The Emperor's Children (Vintage)
by Claire Messud
|
List Price: Our Price: $0.70 You Save: $15.25 (96%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of The Emperor's Children (Vintage)
Book Review: All these negative reviews are undeserved
Summary: 4 Stars
"The Emperor's Children" is obviously much more literate than most novels one might run across these days, and tells an interesting story to boot. Why then all the negative reviews here? I've taken the liberty to break down the criticism, and have added my response:
1. The characters are unlikable and/or deeply flawed -- True. It's certainly difficult to end up liking or sympathizing with the three main characters (Danielle, Marina and Julian) or most of the rest of the bunch. However, having likable characters does not necessarily make a good novel and visa versa. In fact, some of the best books were filled with despicable unsympathetic characters.
2. The reader is not provided a "moral center" -- Partially true. Certainly not with the main characters, including Danielle, who was, indeed, likable at first. However, if a moral center is really required, I think one can find it in Annabel, Marina's mother, unless the reader can't excuse a wife who chooses to look the other way at her husband's infidelity.
3. The author's writing suffers from run-on sentences -- Partially true. Especially in the first part of the book, Claire Messud seems to be enamored with over-punctuation, especially comas and dashes, in order to contain thoughts within thoughts. Nevertheless, Messud's writing ability and command of the English language is still quite superior to most of what's out there.
4. The author leaves some major issues unresolved: True. The major conflict in the book, as well as the inevitable confrontation between two best friends, never happens. I, for one, would like to read a sequel, but even without one, one can't always expect everything to be neatly rapped up, because in real life, things are often left unresolved.
5. Messud inaccurately and inappropriately includes the events of 9/11 in an attempt to spruce up her story: True. Other authors have been doing this lately and they don't seem to realize how completely overwhelming and all-consuming that event was for many months, especially for those who lived and worked in the City. (For months, the smell alone was so pervasive that the thoughts of destruction and death were never far removed from one's thoughts). However, one "point" of the story was to demonstrate how self-involved these people are.
Despite the complaints from so many Amazon reviewers, "The Emperor's Children" is a fine novel and a worthwhile read for anybody who enjoys modern literature, and isn't only interested in the typical page-turner spy/adventure novel where all ends well.
Book Review: Written for the Sex & the City Crowd
Summary: 2 Stars
After the great reviews of The Emperor's Children, our book club was anxious to read it. But of the ten of us, only one person enjoyed it. Among the other 9, the consensus was that the book was tedius.
My feelings were a bit more nuanced. Without giving away the plot (what little of it there was) I really enjoyed the middle hundred pages. The first two hundred pages were okay, but the set-up grew long and the characters lost my sympathy. But suddenly, everthing seemed to come together at about page 200, and I thought, "What a brillian set-up." I read the next hundred pages anxiously to see what would happen. But a hundred pages later, I finally realized that what I thought was the main story wasn't, and the final hundred pages were distant and uninteresting.
This was supposed to be satire of the NY intellectual class, with a bunch of characters who think highly of themselves, but are actually superficial, and accomplish nothing. But the humor wasn't humorous enough, and if the point was to show a bunch of superficial characters who accomplish nothing, the book succeeds, but left me uncaring.
The book seems specifically calculated to appeal to the Sex & the City club. The novel centers on the careers and love lives of three 30-ish friends from Brown University, a career woman, a beautiful socialite, and a gay guy, all of course, living in NYC. If you liked Sex & the City, there's a good chance that you'll enjoy this book. If not, the book probably won't appeal to you, either.
So how to account for the glowing reviews when we found it to be okay at best and annoying at worst? It seems telling that the one person who enjoyed it was a New Yorker. And I suspect that most book reviewers in major publications are either current New Yorkers, ex-New Yorkers, or wannabee New Yorkers to whom the story and characters might actually resonate. Further, a novel where the magazine publishers and succesful reporters are pompous clowns seems likely to appeal more to a journalist or book reviewer than the general public.
The writing itself shows talent and the descriptions were frequently sharp and beautiful, though often Messud's overuse of appositives intruded on the flow of the story and made the writing seem overdone.
Overall, if you're a NY intellectual, there's a good chance you'll enjoy a satiric look at your cohorts. For the rest of us, though the novel had its moments, the effect was a navel-gazing view of navel-gazing 30-somethings in NY.
Book Review: Surprised by the Harsh Review
Summary: 3 Stars
While I appreciate that a reader's relationship with a book is a very individual and personal experience, I nonetheless am shocked by the harsh criticism heaped on this book. For one, I found the book to be a very worthwhile read.
I found the characters well-developed and believable. While the characters were almost universally unsympathetic and not endearing, I don't see that as a criticism of the book, nor a reason not to read it. Some of literature's most enduring characters are not its most endearing characters. I found the characters to be well drawn and true to life; they seemed very much of their milieu, and actually, reminded me of many people I know (maybe me?). In other words, I don't have to like the character to like the book.
Overall, I found their motivations, actions and relationships believable (and even foreseeable, in light of exterior forces). I did struggle with Bootie's justifications for attempting to sabotage his uncle, the great social activist/writer, Murray Thwaite, due to Bootie's disappointment with the contrast between Murray's high sounding writing and the lack of honesty and integrity in Murray's personal life. But ultimately, I was able to accept Bootie's actions as believable, based on Bootie's own history, background and demons.
I spent a good deal of time trying to identify the theme of this book, and what I kept coming back to was the universal search for meaning. The one constant in each and every character was their effort to find that thing that made them feel important, loved, valued, whatever they needed to give their life meaning--and the ultimate abandonment of that search by Danielle. As in all life, each character's search for meaning came into conflict with the needs, desires, values and self-images of others, thereby creating the book's tension.
I also thought the book was well-written. A number of readers commented on the author's torturous sentence structure (the stringing together of dependent clauses). Whether due to my experience as a lawyer reading paragraphs that go on for pages or just because of my general appreciation for the book, I was able to look past this issue. Other than this obvious failing, I thought the book was well-written, easy to read, with the author's broad vocabulary on display.
In conclusion, while not the best I have read (ie, not a great book), The Emperor's Children is a good read, with some challenging ideas, and interestingly drawn characters. I would recommend it.
Book Review: Astounded by the Hype
Summary: 1 Stars
Yes, The Emperor didn't have clothes in the Children's fairy tale; likewise, this book fails to earn the awards/recommendations/praise from all the different New York City affiliated organizations (Village Voice, New York Times, etc.).
I am amazed this book was published. One serious problem is the sentence structure. At times, it is so poor, you must reread the run on sentences again and again to understand what is being said. I have seen high schooler's write with better construction. At times, it is unclear whom is speaking to whom.
Furthermore, the author is obviously impressed with her vocabulary since she will use $20 words when a $5. word will suffice. Anyone who is serious about contemporary writing knows that you don't talk down to your reader particularly when writing fiction. Many references to reknowned authors is not impressive. Her style attempts to mirror Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky, I suggest she change her last name to something Russian because that's the closest she will be to being a 'famous' Russian writer.
The funniest thing about this book is its attempt to reveal how arrogant many writers are. Ms. Messud proved her point, by showing her self-admiration.
The book is nearly 500 pages long, with some good editing, the story could have been told with at least 150 pages of meaningless descriptions and dialogue. My writing teachers repeatedly told us to show not tell.
Additionally, her book panders to the homosexual set, while most of the characters are intertwined in sexual relationships, the only scenes we are invited to observe are the homosexual scenes - frankly, I don't need to be sex scenes to motivate me to buy a book, I feel I can buy a Harlequin for that.
Her research is poor, without revealing the plot line, the last part of the book brings these New Yorkers through 9/11 and a little of its aftermath. The characters refer to the witness of the fall of the towers akin to the movie, "Independence Day" which wasn't made until 2 years later. Another thing a good writer does is research. This is not Well's "Time Machine". I am wondering if an editor even read it before it went to press! The marketing department did a phenomenal job and should be commended on getting people to buy this irrelevant, boring saga.
Honestly, at a penny plus your shipping, your time is worth more!
Book Review: The Emperor's Children
Summary: 3 Stars
First: Messud can write. She is a word-wizard and her sentences are beautiful. Not too long, as some of the other reviewers stated. That reminds of the famous Mozart-Emperor Josef II exchange: It's a beautiful opera, Mozart, but too many notes. That is not the problem. The problem with the book lies in the fact that the author seems to not make much her her beautiful sentences but convey atmospheres and depict characters well. While that is important, it does not make for an interesting read. Even though Messud clearly empathizes with her characters and reveals them in all their gray shades, they are all, for the most part, despicable and narcissistic. Not one of them truly has anything to say, but they all think they do. Now all the word-wizardry does not take away from the lack of substance in these characters. They harp on and on about themselves, do ghastly things while rationalizing them into oblivion. The only character Messud doesn't go into depth with, who would have transcended the diaphanous bunch is the wife of Murray, being that she is the ONLY person who is not focused on herself all the time. Bootie is interesting, but even his Musil-like self-re-creation reminds more of "I'm Not Stiller" by Max Frisch than of a unique and new character. And he is, surprise surprise, yet another narcissist in the making, leaving his mother in the dark about his fate. And yes, I also was very disturbed to see these people remain just as self-absorbed after the towers came down. If that didn't shatter their narcissism, if even for a moment, one has to wonder if anything would or could. And in that case, perhaps I, as the reader, really don't care about them. But then again, I didn't really to begin with.
Without further cruely: Wonderful style, form, and descriptions. So much potential. Problem: characters and story. Neither are they worthy of empathy nor do they produce any kind of Brechtian detachment that propels one into wanting to change something. The only thing I wanted to change was their self-absorption. It seems as if the author tried to piece so many interesting pieces together, that she got lost in her own maze of style over content.