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Description
Keeping the HouseBy: Ellen Baker Set in the conformist 1950s and reaching back to span two world wars, Ellen Bakers superb novel is the story of a newlywed who falls in love with a grand abandoned house and begins to unravel dark secrets woven through the generations of a family. Like Whitney Ottos How to Make an American Quilt in its intimate portrayal of womens lives, and reminiscent of novels by Elizabeth Berg and Anne Tyler, Keeping the House is a rich tapestry of
By: Ellen BakerSet in the conformist 1950s and reaching back to span two world wars, Ellen Baker’s superb novel is the story of a newlywed who falls in love with a grand abandoned house and begins to unravel dark secrets woven through the generations of a family. Like Whitney Otto’s How to Make an American Quilt in its intimate portrayal of women’s lives, and reminiscent of novels by Elizabeth Berg and Anne Tyler, Keeping the House is a rich tapestry of a novel that introduces a wonderful new fiction writer.
When Dolly Magnuson moves to Pine Rapids, Wisconsin, in 1950, she discovers all too soon that making marriage work is harder than it looks in the pages of the Ladies’ Home Journal. Dolly tries to adapt to her new life by keeping the house, supporting her husband’s career, and fretting about dinner menus. She even gives up her dream of flying an airplane, trying instead to fit in at the stuffy Ladies Aid quilting circle. Soon, though, her loneliness and restless imagination are seized by the vacant house on the hill. As Dolly’s life and marriage become increasingly difficult, she begins to lose herself in piecing together the story of three generations of Mickelson men and women: Wilma Mickelson, who came to Pine Rapids as a new bride in 1896 and fell in love with a man who was not her husband; her oldest son, Jack, who fought as a Marine in the trenches of World War I; and Jack’s son, JJ, a troubled veteran of World War II, who returns home to discover Dolly in his grandparents’ house.
As the crisis in Dolly’s marriage escalates, she not only escapes into JJ’s stories of his family’s past but finds in them parallels to her own life. As Keeping the House moves back and forth in time, it eloquently explores themes of wartime heroism and passionate love, of the struggles of men’s struggles with fatherhood and war and of women’s conflicts with issues of conformity, identity, forbidden dreams, and love.
Beautifully written and atmospheric, Keeping the House illuminates the courage it takes to shape and reshape a life, and the difficulty of ever knowing the truth about another person’s desires. Keeping the House is an unforgettable novel about small-town life and big matters of the heart.
Advance praise for Keeping the House
“Ellen Baker’s first novel is a wonder! Keeping the House is a great big juicy family saga, a romantic page-turner with genuine characters written with a perfect sense of history, time, and place. Her portrayal of the American housewife is hilarious and heartbreaking. I couldn’t have liked it more!”
–Fannie Flagg, author of Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven
“Ellen Baker’s first novel, Keeping the House, is a quilt that grids a small Midwestern town in the middle of the last century. Under this writer’s deft hands, each square is a story, a mystery, an indiscretion, a tale of the great house and grand family who once ruled there. Even more, it captures the roles of women then: both the living embodiments of demure ideals, and those who couldn’t fit the pattern. Edith Wharton’s novels of domestic despair and display come to mind with each page.”
–Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of The Deep End of the Ocean
“A born storyteller, Ellen Baker has written an enthralling family saga filled with three generations of memorable characters and capturing the dreams and frustrations of twentieth-century women in wonderful, spot-on historical detail.”
–Faith Sullivan, author of Gardenias and The Cape Ann
“Ellen Baker has written the novel I’ve been waiting to read for a very long time. It’s the book you want to curl up with, the book you rush home to, the book you wish you’d written. In Keeping the House, she serves up the complexities of family relationships, the anguish of victims of wars, the innermost thoughts of women, and the social mores of the past. Seasoned with mysteries that kept me devouring pages, this is one huge gourmet feast of a book for readers to savor. I look forward to every delicious book this author writes.”
–Bev Marshall, author of Walking Through Shadows and Right as Rain
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4.1 ★★★★★
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Product Reviews
★★★★★ 4
Great scent, but leaves a film on my skin.
I was expecting bars of soap with more of a peppermint/eucalyptus fragrance and I just could not relate those fragrances to what the soap actually smells like. The Viking Revolution soap doesn't smell bad per se, and actually for me is rather fragrance neutral like you might find with the more sterile hospital and clinic type soaps.
The lather factor for the Viking Revolution soap is mild to moderate in our hard water. It doesn't overdo lathering up but does lather up enough to let you know it is soap and is rather pleasing when rinsing it off where with some soaps you rinse and rinse and still need to rinse more to get the lather off your skin.
I wash my hands and face many times throughout the day and night and so far the Viking Revolution soap has done a great job in leaving me feel a bit more refreshed and clean. I have noticed a bit of moisturizing of my face and hands being much softer after use, so the Viking Revolution soap does seem to come through with that feature. I handle and am around livestock and animals quite often and did notice that the soap seemed to cut through the grime pretty easily. I haven't tried the Viking Revolution as a body wash type soap. The square bars are just about a perfect fit for my hand and are easy to hold onto. I will use one bar for the shower and keep the bar in a drip rack where it has a chance to dry out after use.
I do really like the presentation of the soap itself and it's a nice touch that each bar comes individually wrapped and includes a sticker and a small card. A rather attractive package if you are giving it for a gift. I'm more favorable of recommending this soap than not recommending it. The only reason I am giving 4 stars is for the fragrances not really being detectable as peppermint and eucalyptus.I do think I would buy this soap again though, fragrance or not.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 14, 2024
★★★★★ 5
Awesome soap!
I love this soap. It was a little small, ut was great quality. If smelled good and did not break me out. I have very sensitive skin and this was very gentle on my skin. I usually use caswell and Massey soap and this soap is every bit as good as my normal c&m soap. Very good soap. I Will definitely will buy again.
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Reviewed in the United States on June 2, 2024
★★★★★ 3
Scent is too perfumey
This soap pack is ok for the price, but the bars don't lather very well. They do have a good level of moisturizer that doesn't feel too oily, but my big complaint is the scents. The black one is ok, but the others are like cheap perfume. And I mean CHEAP perfume. It actually hurts my nose. I have used higher end soaps with a beautiful scent that is subtle and natural. This is not that. Overall not a bad product for the price, but don't expect to smell like a $1 perfume. Yuck
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Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2024
★★★★★ 5
Great scents and clean feel.”
This 4-pack (Sandalwood Amber, Mint Olive, Turmeric Citrus, Activated Charcoal) hits the mark. Natural, handmade, and leaves skin feeling fresh without drying out.
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Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2025
★★★★★ 5
Items works just as described.
great soap. Lots of suds, no lingering perfumy smell, and seems to last longer than most.
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Reviewed in the United States on August 6, 2024