Nomi and her sister Tash grow up in a small bungalow in the remote town of East Village. In Nomi’s childhood memories, the house is cozy and well-maintained. When she comes home from school Nomi always finds her mother, Trudie, reading on the couch; her father, Ray, takes pride in cultivating his garden outside. However, Nomi’s relationship to her house changes after both Trudie and Tash leave the community and their family. Nomi tries to take over tasks like cooking and laundry, but she dislikes keeping house and, with no one to stop her, often defaces her room with markers or even blood. Meanwhile, Ray sells most of the furniture and, out of apathy, allows the house to fall into disrepair. Through these shifts, the house symbolizes the former happiness and current fractured state of the Nickel family.
By the end of the novel, the house is completely empty. Ray, who has left town, instructs Nomi to sell it before she departs as well. The house’s sale is a concrete reminder that Nomi’s entire family has given up on life within the Mennonite community. However, it’s only at this point that Nomi starts to feel hopeful about reuniting with her family again, a feeling she demonstrates through her final, lyrical recollection of childhood nights falling asleep “listening to the voices of my sister and mother talking...and my dad poking around in the yard.” It’s only by relinquishing her family’s former life, represented by the house, that Nomi is able to imagine a new future.
Nomi’s House Quotes in A Complicated Kindness
I asked him why he was getting rid of the furniture and he said he liked empty spaces because you could imagine what might go in them someday.
We were quiet for a long, long time. Then I told him I wasn’t going anywhere. That I’d never leave him.
Nomi’s House Symbol Timeline in A Complicated Kindness
