Rachel Joyce returns to familiar emotional territory with The Homemade God, delivering another deeply human exploration of family dynamics and the weight of unspoken truths. Following the unexpected success of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Joyce has established herself as a master of quiet, character-driven narratives that find profound meaning in ordinary lives. Her latest novel, set against the shimmering backdrop of Lake Orta, continues this tradition while venturing into darker psychological waters.
When renowned artist Vic Kemp dies suddenly during a morning swim in the Italian lake he loved, his four adult children—Netta, Susan, Goose, and Iris—must grapple not only with their grief but with the mysterious young woman who became his wife just weeks before his death. What unfolds is part family drama, part psychological mystery, and wholly compelling examination of how we construct the people we love.
The Architecture of Family Dysfunction
Joyce’s greatest strength lies in her ability to dissect family relationships with surgical precision while maintaining deep empathy for each character. The Kemp siblings are bound together by shared trauma—their mother’s early death—and their collective worship of their artist father. Yet beneath this surface unity lies a complex web of resentment, dependency, and carefully maintained roles that Joyce peels back layer by layer.
Netta, the eldest, functions as the family’s de facto leader, a successful litigator whose need for control masks deeper insecurities. Susan, the middle child, has devoted herself to domestic caretaking, finding purpose in maintaining their father’s flat and feeding his ego. Goose, the only son, has sacrificed his own artistic ambitions to work in his father’s studio, while Iris, the youngest, remains perpetually childlike, dropping everything whenever their father calls.
Joyce writes these characters with remarkable nuance, avoiding the trap of making them either wholly sympathetic or irredeemably flawed. Instead, she presents them as recognizably human—wounded, selfish, loving, and desperate in equal measure. Their dysfunction feels authentic because it springs from genuine emotional need rather than melodramatic plotting.
The Enigma of Bella-Mae
At the heart of the novel lies Bella-Mae, Vic’s twenty-seven-year-old widow whose presence serves as both catalyst and mirror for the family’s fractures. Joyce crafts her as a deliberately ambiguous figure—part innocent victim, part calculating manipulator, part artist in her own right. The siblings’ attempts to understand who she really is become a vehicle for examining their own self-deceptions.
The portrayal of Bella-Mae represents both the novel’s greatest achievement and its most significant weakness. Joyce maintains her mystery effectively throughout much of the narrative, but the eventual revelation of her true nature feels somewhat anticlimactic. The buildup promises a more shocking truth than what ultimately emerges, leaving some plot threads feeling underdeveloped.
The Italian Lake as Metaphor
Joyce’s decision to set the majority of the novel at Villa Carlotta on Lake Orta proves inspired. The setting functions not merely as beautiful backdrop but as active participant in the story. The lake holds the family’s happiest childhood memories while simultaneously becoming the site of their father’s death and their eventual dissolution. Joyce writes the landscape with lyrical precision, capturing both its seductive beauty and its capacity for concealing dangerous depths.
The villa itself becomes a character, shifting from sanctuary to prison as the siblings wait for autopsy results and search for their father’s missing will and final painting. Joyce uses the physical space brilliantly, with characters retreating to different rooms and levels as their relationships fracture, the house itself seeming to expand and contract with the emotional temperature.
Writing Style and Structure
Joyce employs her characteristic gentle, observational prose style, allowing characters’ inner lives to unfold through seemingly casual moments and conversations. Her background in radio drama serves her well here, as she crafts dialogue that feels natural while carrying significant emotional weight. The novel’s three-part structure—moving from the immediate aftermath of Vic’s death through the summer of waiting to a flash-forward ending—provides satisfying narrative architecture.
However, the pacing occasionally suffers from Joyce’s commitment to psychological realism. Some middle sections drag as characters circle around revelations the reader has already intuited, and certain plot elements—particularly involving Goose’s artistic awakening—feel rushed in comparison to the careful development of family dynamics.
Themes of Art and Authenticity
One of the novel’s most compelling elements is its exploration of artistic identity and the relationship between art and ego. Vic Kemp, revealed posthumously as perhaps less of a genius than his children believed, represents the seductive danger of creating family mythologies. His final painting, when discovered, serves as both literal and metaphorical revelation about the gap between artistic pretension and authentic creation.
Joyce handles the theme of artistic authenticity with particular skill in Goose’s storyline. His journey from worshipful assistant to independent artist provides some of the novel’s most emotionally satisfying moments, even if his transformation feels slightly rushed.
Critical Assessment
The Homemade God succeeds admirably as a family drama but falters slightly as a mystery. Joyce builds tension effectively around questions of Bella-Mae’s identity and Vic’s final days, but the resolution lacks the punch that the setup promises. The novel works best when focused on the siblings’ relationships with each other and their evolving understanding of their father.
The book’s treatment of grief feels authentic and unsentimentalized. Joyce avoids easy redemption or neat resolution, instead showing how loss can simultaneously destroy and liberate. The ending, which jumps forward several years, provides closure while acknowledging that some wounds never fully heal.
Joyce’s prose remains her greatest asset—warm, observant, and deceptively simple. She has a particular gift for capturing the small moments that reveal character, and her dialogue rings true throughout. The novel may not reach the emotional heights of Harold Fry, but it confirms Joyce’s position as a significant voice in contemporary literary fiction.
Final Verdict
The Homemade God offers a nuanced portrait of family bonds tested by grief and revelation. While it doesn’t quite achieve the perfect balance between its psychological drama and mystery elements, it succeeds as an emotionally resonant exploration of how we construct the people we love and the price of maintaining those constructions.
Joyce’s compassionate eye and skilled prose make this a rewarding read for those who appreciate character-driven fiction. The novel’s flaws—occasional pacing issues and a somewhat underwhelming mystery resolution—are overshadowed by its psychological accuracy and emotional honesty.
For readers who enjoyed Joyce’s previous work, The Homemade God provides more of what makes her writing distinctive: deep empathy for flawed characters, beautiful prose, and profound insight into the complexities of human relationships. It may not be her strongest work, but it demonstrates her continued growth as a novelist willing to explore uncomfortable truths about family and love.
Similar Reads and Recommendations
Readers who appreciate The Homemade God might enjoy:
- The Dutch House by Ann Patchett – Another family saga examining sibling bonds and childhood trauma
- Commonwealth by Ann Patchett – Explores family dynamics across generations following a pivotal event
- The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes – A meditation on memory, truth, and the stories we tell ourselves
- The Light We Lost by Jill Santopolo – Examines love, loss, and the paths not taken
- Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng – Features family secrets and the collision of different worlds
For those new to Rachel Joyce, begin with The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, her breakthrough novel about a man’s 600-mile walk to save a friend. Her other notable works include Miss Benson’s Beetle, a charming adventure story, and The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy, which serves as both prequel and companion to the Harold Fry story.
The Homemade God confirms Joyce’s ability to find the extraordinary within the ordinary, making it essential reading for fans of thoughtful, character-driven literary fiction.