"Houses" is about the many beautiful, enduring and literally earth-shattering epidodes that women and men experience in life. It's how the locust-like numbers of "baby boomers"...in our gusto for living, for challenge and change, helped bring about impassioned awareness, and long standing, meaningful new ways of living in our generation...not just social unrest, mindless war, entitlements and greed. And, we continue to effect social, spiritual, political and cultural change even today.
Ms Parks processes the conflicts of being a woman during the turbulent years of the mid-to end of the 20th century. Specifically, we follow the life story of Lacey, a girl whose growing up years to current "golden years" will leave a lasting impression on readers of all ages.
Readers are taken on a nostalgic trip through childhood days of playing outside with neighborhood friends, the Kennedy and Martin Luther King days, civil and women's rights, the Viet Nam War, the bliss of first love, and the self-affirming conviction of being politically active for the first time. We come to know and love her family members, her friends both male and female and her loved ones.
We relive Lacey's agonies, [the agonies we, ourselves, may have endured, possibly still do!] to be a "good Mom" while minding the house and budget, working for a pittance at a boring/stagnant job, and trying to take one or two classes at a time to finish a college degree so that some day it might be possible to become what she "is." All of this only to find herself alone and most of those she loved gone by the time she "got there."
Ultimately, Lacey does find a satisfaction from things fought for and won, and they give some consolation keeping her in the game, though the questions and conflicts of the nature of being a nurturer and/or a concerned parent still linger even to our childrens' generation.
In chosing the title, "Houses," Ms Parks chooses a metaphor relating to the different houses either lived in, toured, loved or hated, by Lacey to define the stages of her life, and the expressions of her "self." This brilliant symbol leaves an indelible mark, causing us to examine ourselves in the same context. Parks is a powerful writer.
I want to leave this quote of so many brilliant ones in this novel:

"Maybe I'm naive, but I'm hopeful that our daughters and granddaughters will find it easier. The internet and telecommunicating now offer the promise, not just of a greener way of working, but of an avenue, for both men and women, to productive and fulfilling work that doesn't require abandoning the home, especially the children, whose needs don't always correspond to nine to five scheduling. We have the Family Leave Act now and the notion of daycare in the workplace seems less radical. The stay-at-home dad is not such a joke."

This book is brilliant and readable. Ms Parks is a writer you'll not soon forget.
While we sit on the cusp of the lst quarter of the 21st century, I know many of us will never rest in the footings we've gained in so many areas of our American lives...I hope and pray our children and grandchildren will continue to walk with us.

Deborah/TheBookishDame ( )

This simply titled book was a pleasant surprise to me. It is written as a memoir and I had to keep reminding myself that this is a novel, not Cynthia Rogers Park's memoir, although I'm sure there is a great deal of herself in the book. "Houses" is the memoir of Lacey Winter. It is also a snapshot of historic moments of the U.S. through the 1950s, 60's, 70's and on toward the millennium; the growth of changes after WWII, through the Viet Nam era, the deaths of President John F. Kennedy, Ted Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. A time she measures by the houses she lived in.

Everyone has a method of recording the events in their lives. To me, it is generally the ages of my children, but after reading this memorable book, I find I identify with Lacey's memories of time, attached to which house she was living in. It seemed only right that she would eventually work in real estate. Lacey's story begins as a child living with her Grandmother and her younger sister with very rare visits from her father. Her mother died in an accident and he is "looking for a new mother". From this point on, Lacey seems to spend her life moving from house to house, sometimes it's a good thing, sometimes bad. Sometimes the houses are "happy" and sometimes they are not. All houses take on a personality that she tries to imprint herself on, but many times the houses imprint her. Sometimes she is upgrading, sometimes downgrading, according to her life and the turns of national economy.

In the real time period of this book, life sped up so fast, it was hard to know what would be thrown at you next. Segregation was still in effect, women were on the edge of being recognized, but these and wars, and yes, even the hippie movement all meant huge changes in the country. And for every change, another house, another hopeful start. I feel that the author has done a very good, tightly written novel of so many opposing factors, keeping the theme of houses commensurate with life. For many of us our home or lack of home, even shared home was our life. This would be a good book club read deserving discussion, as well as for individual readers who grew up in this era. I found the book to have a very intriguing style and a believable storyline. I liked the book very much. It covers a lot of ground and demonstrates a definite slice of life in the last half of the twentieth century, making it real. ( )

We all mark milestones in our lives in different ways. Some of us remember specific events by our jobs or gauge time by our children, but Lacey calls her memories up by houses.
In Cynthia Rogers’ novel “Houses,” we enter the mind of Lacey Winters and travel back in time with her as she reveals to us her life, the many historical issues of that time that shaped life as it was, and the various dwellings that have kept her through her journey. She begins by remembering living with her Grandmother and baby sister in a grand old apartment with “hissing” radiators and goes on to live in numerous apartments and homes from very small scale to large and roomy – or “house poor to house proud” as she puts it (none of which ever had hissing radiators again). It is each of these dwellings that mark significant areas of Lacey’s life – some happy and exciting while others are sad and heart breaking, yet each an important part of who she is. And while she struggles with herself about who she is, many of us will see ourselves in her.
Ms Rogers did an incredible job writing this novel. Every word had significance and every page drew a complete picture into your mind. Her characters were so real that twice I stopped and looked at the back of the book to make sure that this wasn’t an auto-biography. The events throughout the book were both tragic and beautiful. I walked away from this novel not only completely satisfied but also reminded that life has surprises for us all and it is up to us to make the best of it. Sometimes suffering through the bad and the wrong choices makes us who we are and leads us to the right places.
We all know the saying “If walls could talk” – well, Lacey’s walls did talk and they told us a story that all of us can relate to. I would highly recommend this novel to all women and men alike. ( )

Houses: A Novel
Author: Cynthia Rogers Parks
Publisher: Leigh Walker Books
ISBN: 978-0-615-32893-5

We all measure our life using markers as milestones. For some, it's by decade, by age of the firstborn child, by family births or deaths. Lacey Winters measures her life in houses. Each house she's lived in marked an era of her life. For example, early childhood was spent in her paternal Grandmother's home. Her mother only a faint memory, Lacy and her younger sister Sophie had Grandmother, a traveling salesman father and Thelma, her Grandmother's trusted houseworker. Later, it would be a new ranch style suburban home purchased by her father and his new wife, Maureen. Daddy and Maureen now worked together, on the road most the time, the girls looked after by Nana, Maureen's mother. The subdivision was new, with just planted trees and raw soil, still too new for the grass to have taken hold in the yards. The girls played with neighborhood children, and time passed on, from the 1950s and into the turbulent 60s, where we follow Lacey throught the growing up rites of passage: first love, excitement of new beginnings, and heartbreak with the 60s world-changing events as a backdrop.

Author Cynthia Rogers Parks has written a truly captivating novel with well developed and multi-dimensional characters. She writes the story of a girl and her family with all the events that have shaped the lives of Americans through the 1950s, turbulent 60s, politically wrought 70s, the crazy me first 80s and the rollercoasting 90s into the new millenium.

Throughout all these decades of changes, the American dream remains unchanged: home ownership. We follow Lacey through her homes, the big, the small, the well loved, the despised, the transient. I really enjoyed the authori's innovative way of looking at the passages of life through the homes Lacey lived in. For most women, our homes are an integral part of us, they display our treasures, hide our heartbreaks and secrets and are our sanctuary from the outside world. I could not put this book down. It's a truly wonderful story, and you will feel connected to Lacey in a way that is all too seldom felt in novels. She is a character you'll remember with affection, and Houses is a book you will treasure. ( )