Category: Reviews

( #JeffreyEugenides, #MarriagePlot )

When I found out that Jeffrey Eugenides released another book, I was excited to read it. His previous novel, the Pulitzer Prize winning “Middlesex” was (obviously) very good, with rich character history and unique plot. “The Marriage Plot” is a much different book in tone and story than “Middlesex” and not for the better.

Set in the early 1980’s, the book centers around a girl named Madeleine who is about to graduate college. She just broke up with her boyfriend and there is another guy that likes her. This love triangle makes up the entire plot of the book. The problem is that Madeleine is so unlikeable that you don’t want to read about her with either guy. You don’t want the guys to succeed in getting her, and I really couldn’t envision this girl being happy with anyone unless she changes (spoiler: she doesn’t). The whole love triangle was not enough to maintain the primary narrative of the book… what I am saying is that the book was boring.

Madeleine starts off as a self-centered over-privileged little snot and makes absolutely no progress in becoming a better person. One can argue that her caring for her depressed boyfriend Leonard during most of the story would count as growth, but I would counter that by saying she was just living up to social expectations. Her treatment of every other character in the book is horrid.

The other participant in the love triangle is a religious studies student named Mitchell. He spends most of the book traveling around Europe and India learning about religion and avoiding Madeleine’s relationship with Leonard. I would say he is the character you want to win in the story, but his attraction to Madeleine makes him suspect in my view.

I am not sure what the book was trying to accomplish. Perhaps it was a critique of expensive liberal arts colleges not preparing students for real life. Or it could be debunking the expectation that 21-year-old people should be treated like adults rather than children. Or perhaps it could be that relationships are complicated, but I would argue that is well covered grounds and this book didn’t add much to the conversation. My final thoughts on “The Marriage Plot” is that I found it to be a disappointing follow-up to an excellent book from a talented writer. The amazon reviews seem to disagree with my assessment, so feel free to make up your own mind.

( #Reamde, #NealStephenson )

I finally finished the book that would not end yesterday. It has taken me almost 2 months to read Reamde (although I have read other books during this period too), but I got it done. What is the book about? I think this was Stephenson’s attempt to tell an epic fantasy story but in the real world. It is an interesting and creative idea, I am just not sure if that was the intent.

Reamde is part action thriller, detective story, and fantasy tale. The general idea is that a guy (Richard) creates an online game that can be used to traffic real money globally. The game is huge, almost everybody plays it (essentially it is World of Warcraft, but more popular). Richard’s niece ends up getting kidnapped through a series of semi-ridiculous plot turns (I can forgive this in the vein of North by Northwest). The kidnapped niece is basically re-kidnapped by another group of bad guys and then British and US intelligence agencies get involved.

The book features as massive cast of characters that all converge at the end of the book. I suppose my main issue with the story is the sheer amount of characters, many of them were unnecessary and it seems Stephenson doesn’t know what to do with them in the end. There are several that essentially get dropped around the 60-70% mark of the book without another mention. Reamde spends alot of energy getting all of the characters to the same place for the climax. Even with the time spent, it feels completely artificial. Having gotten to the end, I think the book would have been better served killing off some of the characters before we got to that point.

I get the impression the Stephenson was trying to go for a reversal of themes. The story revolves around an epic online game, but the real world becomes much more exciting. I am taking a guess that Stephenson plotted the book out like a video game. You have the main story and the side quests. Minor characters that serve a function and need little backstory. It is a clever idea and if executed better, the book would have been outstanding.

I give Neal Stephenson (and his publishers) kudos for keeping this ONE BOOK. No trilogy, no cliffhangers. It is a complete tale, in fact it is a supersized story. I am glad I could finish this book without having to purchase more and I feel like I earned a gamer trophy getting through it.

REAMDE