The Little Stranger

I finally finished a novel! I have not been able to get into one for months -- I would read half a book and then give up on it. Then a friend recommended The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters. I loved Affinity and Fingersmith (was a bit bored by Tipping the Velvet and completely don't remember The Night Watch) -- so I was excited to give it a try.

The writing is excellent, very detailed and exact and absorbing. The story concerns the decline of an aristocratic family after WWII, centering on an isolated family consisting of an aging mother and her grown son and daughter. Slowly everyone in the household becomes unraveled by mysterious goings on in the house. The Little Stranger is narrated by Dr. Faraday whose mother happened to have been a maid in the house in its glory days. He slowly gets drawn into the family in spite of his status as a class outsider.

The ghost story sort of works, but I have to say, in the end I found myself more baffled than anything else. I don't think I really understood it. Frustrating.