Dear Readers,


I now consider this blog to be my Juvenelia. Have fun perusing the archives, and find me at my new haunt, here.

Sunday, September 30, 2007

The Emperor's Children


I have a whole other queue of books to blog but this book was really a huge letdown. And so I'm going to do something I rarely do, and put it down.

To begin with, I've never read a book so unabatedly obsessed with interior decorating. I mean every single room was described in excruciating detail down to prints and damask curtains. I'm sorry, Mizz Claire Messud, but that is not the way we egalitarian bookworms like to skewer the upper crust. As a rule of thumb, we don't satirize the self-styled elites by lovingly describing their motherfriggin curtains.

And this only begins to touch upon the book's adjective problem. There were way too many of them, and they were way too fancy, and way too obviously meant to make the book deep, when all it really wanted to do was loll about on leather sofas and comment on the high heeled shoes of its heroines. Gah.

So I'm done with this book--and on the hunt for a new, gossipy-fun book to occupy me on my now thrice-daily commute. Any ideas?

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:53 PM

    that book sounds way lame! more like "the emperor's new clothes."

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've seen lots of press recently for "The Scandal of the Season" by Sophie Gee, a historical novel about Pope and his circle. Supposed to be quite gossipy. I haven't read it, but would be very curious to hear your reaction to it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I actually interviewed her for Publishers Weekly. The book was lots of fun! Definitely read it (or at least borrow it)

    http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6450396.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous10:37 AM

    I am attempting to read this right now. Ugh, it's torture! Basically, she's writing about these three friends in New York in a wordy, boring style. I've seen her compared to classic authors (Edith Wharton, Fitzgerald) and I enjoy classics (when they are classic). I agree she uses words I've never seen just to make it deep. It's just boring and mundane. Plus, she uses these senteces that go on and on and then has additional long sentences within them, in parenthesis. I've read all these great reviews. I don't get it!

    ReplyDelete