Open House was published by Harper 360 on 12th November. My thanks to the Publisher for the review copy and Rhoda Hardie PR for the invitation.
Jane’s reflections on her 32 house moves explore what ‘home’ really means to us today, with themes including restlessness, parenting, friendship, marriage breakdown, xenophobia, rape trauma, and more
‘I love moving house. I love the search for a new house, the packing up and the subsequent assessment
and decluttering of all that I am, when old and new face off in a fight to survive the charity shop box.
I love planning a new space, designing and styling the interior, thumbing through stacks of paints and fabric
swatches. I love the ruminating, the budgeting, the logistical organisation… I love the pulse-quickening
chaos of the move, the settling in and discerning if, finally, this is the right place. The words ‘in need of
improvement’ are click bait to me. Buying a home has never frightened me or kept me awake at night;
buying a car, yes; perhaps an item of clothing; but never a house… I have sat on the sofa in a home I have
just moved into and immediately started swiping left and right on Rightmove.’ Jane Christmas
Studies have consistently reported that moving is one of the most stressful life events. On average, Britons
move house 3 times in their lives, Canadians move house 7 times in their lives, and Americans move house
11 times in their lives. At the age of 63, Jane Christmas has moved house an incredible 32 times! She admits to
being a ‘serial adulterer’ when it comes to homes. ‘To some people, 32 house moves looks like recklessness; to
me, 32 moves looks like life,’ she writes in her new book Open House. ‘Houses and renovations and moving are
an addiction to me; I desperately want to settle, but as hard as I try, I just can’t.’
By the age of 9, Jane had lived in 3 different houses and attended 5 different schools. Her mother was the
driving force behind the constant uprooting. ‘People are important but they will not get you ahead in life,’ she
told Jane. ‘Only property can do that. Property first, people second.’ Open House explores Jane’s childhood as
a ‘property nomad’ and how this pattern continued into her adult life. She reflects on marital homes, homes
where she has lived as a single parent with her children, and most recently, on her search for the elusive
‘perfect home’ with her third husband - ‘a creature of routine and stability’ who lived in the same 2 bedroom
flat in London for 25 years before he met Jane. After viewing 60 potential homes, Jane describes how she and
her husband succumb to emotional fatigue and buy an overpriced house in Bristol in dire ‘need of
improvement’, which requires more money to renovate than they can afford and that neither of them really
even like. As Jane’s nightmare renovation begins, memories of her past resurface - a strict and peripatetic
childhood, lost friends, rape trauma, divorces, suicide attempts - and threaten to shake the foundations of her
marriage. As she contemplates her life and her many homes along the way, ultimately Jane realises that our
loved ones are ‘the vital joists that underpin our lives’. Hilarious, moving and thought-provoking, Open House:
A Life in Thirty-two Moves wanders through the front door for a peek into the places we call home.
My Thoughts
I was initially completed intrigued when Rhoda Hardie contacted me about Open House by Jane Christmas. I mean how many times have I used the expression 'I would love to be a fly on the wall of that house', and here I was being given the opportunity to be a fly on the wall not once but thirty-two times. You see thirty-two moves is the number of times that Author of this memoir Jane Christmas has moved house.
My intrigue was piqued straight away and my initial thought before diving too deep was that it is surely more than a little frivoulous and disruptive to move house so many times and surely a life of such transcience and disruption is damaging in some way. I mean when I was a child I moved a few times too as my father was in the Army. Upon reading this book I firmly conclude that the moves were essential and necessary and culminate in making the author Jane Christmas who she is today.
You might think that this is all going to be about cushions, applicances and trips to Ikea but this couldn't be further from the truth. This is about the author and her life across the house moves, the good, the bad and the indifferent. Jane Christmas candidly discusses trauma and the nuances of a life being lived.
I feel that there is a certain parallel in the need to find the perfect home and one's expectation of oneself and of course parental expectations too. The need to always be better, the need to appear better. The desire and ambition to not settle is admirable.
Of course there is no such thing as a perfect life, the ups and downs are to be expected but is there such a thing as a perfect home or is it the people that are in it that make it perfect.
Jane Christmas writes with a warmth and an underlying core of strength and humour that I found infectious and even sometimes a hint of sarcasm that I found endearing. She and her writing are certainly memorable. I would love to read some of this authors other works in the future and I am thankful that I have been introduced to her books.
About the Author:
Jane Christmas is the author of several bestselling books, including Incontinent on the Continent and And Then There Were Nuns. Born and raised in Toronto, Jane moved to the UK in 2012. She has lived in Walthamstow, Brixham and Longwell Green, and now lives in Bristol with her husband. Jane’s website can be found at www.janechristmas.ca.
You can also find the author on Instagram @janechristmasauthor.
Please do have a look at the other stops on the blog tour.
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