Here’s a little-known fact about me that doesn’t come up much in conversation, because why would it?

I’m fairly uninterested in anything that involves a castle.

I don’t know why - just medieval stuff is not all that interesting to me.

I mention this because when I picked up this book from the library and saw a picture of a castle there on the cover, my immediate reaction was, “Uh-oh. What have I gotten myself into here?”

But the book is not about the castle…even though the castle dominates the book.

I told you after I finished reading A Visit From The Goon Squad that I was likely going to read The Keep next - I placed a hold on it and picked it up a few days after I finished Goon Squad.

It’s another great piece of storytelling - a first person account, a third person account, and then, as you might expect, they come together and then the end of the book is from another character’s perspective.

Once again I was glad I didn’t read the blurbs ahead of time - I was genuinely shocked at how everything converged.

I don’t know if I liked one book better than the other at all - these were just two really enjoyable reads, sparking my reading brain for 2025.

I will certainly come back to Jennifer Egan’s writing at some point, if not before the end of this year.

But now I think it’s time to give some other writers a read.