THE EMPEROR'S CHILDREN-- THOUGHTS

The back cover description of The Emperor's Children is a bit deceiving -- true, it's about three friends and New York City (more so than it would appear at first), but I think it's more about how connections with people are unpredictable, so that the three protagonists that author Claire Messud spends so much time developing at first become less important as the story goes on. They grow in importance in their relationships to each other.

For some reason, I am uninspired to write my thoughts for this novel. I don't know why; maybe part of it is that it demanded no strong reaction from me, although I thoroughly enjoyed reading it at the time. Perhaps it is because Messud's story rings too true to life, in a way that is a bit discomforting: these are people, for the most part, in their 30s but they acted like... characters from a mediocre sitcom, let's say, Friends, was supposed to be instead of a comedy, a drama. Messud's characters are still discovering (and for the most part, failing) to understand what makes friendships and relationships work. In their thirties!* I don't truly buy the three main characters as best friends: there are too many snarky comments that I think are accurate to perhaps what the current narrator (Messud employs close-third narrators on multiple characters throughout) is thinking but described without enough emotion. As if I had just made a snarky comment about Claire, but without any sign of being endeared by it: "Bless her heart" or "That's Claire." Instead, we just get, "Claire is annoying when she is flirting."

Messud is a talented writer, clear and precise. She deftly handles plot surprises for the reader and never for a second did I doubt Messud's intentions. Everything she writes is critical to the plot--no small feat. She is a shockingly resourceful author, and the real clincher becomes New York City itself, although how she handles one particular character's (Bootie!) storyline is not entirely successful. Messud tackles large themes: rebirth, falling in love, the standard etc, but it almost seems a bit too late for these characters who are so overly developed (pseudo)intellectually--it's a little sickening actually--but immature emotionally. It's like gathering all of your hipster friends together and listening to them describing music with confidence and wit, but then switching the conversation to social matters and discovering that you've been listening to the same things for the past ten years.

currently listening to:
The Desperate Man
The Black Keys

xoxo Tiffany

* I'm not being mean. I'm just scared that my real life might someday mirror this. Kind of like watching Sex and the City for fun, but then realizing I DON'T WANT TO BE IN MY LATE THIRTIES/EARLY FORTIES AND STILL SINGLE AND WITH NO DIRECTION IN LIFE, CARRIE BRADSHAW. I will still see the movie, though.