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About the author and blogger ...

Anne Goodwin’s drive to understand what makes people tick led to a career in clinical psychology. That same curiosity now powers her fiction.
A prize-winning short-story writer, she has published three novels and a short story collection with small independent press, Inspired Quill. Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize.
Away from her desk, Anne guides book-loving walkers through the Derbyshire landscape that inspired Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
Subscribers to her newsletter can download a free e-book of award-winning short stories.

TELL ME MORE

Moving house: fact and fiction, humans and cats

17/12/2014

15 Comments

 
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I’m not exactly sure why moving house is such a stressful life event, up there with death of a spouse and divorce.  It might have something to do with the fact that, like a marriage, we invest a lot of ourselves in our homes.  When we leave, we take with us what we can, but some of the essence of what we had and what it meant to us is fixed in that place, embedded in the floorboards, the bricks and mortar, the grouting between the tiles.

My last house move, nearly 15 years ago, was pretty stressful but I remember how reassured I felt when friends from where we’d previously lived came to visit and could see the fit between the new place and me.  Although the houses were radically different in style and layout, both were mirroring some of my character.  When Hildy Good, the estate-agent narrator of The Good House by Ann Leary, says that she only has to walk through a house once to understand the psyche of its occupants, she may be exaggerating, but not very much.

Moving house can have different meanings at different points of the lifespan: a young adult might need to flee the parental home to unleash their creativity; for an older person, moving might present risks to their health.  In my short story, Spring Cleaning, a daughter and granddaughter’s attempts to give an older woman’s home makeover while she’s in hospital proves to be disturbing enough.  In Emma Healey’s debut novel, Elizabeth Is Missing, Maud is confused and disorientated when she gives up her home, despite her daughter’s attempts to smooth the way.

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While Maud’s house move is only a small element of that novel, the Campbell family’s traumatic move from their ancestral home is at the core of Johanna Lane’s debut, Black Lake.  Not only are they downsizing from a large country house with many more rooms than people to a small dank cottage, they are losing the idyllic views from their bedroom windows, many of their possessions, and the sense of continuity with the past.  Worse still, their home has been turned into a tourist attraction and they suffer the indignity of having to stand by while groups of tourists wander through the rooms which the family themselves may no longer enter.  The household effects and children’s toys have become “props”; no wonder the son, Philip, is overwhelmed when he finds another boy in his former bedroom playing with his old train set.  No wonder he is confused when he discovers the conservatory in which he used to play on wet days transformed into a restaurant and, when he goes to get a drink, is informed he’d now have to pay.  John, the father, having retained an office for himself in the old house, fails to appreciate the impact of the upheaval for the rest of the family, or lacks the capacity to take others’ disappointment on board.  When a tragic accident compounds their loss, Marianne, the mother, does the only thing she can do, and locks herself away with Kate, the daughter, in the ballroom at the top of the house.

In The Aftermath, Herr Lubert and his daughter in post-war Hamburg also witness their spacious home being commandeered by strangers. But living alongside a British family, their conquerors and former enemies, is much more comfortable than being evicted to a displaced persons’ camp. Rachael, married to a man tasked with overseeing the city’s rehabilitation, is initially repelled by their upstairs neighbours, but gradually comes to realise that the Germans are people too.

The Luberts are certainly more fortunate than Aletta Venter and her family in Dave Boling’s novel, The Undesirables. When their South African farm is destroyed by the British, they are transported to a tented concentration camp rife with hunger and disease, where getting on with their neighbours is the least of their problems.

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Although it has a much smaller impact than a house move of our own, our neighbours’ move can also be unsettling. Our next door neighbours have just moved out taking their three cats with them. When they first moved in, I had mixed feelings about these cats that seemingly preferred to patrol our garden to their own. They were great at warding off the rabbits that were partial to my lettuces but I was less impressed by their tendency to lounge in the sun on my newly-planted seedbeds. But I did become attached to them, and miss them now they’re gone.

Yet I didn’t become as obsessed with my feline visitors as the young couple in Takashi Hiraide’s novel, The Guest Cat. Childless workaholics, although fond of each other they don’t seem to be very intimate until they are adopted by a beautiful stray cat. Chibi becomes a shared project, the receptacle for the passion and playfulness that has few other outlets, anticipating her visits and courting her with tempting food. Perhaps it is because their home is rented, and their tenure provisional, that they feel so honoured by the arrival of their feline guest. When her visits stop abruptly and they are required to move out of their home, both are overwhelmed by grief. This novel wasn’t one for me, I’m afraid, but pet lovers might appreciate it as the feline antidote to Waiting for Doggo.

Thanks again to the publishers for review copies of the novels mentioned in this post. The Guest Cat is published by Picador and translated from the Japanese by Eric Selland.

Have you experienced any traumatic house moves and have you read any other novels that explore this?

Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
15 Comments
Gargi link
18/12/2014 04:07:16 am

Time has probably erased the memories or stress you felt when moving 15 years ago! I know its been a problem every time for me, because as you rightly point out, we invest too much of ourselves in our homes.

Reply
Annecdotist
19/12/2014 12:56:41 am

Not sure the memories have been eroded yet, Gargi, but I'm very skilled at hanging on to stress! I wouldn't say we necessarily invest too much in our homes, maybe the investment is necessary to make them properly ours.

Reply
Charli Mills
18/12/2014 10:10:45 pm

It can be hard. When the kids were little we moved a lot to follow the logging jobs and it felt routine to move. Moving to the Midwest changed that. Maybe one day I'll write about it. "Spring Cleaning" is a sad story, told in sharp detail that "fades" in the end. The "Guest Cat" sounds interesting, actually. Kind of reminds me of our rental here and our borrowed barn cat.

Reply
Annecdotist
19/12/2014 01:00:07 am

I suppose when you move house frequently you to settle into a routine; perhaps it's strange for you now to be settled in one place?
Thanks for reading "Spring Cleaning". Yes you might enjoy "the Guest Cat" – makes me think of what you've written about being adopted by Boots. I think I'll send my copy to my sister who has AND moves house a lot, or used to until recently.

Reply
Charli Mills
19/12/2014 12:16:11 pm

What was strange was settling in the Midwest! :-) Not good times. And Bootsy keeps working her way into our hearts. Every night now she sits on the porch until I go out and pick her up and give her a good cuddle session! =^-^=

Annecdotist
20/12/2014 07:20:06 am

Ha, was going to do the cat symbol back to you but can't find the ears my keyboard!!

Norah Colvin link
19/12/2014 09:29:50 pm

Hi Anne, (I'm back with the comment I tried to post earlier in the week!)
Lovely post. I really like the way you used your own experiences to tie the themes of these books together.
I very much enjoyed your story "Spring cleaning". The character development is quite interesting and that Gran wouldn't like the new look was predictable. No twist in the end in this one, unlike some others of yours we have discussed previously. I feel sorry for Gran. Having her home changed in this way probably has a similar effect to that of moving to a new home. It can be devastating to people of that age when everything familiar is gone. I particularly enjoyed your description of her false teeth, and her response at the end of the story.

Reply
Annecdotist
20/12/2014 07:22:01 am

Thanks for your persistence, Norah. I always appreciate your comments. Thanks for your feedback on "Spring cleaning" – just wondering, would you have preferred a more surprising ending?

Reply
Norah Colvin link
21/12/2014 04:28:31 am

I was very happy with the appropriateness of the ending, Anne! :)

Annecdotist
23/12/2014 09:39:53 am

Thanks, Norah.

geoff link
20/12/2014 12:11:32 am

I haven't moved often - once as a child and four times as an adult (I'm ignoring the student moves as I barely had a suitcase each time). Moving at 12 was worst, leaving all my friends behind. Moving as an adult wasn't too bad as each flat or house we've moved to has been empty and that makes it easier I think. The next move from here - we've been here 25 years now) will be the stretch I think as the others felt a bit like steps to this point. Actually, now you've made me think about it, the most stressful bit was leaving the garden in our last house which we carved out of rubble. The real stress came moving my mother. That is a whole another story.

Reply
Annecdotist
20/12/2014 07:26:41 am

I think a house move at around 12 would be quite difficult, making new friends etc. I was quite lucky that we stayed in the one house throughout my childhood – in fact, a new kid at school was a rare event.
But leaving a garden that you've created must be very painful. That'll be our next move, but at least I've got a fabulous painting to remember it.

Reply
movers Houston link
21/6/2016 08:15:53 am

John, the father, having retained an office for himself in the old house, fails to appreciate the impact of the upheaval for the rest of the family, or lacks the capacity to take others’ disappointment on board.

Reply
Annecdotist
21/6/2016 01:54:15 pm

Interesting spam, Movers Houston, or is there a human behind your quoting my words back at me?

Reply
Removals Company London link
18/9/2017 07:56:47 pm

I have never seen a more wonderful post than this one.

Reply



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