anti-social misfit, sensed in James
Sweatt another lonely spirit. Peggy inserted herself into his life and
stayed close by for the next nine years, until James's health severed
their bond.
Granted, this unusual take on a love story is intriguing, but it also can be seen as
somewhat creepy, considering that James was a minor for the first seven
years of their relationship and that Peggy forced herself on him and
his family. Despite Peggy's obsession with James, she doesn't provide
enough insight into his character to help readers understand what it
was other than his medical condition of giantism that fascinated her.
Or what about her, other than her devotion to him, James loved.
Commentators have noted that James was probably based on an actual
character, Robert Wadlow of Alton, Illinois, who was 8 feet 11 inches
tall when he died in 1940 at age 22.
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