Hannah Tillich (1896–1988)

This is a very strange little book. The simplest explanation is that it is the story of a marriage. It is formal in tone, with strange, quasi-erotic passages and sort of a mystery. The narrative voice is dispassionate, giving no emotional overtones to events and devoid of empathy for the characters. Short, 145 pages, it is almost like reading the summary of a longer novel. Maybe the best description for the story is "politely grotesque." As one character says near the end of the book, "It was all a freak show, nothing but a freak show."

When I looked Hannah Tillich up on the web, I found her obituary in the New York Times. She was married to theologian Paul Tillich. After he died, she wrote a memoir detailing his sexual escapades. Presumably this book, The Harbor Mouse, is an emotional portrait of how she felt about their marriage and life together.… (more)