The House At Belle Fontaine: Stories by Lily Tuck

 

In this anthology, Lily Tuck explores relationships between men and women.  There is Helen whose ex has just died in a car accident.  Alison and Mark take in his niece Leslie and Alison finds out years later that her husband slept multiple times with Leslie.  Claire and James are stationed in Thailand and worry about the effect the military is having on their best friend.  Anne leaves her husband and goes to Paris where she learns that she is just as well off at home.  A woman muses about the impact music has had on her life.  A couple go on an Artic cruise hoping to repair their marriage.  Chingis, a riding instructor and descendant of Genghis Khan, falls in love with one of his pupils, Lena.  Jeanne follows the family for which she is a nanny to Peru. 

In the title story, a young woman has come to France after her divorce.  She is renting a cottage from an elderly man who has both a name recognized in society and a fortune he made in business.  He lives next door in a mansion he had built but this is the house he grew up in and lived in with his wife.  He invites the woman to dinner and she goes where she learns about the history of the house and his life.  

These stories demonstrate the difficulty of finding and maintaining a relationship.  These couples are either in the throes of ending a relationship or have done so.  Sometimes the end is dramatic, sometimes boredom sets in and kills the love that existed.  There are affairs and deceit but through it all Tuck writes the truth as she sees it.  Her writing style is spare yet eloquent and readers will be intrigued by these differing views of doomed relationships.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.