Runcie...has created something so delightfully snackable that you may, as I did, gulp it down in two or three sittings ... One flaw with Runcie’s novel is that this is something we are repeatedly told, rather than shown ... Hayley, unfortunately, never quite comes to life ... The result feels like a missed opportunity to interrogate some important questions ... Readers may leave Runcie’s novel feeling that some of these questions go unanswered, but this deeply entertaining novel is nonetheless well worth the price of admission.
Accomplished ... This is a smart, sharp and compulsively readable first novel that provides food for thought on a variety of complex topics ... A novel isn’t carried by its big ideas alone. It needs strong characters to convey them and react to them. Fortunately, Runcie’s creations are forceful presences, all the more so because they are intriguingly multifaceted and resist cut-and-dried classification ... All of which sounds serious and thought-provoking. This is only partly true, for the novel is also fun and frequently witty.
Enjoyably pours fuel on both his and her sides of the dispute ... Neither the overstated Lyons nor the underbaked Sinclair is the novel’s central figure ... Sophie sinks the middle of the story like the center of an iffy soufflé. The edges of the soufflé remain tasty though ... I give Bring the House Down three stars.
A turbulent and harrowing ride ... There were multiple instances throughout this novel that had me wishing I was reading with a book club rather than with just a pen in hand. The difficult genius of Bring The House Down is how hard it hammers the idea of there really being two sides to every story ... As much as Bring The House Down is a thought provoking novel with evolving themes, characters and subplots, there were pages and passages that could have easily been transferable to a compelling profile out of The New Yorker. Runcie writes with a voice that can only be achieved through the bird’s eye view of an objective, observant journalist ... Formidable.
A sharp, absorbing, thoroughly entertaining send-up of gender politics, the dynamic between critics and artists, and the struggle for women to balance careers and motherhood.
Clever ... Throughout, Runcie takes a thought-provoking look at art’s complex relationship with criticism and public outrage. This dramedy packs a punch.
