The House of Breath
First edition
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| Author | William Goyen |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Semi-autobiographical novel |
| Publisher | Random House |
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Publication date
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1950 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 181 pp |
| ISBN | (TriQuarterly Books/Northwestern University Press, Fiftieth Anniversary Edition) |
| Followed by | Ghost and Flesh: Stories and Tales |
The House of Breath is a novel written by the American author William Goyen. It was his first book, published in 1950. It is not a novel in the usual sense in that it lacks traditional plot and character development. Upon its publication, reviewers noted the book for its unusual literary technique and style. Goyen called it a series of “arias”. Some critics have called it not a novel at all but a work to be read as poetry, over and over. The book touches on themes of family (kinship), human sexuality, place, time, and memory. It received critical acclaim upon its publication, not commercial success, but it did lead the way for support of the author’s further work through fellowships.
Goyen began to sketch parts of the novel during World War II, when he served on the aircraft carrier USS Casablanca. After the war he and Navy friend Walter Berns moved to Taos, New Mexico, where they lived near benefactor Frieda Lawrence (widow of D.H. Lawrence) to pursue writing. Publications of several short stories followed, and Goyen was awarded the Southwest Review Literary Fellowship in 1949, which supported his continuing work on the book. It is an autobiographical work, but not in the sense that people might usually think of autobiography. Goyen once remarked, “Everything is auto-biography for me.”
In an interview with The Paris Review in 1976 (on the occasion of the publication of the book’s Twenty-fifth Anniversary Edition), Goyen relates how he happened upon the title. He was serving on an aircraft carrier during World War II at the time:
Suddenly—it was out on a deck in the cold—I saw the breath that came from me. And I thought that the simplest thing that I know is what I belong to and where I came from and I just called out to my family as I stood there that night, and it just . . . I saw this breath come from me and I thought—in that breath, in that call, is "their" existence, is their reality . . . and I must shape that and I must write about them—"The House of Breath".
Alternate titles Goyen considered were Cries Down a Well, Six Elegies, and Six American Portraits.
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Wikipedia