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AudibleInk - The Emperor's Children (Vintage)
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List Price: $14.95
Our Price: $10.17
Your Save: $ 4.78 ( 32% )
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Manufacturer: Vintage
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FREE SHIPPING on Orders over $25!
Average Customer Rating:   
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780307276667
ISBN: 030727666X
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 496
Publication Date: 2007-06-26
Publisher: Vintage
Release Date: 2007-06-26
Studio: Vintage
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Editorial Reviews:
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The Emperor’s Children is a richly drawn, brilliantly observed novel of fate and fortune—about the intersections in the lives of three friends, now on the cusp of their thirties, making their way--and not-- in New York City. In this tour de force, the celebrated author Claire Messud brings to life a city, a generation, and the way we live in this moment.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Exquisite Writing
Comment: I am so impressed with Claire Messud's extraordinary novel! It is one of those rare books that you want to gobble up but feel you have to pace yourself because it will soon end.
I found the characters incredibly vital. All are memorable and extremely well crafted. We know these people - like them or not.
I have certainly added Claire Messud to my list of favorite authors and look forward to reading her other works.
Customer Rating:
Summary: don't think many of the reviewers got the book
Comment: The book was well written and did a wonderful job looking at "the emperor" from multiple perspectives. It challenged the culture of current-day intellectualism, what it means in today's society and the ways in which it can be misguided. The book also did an interesting job exploring expectations and disappointment on several levels.
Customer Rating:
Summary: New York, New York...Manhattan, Manhattan...
Comment: Messud is a wonderful writer and I give her alot of credit for being able to capture Manhattan (and all of its ridiculousness) in all its details. Most of us, never even for a day, have lives which include galas, lavishly catered dinner parties, and all-you can-eat&drink caviar/top shelf champagne. Shopping on 5th Ave. and nonchalantly mentioning a need to "go buy a dress at Anna Sui or Dolce & Gabbana" is, again, not very accessible to the majority of the world. Not many women I know at 29 years old can afford to spend $5000 "nonchalantly" at a moments notice. This is the reason why I think that maybe some readers may misconstrue this novel and write it off immediately as a "poor piece of writing."
I loved this book. Living in Phila., I am a close neighbor of Manhattan and have many friends living there; Thus, I have to admit I knew exactly where Messud was going with this when finishing early chapters. Self-entitlement, pretentiousness, and absolute shallowness are adjectives for ALL the characters in this finely weaved novel, and rightly so. (Most of us have seen at least one episode of "Sex & the City" right?) Messud particularly captures the "approaching 30" generation in NY so well. Their brattiness, obliviousness to world politics, & their refusal to grow up and be independent are all portrayed very well in Messud's writing style. (Her long sentences are fine. I do not know why people have such a problem with it. What about Henry Miller, Charles Bukowski, & Gabriel Garcia Marquez?)
The ending was a bit abrupt and left the reader feeling like the last couple chapters were ripped away by accident. That was my only complaint with it. On a scale of 1 - 10, I give this book a 9.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good airport read
Comment: I picked up the book at an airport kiosk based on the cover blurb from the NY Times, so in that sense felt that I, too, was suckered in as many of the previous reviewers have noted, when I discovered that the story was of three self-centered 30-somethings at a crossroads in their lives who make many bad choices and end up no better than the sneered at, repeatedly described as, horrors! fat cousin from (horrors, again) upstate New York. If you find the previous sentence too long, don't pick up this book.
On the plus side, if you can live with reading about mostly unlikeable characters in mostly attractive real estate, and you get caught up in seeing how far they will fall (and your flight is delayed), you might find this is guilty pleasure.
Customer Rating:
Summary: what's the point?
Comment: I'm 200 pages in... and still don't care a bit for either of the characters. The book, so far, is not only boring, but it completely lacks any emotions. I'm forcing myself from page to page and might give up at some point. Life is too short...
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