The House of Gentle Men

Imagine a pleace where men who have in some way hurt women can go to offer penance for their actions. Imagine a place where women who have been hurt by men can go to be healed of their pain. That place is called the House of Gentle Men. Without giving too much of the plot away, Charlotte, who is raped by three soldiers a mere two weeks after witnessing her mother die in a fire started by Charlotte's brother, is unwittingly reunited at the House of Gentle Men with Justin, one of the soldiers who participated in the rape. We observe as they slowly chip away the wall of ice they have built around themselves -- Charlotte in self-defense and Justin as self-punishment. We learn about the child that Charlotte bore as the result of the rape and then, as an act of defiance against God, abandoned. The House of Gentle Men has an unusual effect on everyone connected with it, from the men who live there, to the women who surreptitiously arrive there under the cover of night, to the townspeople who gossip and wonder about this extraordinary haven on the outskirts of town. This is such a beautiful novel, with a unique plot, lyrical writing and the twists and turns of luck and fate. I am very anxious to read Ms. Hepinstall's next offering. With the talent she has displayed in "The House of Gentle Men", I'm certain her next book will be just as enjoyable.

What an amazing book! The brief storyline offered above piqued my interest but in no way prepared me for the depth of feelings and emotions I would experience when I met Charlotte and later, Justin. Having lived through a harrowing experience in her rape, Charlotte makes a very difficult decision to give birth to and abandon her baby. Years later, alone and lonely, she makes her way to the house of Gentle Men to befriend Justin, a man trying to atone for his sins of the past. The theme of the book is atoning for one's sins and forgiveness - Charlotte must not only forgive the soldier who took away her innocence, but she must also forgive herself for abandoning her baby. Hepinstall cleverly contrasts sex without love to intimacy without sex and emphasizes that you need a balance to make the best relationship. Through the house of Gentle Men, Charlotte and Justin aren't the only characters who seek and attain forgiveness - you'll have to read the book to learn more!For a first book, this is an excellent start and I hope to find more by Hepinstall very soon! Highly recommended and I will pass it on to everyone I know.

This book qualifies as pure-dee soul food! It's been a long time since I pulled a late nighter with a new novel as I have to get up at 5:30 a.m. to go to work. . . but this book was un-put-downable! Her lyrical writing brings to mind Alice Hoffman. The characters have that sort of mystical quality where you feel as if they all have real souls and you know them from somewhere. . . I don't know how else to put it. One of my favorite quotes that I have copied down in my 'favorite quotes' notebook is by Hemingway:"All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened, and after you are finished reading one, you will feel that all that happened to you and afterwards it belongs to you: the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse and sorrow, the people and places and how the weather was. If you can get so that you can give that to people, then you are a writer."I think that Kathy Hepinstall is indeed such a writer! I look forward with great anticipation to her next book.

Every once in a great while a book comes along that you carry around inside your heart even after turning the final page. Kathy Hepinstall's "The House of Gentle Men" is exactly that type of book. It's rare that I find a novel that manages to combine the best of characterization, intriguing plot, and stunning language the way this one does. I fell in love with the characters, and appreciated the fact that none of them (even the ones I thought I had reason to hate in the beginning) were caricatures. Ms. Hepinstall writes with such understanding - not only the virtues of her characters, but of their faults as well, and they seem to step from the pages into real life and breath. There is truth weaved by the black ink of this novel, threaded together with tremendous heart and skill by the author. I'll be reliving and re-reading this one, to say nothing of eagerly awaiting more of Ms. Hepinstall's fiction.

Here is a novel for the jaded and tired reader who just wants "something good to read" but finds that harder and harder to find. "House of Gentle Men" tells a solid story with fresh, lovely language and images to advance the plot,which is bold and satisfying and unexpected. The characters will break your heart with their human flaws, and then mend it again by the end of the story. Long after you finish reading, the perfume of Louisiana will remain in your head, and the feel of those hot lazy summers when people are being stirred to a slow boil. You come away from it remembering certain phrases the way you come away from a good musical humming the songs. I am really looking forward to the rest of Kathy Hepinstall's work, and excited by the sense that somehow I was there for the birth of a new writing star.