Archives: Thoughts on Fiction

The Dawn of Love by Barbara Cartland: I've wanted to read a Barbara Cartland novel since I first read bios of Princess Diana in junior high (Cartland was Princess Di's auntie or some such relation). I don't think I really care to read any more, but I spent a very entertaining hour reading this sweet story about a young, naive girl falling in love with a very handsome, worldly duke. The plot lines wrapped up a little too quickly at the end, which made the story seem less believable, but on the whole it wasn't badly written.
The Luck of the Bodkins by P.G. Wodehouse: It's a good thing Wodehouse wrote something like 90 novels, because I can't get enough. This one isn't as good as some of the classic Jeeves and Wooster or Lord Emsworth ones, but I like it nonetheless. It's a great entertaining escape.
The Austere Academy by Lemony Snicket: I am majorly disappointed with this book. It's a kids' book, but I had heard good things and thought it might be Potter-like. No such luck. It was just boring. It's one in a series about three orphans who are constantly on the run from the evil Count Olaf, who wants their inheritance. It could be lively and entertaining, but it's not.
The Rotter's Club by Jonathan Coe: Hmm. This book was touted as being four English boys in the 1970s and their escapades at school, with some talk about class conflicts and labor and such. The focus is really the other way around. The story is told through the use of the boys' lives (mostly one of them, Benjamin), but it's clearly about the social and economic upheaval of the times and not about adolescent mischief. However, one of the book's strenghts is Coe's ability to convey the adolescent feeling of self-importance and intellectualism. One of the boys has journalistic aspirations and the other writes music; both feel that they are doing serious work. I did think that the book moved slowly in parts. The beginning introduces the reader to all the characters, but only in a superficial way. Because of this, it took me a while to differentiate between them and keep them straight as the book shifted between their stories. As to the social commentary, I thought Coe did a good job of describing rather than lecturing, especially with regard to the labor struggles. By using children as vehicles for the story, it is easier to see both sides. The boys see what their fathers are doing, and they each want to support that, but they also like each other and wouldn't want to see their friends' dads out of work or in jail. The sexual relations troubles that pop up are ones that have been covered before--the older woman, the midlife extramarital affair, etc. Coe doesn't bring anything new to these. Overall, I liked this book, and I think I might read it again.
The Great Pursuit by Tom Sharpe: Another British novel, but from a new author for me. This is a crazy story about a literary agent trying to make a bad book into a bestseller. I found it difficult to put down and quite entertaining. I'm looking forward to reading Porterhouse Blue, the Sharpe novel that everyone seems to recommend.
Burr by Gore Vidal: I read this mostly in the airport and on the plane to Florida. It was a little slow going at first, but then I really wanted to know what all was going to happen. Vidal is good at taking a story where we know what generally happens (Burr shoots Hamilton, gets tried for treason and acquitted, etc.), and making the reader care about the journey. This book definitely gives you a different picture of Jefferson and Washington, and although it's fictional, I assume that Burr and some others did feel this way. A nice sidebar is the article in the March 2004 Atlantic Monthly by Bruce Ackerman and David Fontana, "How Jefferson Counted Himself In," which tells the story of the presidential election in 1800 that could have brought Burr, rather than Jefferson, to the White House.
The Blessing by Nancy Mitford: This is another tale of upper-class English life, this time about an English girl who marries a Frenchman. I can't say that I enjoyed it as much as Love in a Cold Climate or The Pursuit of Love, but I liked it nonetheless.