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Heathcliff Redux Lib/E: A Novella and Stories
A provocative and haunting new collection from critically acclaimed writer Lily Tuck, Heathcliff Redux, A Novella and Stories explores, with cool precision, the hidden dynamics and unspoken conflicts at the heart of human relationships.
In the novella, a married woman reads Wuthering Heights at the same time that she falls under the erotic and destructive spell of her own Heathcliff. In the stories that follow, a single photograph illuminates the intricate web of connections between friends at an Italian caf�; a forgotten act of violence in New York's Carl Schurz Park returns to haunt the present; and a woman is prompted by a flurry of mysterious emails to recall her time as a member of the infamous Rajneesh cult.
With keen psychological insight and delicate restraint, Heathcliff Redux, A Novella and Stories pries open the desires, doubts, and secret motives of its characters and exposes their vulnerabilities to the light. Sharp and unflinching, the novella and stories together form an exquisitely crafted collection from one of our most treasured, award-winning writers.
In the novella, a married woman reads Wuthering Heights at the same time that she falls under the erotic and destructive spell of her own Heathcliff. In the stories that follow, a single photograph illuminates the intricate web of connections between friends at an Italian caf�; a forgotten act of violence in New York's Carl Schurz Park returns to haunt the present; and a woman is prompted by a flurry of mysterious emails to recall her time as a member of the infamous Rajneesh cult.
With keen psychological insight and delicate restraint, Heathcliff Redux, A Novella and Stories pries open the desires, doubts, and secret motives of its characters and exposes their vulnerabilities to the light. Sharp and unflinching, the novella and stories together form an exquisitely crafted collection from one of our most treasured, award-winning writers.
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First published February 4, 2020
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About the author
Lily Tuck
25 books138 followersLily Tuck is an American novelist and short story writer whose novel The News from Paraguay won the 2004 National Book Award for Fiction. Her novel Siam was nominated for the 2000 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. She has published four other novels, a collection of short stories, and a biography of Italian novelist Elsa Morante (see "Works" below).
An American citizen born in Paris, Tuck now divides her time between New York City and Maine; she has also lived in Thailand and (during her childhood) Uruguay and Peru. Tuck has stated that "living in other countries has given me a different perspective as a writer. It has heightened my sense of dislocation and rootlessness. ... I think this feeling is reflected in my characters, most of them women whose lives are changed by either a physical displacement or a loss of some kind".
An American citizen born in Paris, Tuck now divides her time between New York City and Maine; she has also lived in Thailand and (during her childhood) Uruguay and Peru. Tuck has stated that "living in other countries has given me a different perspective as a writer. It has heightened my sense of dislocation and rootlessness. ... I think this feeling is reflected in my characters, most of them women whose lives are changed by either a physical displacement or a loss of some kind".
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
March 9, 2021
It’s been awhile between short story collections, and they are sometimes a mixed bag. Heathcliff Redux didn’t entirely disprove this, but on the whole, I felt this was a strong collection, and I took something out of each story. The title novella is, rightfully, the standout piece. Tuck brings Heathcliff (who is absolutely the worst) right back to life in mid-century horse country. Here, and throughout the collection, Tuck casts her eyes across magnetic connections between people, in brief and not so brief moments, and shows us how we can lose ourselves in these toxic connections. In this way, many of these stories are about our worst selves, and the manipulative, selfish potential. Tuck’s observations human behaviour are unflinching and thoughtful. I look forward to reading more of her work.
September 12, 2019
Heathcliff Redux is a prose collection made up of one novella and four shorter stories, the latest effort from experienced novelist and National Book Award for Fiction winner Lily Tuck. Somewhat fatefully, I had just finished Wuthering Heights (review here) when I popped onto NetGalley and found it sitting in my recommendations. While I am sure that I’m not supposed to admit this, I’m often intrigued by modern retellings or fan sequels of classic works, and still being in a Brontë sort of mood I decided to pick this one up.
Wuthering Heights, especially the raw and self-destructive tension between Heathcliff and Cathy, is tough to emulate. Heathcliff Redux fails. In fact, for such a bland, harlequin-style romance to claim that it has revived Heathcliff is something of an insult. If I knew that the focal narrative of this entire work, the only reason I was interested in the first place and to which more than half of its pages are dedicated, follows a middle-aged American housewife having an affair with a hot dude who rides horses and has a tattoo of a dragon on his ass, I wouldn’t have bothered. I went in hoping for the danger, the miscommunication, the violent and unstoppable attraction, and instead was met with this:
"It is had to describe how handsome Cliff was, how sexy, and how attracted I was to his lean, dark good looks, to his muscular body, to his hard, flat stomach, to even his tight tattooed ass." (Page 71)
My Grandma likes to read cowboy romance, and I don’t judge her for it. If reading about a swarthy guy with only a bad boy image makes you happy, then daydream away. I’m the first to admit that one of my most enduring literary crushes is Rhett Butler, so I can see the attraction. However, I came to this book expecting Heathcliff Redux, not Heathcliff if he was a Quiet Horse Guy.
The tenuous and ill executed link to Wuthering Heights may have been expiated by a well-written or compelling work, but I am afraid that Heathcliff Redux is neither. Stylistically it is something of an information dump, with much of its detail being told in indifferent declaratives that come one after the other, and the sentence structure is sporadic and convoluted.
Labyrinth Two, another inspired work which is based on Roberto Bolaño’s short story Labyrinth describing a photograph of people sitting around a table, is better. Its prose is more glamorous, its characters less Mills and Boon. The Dead Swan follows a woman who finds the eponymous dead swan by a pond and decides to take it home with her, forming an inexplicable link between it and her failing relationship with her abusive partner. Carl Schurz Park is excellent, and I truly wish that all of the short stories in this collection could have been like it. Four wealthy white boys throw a black girl in the river to die after picking her up for sex. It is visceral, blunt, and frightening, digging up memories of reading Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates. The final story is A Natural State, where a woman’s reminiscence about her sexual experiences is punctuated by strangely accurate emails from a spammer.
While Carl Schurz Park does make me intrigued as to what else Lily Tuck is capable of, I cannot say that I am impressed by what is comprised in Heathcliff Redux.
Wuthering Heights, especially the raw and self-destructive tension between Heathcliff and Cathy, is tough to emulate. Heathcliff Redux fails. In fact, for such a bland, harlequin-style romance to claim that it has revived Heathcliff is something of an insult. If I knew that the focal narrative of this entire work, the only reason I was interested in the first place and to which more than half of its pages are dedicated, follows a middle-aged American housewife having an affair with a hot dude who rides horses and has a tattoo of a dragon on his ass, I wouldn’t have bothered. I went in hoping for the danger, the miscommunication, the violent and unstoppable attraction, and instead was met with this:
"It is had to describe how handsome Cliff was, how sexy, and how attracted I was to his lean, dark good looks, to his muscular body, to his hard, flat stomach, to even his tight tattooed ass." (Page 71)
My Grandma likes to read cowboy romance, and I don’t judge her for it. If reading about a swarthy guy with only a bad boy image makes you happy, then daydream away. I’m the first to admit that one of my most enduring literary crushes is Rhett Butler, so I can see the attraction. However, I came to this book expecting Heathcliff Redux, not Heathcliff if he was a Quiet Horse Guy.
The tenuous and ill executed link to Wuthering Heights may have been expiated by a well-written or compelling work, but I am afraid that Heathcliff Redux is neither. Stylistically it is something of an information dump, with much of its detail being told in indifferent declaratives that come one after the other, and the sentence structure is sporadic and convoluted.
Labyrinth Two, another inspired work which is based on Roberto Bolaño’s short story Labyrinth describing a photograph of people sitting around a table, is better. Its prose is more glamorous, its characters less Mills and Boon. The Dead Swan follows a woman who finds the eponymous dead swan by a pond and decides to take it home with her, forming an inexplicable link between it and her failing relationship with her abusive partner. Carl Schurz Park is excellent, and I truly wish that all of the short stories in this collection could have been like it. Four wealthy white boys throw a black girl in the river to die after picking her up for sex. It is visceral, blunt, and frightening, digging up memories of reading Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates. The final story is A Natural State, where a woman’s reminiscence about her sexual experiences is punctuated by strangely accurate emails from a spammer.
While Carl Schurz Park does make me intrigued as to what else Lily Tuck is capable of, I cannot say that I am impressed by what is comprised in Heathcliff Redux.
September 16, 2021
It's an oversight that I haven't read a great deal of Lily Tuck and I'll be remedying that. The novella, Heathcliff Redux, is terrific and disquieting. Set in 1963, in the horse-riding, fox-hunting county of Albermarle, VA, the unnamed narrator, a married woman and mother of twin boys, is rereading Bronte's Wuthering Heights when she finds herself drawn to a man named Cliff. The novella unfolds in short dispassionate sections interposed with passages from Wuthering Heights and snippets of Bronte's biography. Can we ever understand our own hearts? Does hindsight ever provide much help? And yet there are always consequences to our actions. The short stories are also interesting, stranger in certain ways even as they are more conventional. Of the four, Labyrinth Two and Carl Schurz Park were standouts for me.
September 24, 2024
Maybe I simply don't have my intellectual hat on, but I don't see why setting a self-conscious 'Wuthering Heights' adaptation in the American South in 1963 makes any kind of meaningful point. Was it a comment on Emily Bronte's position of relative privilege in her society?
I purchased this hardback book for myself and was not obligated in any way to review it.
I purchased this hardback book for myself and was not obligated in any way to review it.
November 16, 2019
I didn't love this one. I see what Tuck was trying to do—the disconnect between what is felt in the crush of passion or privilege, and what is real—but it feels like she misses the mark. Possibly because with one novella and four short stories there wasn't enough room for her to really stretch, but I also feel like the title novella should have at least carried a whiff of the passion it references all over the place (passages from Wuthering Heights and its timeline of a doomed love affair), but it's more cool to the touch, whether by design or just in comparison to the Brontë.
June 23, 2021
This story collection was definitely below average from what I usually read, The first near half of the book was the novella. It was meant to be a past and present comparison piece on many different works with what the woman in the story was experiencing. It just ended up feeling like it was all filler for me with all of the referencing that chopped the story up into pieces. I was not a big fan of the stream of consciousness feel and how it did not really go anywhere and just seemed to fall off at the end. The stories were halfway decent though and it was kind of sad that they were tied to the novella piece because I felt that they would have shown on their own. Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley.
November 27, 2019
Lily Tuck’s novella Heathcliff Redux – which takes up at about three-quarters of the pages in this latest work—is, by turns, ambitious, teasing and evocative. Certainly, t’s not easy to invite comparisons to the grand passion between Cathy and Heathcliff – probably, one of the first “bad boys” that teenage girls ever encounter.
But it would be a mistake, I think, to draw the parallels too closely. While both Wuthering Heights and Heathcliff Redux make much of the insular world the women (Cathy and this unnamed narrator) live in, the gothic overtones of the former book are replaced by the more lean and dispassionate tones of the latter.
It's all intriguing: the juxtaposition of an affair between an unhappily married woman (Emma Bovary, anyone?) and a handsome and morally-challenged Cliff (deliberately evoking the moors?), along with snippets from Wuthering Heights and Emily Bronte’s life. But ultimately, the novella’s goals become murky: is Lily Tuck attempting to provide commentary on the classic Bronte novel? What comparisons can be derived from a modern day woman’s attraction to a “bad boy” versus a protected teen (Cathy’s) attraction? It’s fun to read but is strangely unsatisfying.
The other very short four stories—a girl carrying home a dead swan, another obsessed with some mysterious emails, for example— appealed only to a degree. I liked it but I wanted something more from this immensely talented writer.
But it would be a mistake, I think, to draw the parallels too closely. While both Wuthering Heights and Heathcliff Redux make much of the insular world the women (Cathy and this unnamed narrator) live in, the gothic overtones of the former book are replaced by the more lean and dispassionate tones of the latter.
It's all intriguing: the juxtaposition of an affair between an unhappily married woman (Emma Bovary, anyone?) and a handsome and morally-challenged Cliff (deliberately evoking the moors?), along with snippets from Wuthering Heights and Emily Bronte’s life. But ultimately, the novella’s goals become murky: is Lily Tuck attempting to provide commentary on the classic Bronte novel? What comparisons can be derived from a modern day woman’s attraction to a “bad boy” versus a protected teen (Cathy’s) attraction? It’s fun to read but is strangely unsatisfying.
The other very short four stories—a girl carrying home a dead swan, another obsessed with some mysterious emails, for example— appealed only to a degree. I liked it but I wanted something more from this immensely talented writer.
May 11, 2020
We have a Heathcliff problem. We fantasize on the regular about a brooding hulk smoldering just out of view. He’s there- he’s part of the nature of the area, and we are going to conquer that nature. We are going to nurture the brutish man. We are going to fix him, and he’s going to rescue us.
Except, we know the truth. We are going to ruin ourselves trying to capture him, and it isn’t going to change him in the slightest.
Our narrator in Heathcliff Redux is lost in the romance of Wuthering Heights. She is so lost she pursues Cliff despite his reputation. She knows how the book ends. She’s seen the movie. She is locked into her own inhospitable country manor and she’s going to throw everything into the wind and hope that Cliff catches some of it despite knowing the underlying reality. We are Cassandra; we know what is going to happen but no one is going to believe us until it is far too late.
I seek out the melancholy. I like an abrupt change of pace and an unrequited ending. Luckily, this collection is full of oddly beautiful misery. It’s a quick read; it clocks in at just over 200 pages but those pages are padded- the structure of the Heathcliff novella reminds me a bit of Lincoln in the Bardo; lots of outside sources and TONS of open space. What it lacks in quantity it overflows with quality; stories beyond Heathcliff will take you to Capri, plunge you into Greek mythology, and send you into the Rajneeshee cult. You can crush this in an afternoon, then spend the next few days swooning about the moors looking for your lost Heathcliff.
Except, we know the truth. We are going to ruin ourselves trying to capture him, and it isn’t going to change him in the slightest.
Our narrator in Heathcliff Redux is lost in the romance of Wuthering Heights. She is so lost she pursues Cliff despite his reputation. She knows how the book ends. She’s seen the movie. She is locked into her own inhospitable country manor and she’s going to throw everything into the wind and hope that Cliff catches some of it despite knowing the underlying reality. We are Cassandra; we know what is going to happen but no one is going to believe us until it is far too late.
I seek out the melancholy. I like an abrupt change of pace and an unrequited ending. Luckily, this collection is full of oddly beautiful misery. It’s a quick read; it clocks in at just over 200 pages but those pages are padded- the structure of the Heathcliff novella reminds me a bit of Lincoln in the Bardo; lots of outside sources and TONS of open space. What it lacks in quantity it overflows with quality; stories beyond Heathcliff will take you to Capri, plunge you into Greek mythology, and send you into the Rajneeshee cult. You can crush this in an afternoon, then spend the next few days swooning about the moors looking for your lost Heathcliff.
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June 6, 2020
The narrator asks Cliff if he’s ever read Wuthering Heights. Cliff says no. She, of course, has read it, and is re-reading it. As Wuthering Heights incorporates elements of Gothic and Romance fiction told in two stories, Heathcliff Redux embraces an interior story of a sort, too. 'Redux' is told in short chapters, sometimes as brief as a single sentence with a footnote, but 'Redux’s' interior 'story' consists of excerpts from Wuthering Heights, some of Brontë’s poems, criticism of Brontë, and it integrates elements of modern fiction with culinary elements borrowed from cozy mysteries and chic lit. Not only is there a recipe for boeuf bourguignon, but there’s the reminder to use a Bordeaux or a Burgundy for the three cups of red wine. What’s more, there’s a pithy recipe for spaghetti: boil a lot of water and add spaghetti. Isn’t that why we read fiction?
You can read my review in The Brooklyn Rail:
href="https://brooklynrail.org/2020/06/book...
"target="_blank"> Heathcliff Redux: A Novella and Stories, by Lily Tuck
March 31, 2021
There's no faulting the quality of this award-winning author's writing. But this collection of short pieces by Tuck will only appeal to readers who don't mind being confronted with examples of human behavior at its most perverse and peculiar. As far as "Heathcliff Redux," her treatment of Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights," goes . . . Well, her would-be Heathcliff and Catherine (Cliff and the nameless narrator of the novella, respectively) only served to remind me that I could never bring myself to care that much for the originals. The short story that follows it, "Labyrinth Two,” is far more intriguing. Even better, it contains characters with whom you might actually find yourself in sympathy, bearing in mind that their likeability too is somewhat debatable.
March 14, 2020
Overall, this fell pretty flat for me. The first 3/4 of the book were a novella about a woman falling for another man and her struggles in her marriage juxtaposed along quotes and commentary relating to Wuthering Heights and the Brontes. The characters lacked depth and the author used the Wuthering Heights references unsuccessfully to avoid building her own characters. This is followed by a handful of short stories that also felt lacking. The author has written several other works and won several awards so I may check out one of her novels to see what the hype is about, but I may not due to how little this collection spoke to me in both style and content.
November 24, 2021
A brief collection of a single novella and several short stories that all resonate with the reader. Heathcliff Redux is the centerpiece of the book it is a novella about a woman who embarks on an adulterous affair while reading the Bronte novel Wuthering Heights. All comparisons between Heathcliff and the main characters lover Cliff are intended. The story unfolds in brief vignettes that never exceed two pages and are sometimes only a couple of sentences. Set in the early 1960's the style reminded me of Updike, Cheever and most especially James Salter. It is a well told tale trim and elegant. The four other stories are also well worth reading
July 24, 2024
I was totally unable to form any sort of emotional connection for any of the characters in Heathcliff Redux: for all 160 pages, they remained words on a page. Not sure what I missed, but it wasn't until the very end that I understood a definite time frame was set (the story takes place about a week after the Kennedy assassination). So every picture I had in my head through the whole story was WAY OFF. The casual racism was supposed to be a clue I guess, but that really isn't a bug of just the 1960s.
That said, I liked the "structure" of the story, just not the story itself.
Some of the short stories were more fulfilling, but just barely.
That said, I liked the "structure" of the story, just not the story itself.
Some of the short stories were more fulfilling, but just barely.
April 11, 2020
Fabulous novella... the stories are fine.
I love the blending of story and other types of writing in the novella: excerpts of Wuthering Heights, literary criticism of Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte’s poetry, excerpts from a bio of William Faulkner, a list of ice cream flavors. I enjoy making the connections between them. And the practice of leaving blank space on the pages allows for reflection and emotional reverberations.
And it’s set in Charlottesville!
I love the blending of story and other types of writing in the novella: excerpts of Wuthering Heights, literary criticism of Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte’s poetry, excerpts from a bio of William Faulkner, a list of ice cream flavors. I enjoy making the connections between them. And the practice of leaving blank space on the pages allows for reflection and emotional reverberations.
And it’s set in Charlottesville!
June 20, 2022
Pop Sugar Reading Challenge - a book you can read in one sitting. The novella, Heathcliff Redux, is divided into the sections (chapters? or just snippets?) that are each given their own page, so it reads fast.
I enjoyed the main novella. Snippets with quotes from Wuthering Heights, which I have not actually read, with a story set in the 1960s in horse-country Virginia.
The other stories were very short and not interesting.
I enjoyed the main novella. Snippets with quotes from Wuthering Heights, which I have not actually read, with a story set in the 1960s in horse-country Virginia.
The other stories were very short and not interesting.
May 3, 2020
A novella and just a few very short stories. The novella which sort of compared her current life situation to that of Heathcliff (which she was reading at the time) was unique and interesting. I only really enjoyed one of the short stories--but that's the beauty of short stories; you love some; some are so-so; and some you don't like at all.
November 23, 2020
“I Married You for Happiness” is one of my favorite books of all time, and I’ve read many of Tuck’s other works, but I was somewhat underwhelmed by this one. The prose was tight as ever—a quality I admire about Tuck’s work—but the characters were cold and lacked the angst of books before this. All in all, not my favorite, but I’ll still continue to buy anything Tuck publishes.
August 1, 2021
Heathcliff Redux, the novella, is an outstanding set of micro fictions with stream of consciousness at times and bits from Wuthering Heights and the Brontes. Also really liked “Labyrinth Two,” indicated as a homage to Roberto Bolano, a sketch from a photograph that also kind of reminded me of a latter day Wharton short story.
December 16, 2023
Okay, I know this author won The National Book Award, and, for many, it would be perfect. I cannot be counted among them.
In truth, I chose the book for the word "Heathcliff" in the title, and I liked the idea of a novella complemented by other stories. I just could not become invested in the process. At least, I could put it down and come back to it later after a story or two.
In truth, I chose the book for the word "Heathcliff" in the title, and I liked the idea of a novella complemented by other stories. I just could not become invested in the process. At least, I could put it down and come back to it later after a story or two.
March 16, 2020
I liked the stories especially the first one... that allowed the author to falter with each successive one. But I did love it and would read her again. Well written, fleshed out characters with the right chop a short story demands. 3.5 stars
May 6, 2021
The opening novella drew me in and I read it in a sitting. Very clever use of "Wuthering Heights" to tell a modern story. The short stories that followed were quick reads and inventive riffs on literary tomes. Looking forward to reading more by Lily Tuck.
November 20, 2021
If the short stories had had anything to do with the novella, let alone the Brontë novel, I think I would have at least given it 3 stars. The novella could have used more oomph, but it was borderline interesting.
April 22, 2020
A bit like the Lisa tadeo’s book but fictional and much more open ended.
May 6, 2025
what did i read??
May 6, 2025
this book is written how my brain works
May 6, 2020
3.5 stars; book #20 of 2020 - I picked this book up more or less blindly. The first novella part of the book was unique and a quick read. The characters were unlikeable but the way the author interweaves the story with Wuthering Heights is unique, though it kind of just made me want to read Wuthering Heights. I enjoyed the short stories, the first two out of three were my favorite. I felt this book was lacking something though, perhaps continuity. The writing was well done, but the content was a little meh.
March 1, 2020
The best parts of this book were the quotes from Wuthering Heights and the facts about the Brontes. I liked the one about Emily’s dog.
February 16, 2020
The novella is worth a re-read. It's all about good horses, disappointing men, desire, and Heathcliff.
Lily Tuck's economy of style and elegant snarl of her tone will alway make me want to pick up her newest book.
Readalike: Rachel Cusk, Jenny Offill.
Lily Tuck's economy of style and elegant snarl of her tone will alway make me want to pick up her newest book.
Readalike: Rachel Cusk, Jenny Offill.
February 15, 2020
Disappointing, but includes one disturbing, unforgettable story, Carl Schurz Park.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews