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The House of Many Faces by Konstantina Dimitra Mahlia
book review by Libby Grandy
"She walked through each room as though it were a last farewell, seeing what she had composed with such passion and determination as though it were a tomb she had placed herself in, deluding herself with beauty... ."
The House of Many Faces is a work of art as well as a well-crafted book chronicling one woman's journey to independence and freedom. The creative formatting of Konstantina Dimitra Mahlia's memoir seductively draws the reader into her personal feelings and observations.
Mahlia met her husband in Mexico when her Greek/Canadian family visited his Greek/Mexican family. She was fifteen years old. They married a few years later and built a family. The reader lives those years with the author until the painful ending of the marriage. Her family lived a life of privilege. Consequently, the home she created was luxurious in every detail. In each chapter, the author uses descriptions of the rooms of the house as metaphors for her life.
The memoir addresses the age-old problem of sexism as it applies to women. Mahlia stays in her marriage because of cultural assumptions that women must sacrifice themselves for their husband, children and extended family. Deviating from that premise is considered wrong and selfish. Mahlia attempts to resolve her feelings of despair by obtaining a college degree and building her own business as a designer. Eventually, however, her efforts to reconcile the cultural differences between herself and her husband, in order to save their marriage, fail. Their divorce affects both sides of the family, and she must deal with the emotional fallout. This is an eloquent, literary memoir, a treat to the mind and senses.