Housemates
A Novel
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4.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD FINALIST • Two young housemates embark on a road trip to discover themselves in this “exceptional, keenly observed meditation on art and love” (People) in a fractured America, by the award-winning author of The Third Rainbow Girl
“Tender, nuanced, and hilarious.”—Oprah Daily
15 LGBTQ+ Books to Read for Pride—Time
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: People, The Boston Globe, NBC, Them, Autostraddle, Electric Lit, Kirkus Reviews
Four housemates, looking for a fifth, the ad read. Queer preferred (we all are).
This is how Bernie, a film photographer, meets Leah, a writer, and from opposite sides of a thin bedroom wall in West Philadelphia, the two become closer than they ever could have imagined. When Leah volunteers to accompany Bernie on a road trip to settle a complicated inheritance, what ensues is an unexpected journey into the heart of America as the duo try to make sense of the times they are living in—falling in love with each other and rediscovering the power of making art along the way.
With humor, warmth, and beautifully observed characters, and told through two generations of queer artists reflecting on the question of how a person should be, Housemates is a glorious celebration of creativity, body liberation, chosen family—and of finding your place in an uncertain world.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Two queer artists explore pastoral Pennsylvania in the sumptuous if rambling latest from Eisenberg (The Third Rainbow Girl). Things kick off when Bernie Abbott, a barista and photographer, moves into a house in Philadelphia with four roommates including Leah McCausland, a media studies PhD candidate who is nonbinary. She befriends Leah and is turned on by the sounds of her sexual escapades through a shared wall. When Bernie learns her old professor, the late photographer Daniel Dunn, has bequeathed her his old cameras, plates, and negatives, she wants to reject the offer—Dunn was accused of sexual assault—but Leah changes her mind: "He's dead.... The slate is wiped blank." Then Leah receives a grant from her program and enlists Bernie's collaboration on a vaguely sketched project ("I just want to drive around and look at things and I'd write things down and you'd photograph them"). Bernie's mission to pick up Dunn's belongings at his home in rural Mifflin County gives the pair a destination. En route, they encounter rebellious cigarette-smoking Amish teens outside a country buffet and smarmy men lurking around their motel, and their partnership becomes not just creative but romantic. The story starts at a crawl, but once Eisenberg revs the engine, she reaches luminous heights. Readers will count themselves lucky to go along for the ride.
