Emily's House-A Book Review

I have long admired the poetry of Emily Dickinson. When I saw that there was a new novel based on her life, I reserved it at my local library. The author, Amy Belding Brown, based her fiction story on facts, adding things she thought might have happened or some she would have liked to be true.

We see Emily and her family members through the eyes of an Irish maid, Margaret Maher, who actually did work for the Dickinson family for 30 years. The book is as much Maggie's story as Emily's. Maggie, so named by the family who refused to call her Margaret, had a roller coaster relationship with Emily, mostly because the poet was reclusive and of a different nature than most. One minute she was Maggie's close friend, and the next she berated the maid and hurt her deeply many times. 

Even so, we see the relationship of maid and employer slowly evolve into a deep friendship. Emily lived with her parents and her older sister in a house named Homestead. Her brother was married by the time Maggie came to work for the family. He and his family lived nearby and were frequent visitors to the house.

Maggie's sister and her family live nearby in Kelly Square, a place where the residents are all Irish, most of them immigrants. Her two brothers are in California mining for gold. Maggie longs to join them, but continues to stay in Amherst, Massachusetts near her sister and working for the Dickinson family. 

Patrick Quinn is a love interest for Maggie. Her long on and off relationship with him is not factual, more the imagination of the author. Still, he lends something to the story. It was a bit difficult at times to decide what was fact and what was fiction. The author clarifies much of this in an addition at the end of the novel.

Emily is the family baker, tends her garden with love and care, and writes her poems on scraps of paper. As reclusive as she is, she shares much of her thinking with Maggie, who at first considers her quite strange but comes to view her as 'Emily being Emily.' 

The book gives an excellent  picture of life in the late nineteenth century for both the privileged and the Irish immigrants of the time. 

The prose flows well. I found the book hard to put down at times as I followed the lives of the individuals in Emily's family and Maggie and her own family. I also reacted emotionally in several parts of the story. Reading this book made me want to look up some of Emily Dickinson's poetry again.

It is obvious that the author did a great deal of research. There are many biographies and other books about Emily Dickinson, but I would put "Emily's House" high on the list.