The story begins with Danny's arrival at The Keep, an ancient European castle that has come into the possession of his cousin. Though Danny thrives on a busy social scene, he has left New York for the isolated confines of the Keep because he has angered too many people at home. Howie, the cousin, has been very successful in life and has bought the castle with the goal of creating a special sort of resort where people can escape from the modern and allow their sense of adventure and imagination free rein.

The story of Danny, Howie and the Keep alternates with that of its author or narrator, an inmate in a state penitentiary for unspecified crimes. He's taking part in a writing program, where he is creating or remembering the story of the Keep. With this story, he hopes to impress the leader of the writing group, a woman named Holly, but in prison, even writing a story can attract the animosity of a man's fellow inmates.

There's an interesting tension between the two narratives. Both stories are contemporary, but the story of the Keep, while mostly realistic, incorporates so many Gothic elements--not just the Keep itself, but an ancient baroness, a journey into the catacombs, a looming tower--as to push into the realm of fantasy or parody. The prison narrative, while not outwardly Gothic, still very much involves those Gothic elements such as isolation, confinement, the weight of the past, and forbidden longings.

Despite the use of Gothic and metafictional elements, the story is fairly restrained, which sometimes gives the novel a little bit of a truncated feeling. My initial response was to feel a little disappointed by the end of the novel, as if the unique setting and structure of the novel had promised much more than it had been able to deliver. On reflection, my affection for the novel has grown. The Keep is a story about the choices the people make and how those affect their lives and connections with others. It may not indulge the fan of the Gothic novel in the full-on outrageousness one may expect from that genre, but it does use those elements skillfully.  ( )

I originally read this last year and needed to re-read for reading group, which will meet next Monday. I was fascinated with it then and even more so now. There is a very big twist at the end that even reading a second time it was still hard to pick up on. Again Jennifer Egan reminds me of a female Chuck Palahniuk...think twist at the end of Fight Club or Invisible Monsters. Here is the general premise without giving too much away. Cousin Danny goes to work at a castle in Europe for his estranged cousin Howie. We learn that they are estranged as Danny and another cousin pulled a nasty prank on Howie at a family picnic...early on you find out that Howie was in a cave for 3 days...alone. Howie has overcome the past and become a very powerful man and invested in renovating this castle so that it can become a hostel oasis. Danny had to leave New York and is very self-centered and tech dependent. Interspersed throughout the book is another storyline about Ray who is in jail and the writing course that he is taking from his teacher Holly. Danny has some harrowing events of his own while at the castle. Everything comes together at the end in a way that readers will interpret differently. That's why I am really looking forwad to reading group next week...to see what everyone else thinks. ( )

With almost 100 reviews on this site, and so much publicity, it's discouraging to add yet another. (The chances of this being read are small, and the chances of it swaying any readers are even smaller.) But I am impelled by a kind of irritation. It's a familiar irritation: I gave several days to this book, and it was a waste, and I want to write to someone!

Of all the books I have read this year, this is the worst. I agree almost entirely with Simone Oltolina, whose review is currently (as I write this) posted as "most helpful unfavorable review." But I disagree with the reason she says "The Keep" doesn't work. It's not because there are narrative threads left dangling. The problem is more pervasive. It is that Egan can't fill out scenes: she can't describe characters, and she can't even describe settings. The dank pools, castle keeps, dungeons, and forests here have been conjured so intensely, by so many people -- from Novalis to King! -- that it just won't do to have them sketched so cursorily, so feebly, with so little visual sense. I propose this test: take any scene in the novel, and try to picture it. What you'll get is only a Hollywood set, and the details of that set will be from the movies you have seen, not even from the novel. The book is threadbare, and Egan is not a novelist: a least not the kind she hopes, in this book, to be.

I am sorry to be so poisonous, but that is what happens when I give my time to a book that is so poor. Maybe amazon's reviews serve a cathartic purpose. I want to put this one behind me, and maybe warn someone else at the same time. ( )

Good, creepy fun. Also liked the novel's unusual structure. Egan is such a smart and talented writer. ( )

An atmospheric novel where very little is as it appears to be. A story within a story within a story told by people with secrets to keep. ( )