När jag började läsa var mina förväntningar höga men ganska snabbt blev jag besviken på denna bok. Jag gillar sättet den är skriven på, med korta kapitel som växlar huvudperson, men karaktärerna känns väldigt stereotypa och stundtals klichéartade. Messuds språk är utmejslat till den nivån att det blir ansträngt, beskrivningarna tenderar att staplas på varandra och det känns som försöket med att uppnå ”perfekta formuleringar” mest blir jobbigt att läsa. Trots sin längd på 550 sidor greppade boken aldrig riktigt tag i mig, även om jag valde att fullfölja historien för att se hur den slutade.

Onvan : The Emperor's Children - Nevisande : Claire Messud - ISBN : 030726419X - ISBN13 : 9780307264190 - Dar 431 Safhe - Saal e Chap : 2006

The Emperor’s Children is not just one of the best “9/11 novels,” it is one of the best novels of any kind I have ever read. Though the events of September 11,2001 don’t occur until the last fifth of the book, the story of upper middle class New Yorkers is so necessary to establish the impact of a horrific event on a group of people who consider themselves (and are often considered) a world apart. This is an astonishing work and Claire Messud shows the necessity for literature to give us a glimpse of who we really are beneath the often dreamlike images with which we feel compelled to gather around ourselves.

An acclaimed novel from 2006. Set during the summer of 2001, this is a slyly satirical but sympathetic portrait of three attractive, well-educated friends, about to turn 30, poised on the edge of the lives they see as their due among New York's media and intellectual elite. Wonderfully drawn if not always likable characters, elegantly written, very satisfying.

Romanen sägs handla om tre vänner från medelklassen, alla kulturarbetare och runt trettio. Vi följer dem under ett år som avslutas med 11 september 2001. Tyvärr riktas strålkastaren framförallt på en av vännernas pappa Murray, en erkänd kulturman besatt av bekräftelse. Han är så att säga själva kejsaren. Sen finns kusinen från landet Bootie: osynlig misslyckad överviktig (givetvis), han är den som påtalar att kejsaren är naken.

Jag uppskattar intentionerna med att belysa patriarkala strukturer, medelklassbubblan, hur ytliga och egoistiska människor kan vara samt det motbjudande amerikanska vita storhetsvansinnet. Men jag tycker språket är för bubbligt. Detaljerna för många. Personerna för stereotypa. Känslan fastnar på ytan. Boken är för lång (550 sidor).

Entertaining and masterfully written! The lives and times of 3 contemporary New Yorkers told with the stinging wit, insight and compassion of a 21st century Jane Austin.

Jeannie

Beautifully written, very readable, themes about leaving the shadow of one's parent's generation incredibly poignant, especially at this particular moment in my life. A few characters lacked depth and seemed like caricatures, Annabel, Marina, and Ludo especially. Murray and Danielle both well done. Still processing this one but always love reading Claire Messud

Magnificent. I can be an impatient reader and I found myself re-reading phrases in this book because they were just so artful, so good. WIthout taking the cheap route of making a book good by making the characters wholly likable, Claire Messud has written a beautiful story about three differently, but equally, flawed people. Smart but not pretentious, The Emperor's Children is well-crafted, too, structured in a thoughtful way that I feel like modern books rarely are--details are dropped along the way that get picked up later, little clues for the perceptive reader.

Three women stopped me on the subway, independently, to tell me how much they loved this book. It's one of a kind.

I keep missing this book as if it were a person. It was so good I wish I hadn't finished it yet.

This book was so bad. Nobody should read it. I don't know why I kept reading it until I was finished.

This book was supposed to be good! The praise was extraordinary, and it seemed like it was going to be good, that it could be good. A cool subtle literary novel, full of symbolism and wit and some examination of (some) human soul(s), maybe not my everyday meal but just what I wanted at the moment. But bringing back back an image from the book, like the emperor had no clothes, these emperor´s children also have no clothes on! Maybe the book´s praise was a joke the literary criticism people ( about whom the book sort of is) is having on the public at large, a sort of literary Sokal imposture. Perhaps that is unfair, this book is not bad, and I quite enjoyed turning the pages on and on and see if something was going to happen ( well, watching the calendar is interesting, but sort of no). I quite liked the meaner society dialogue. But I ended up disappointed, nobody acts on anything, the sarcasm falls short of devastating anything, plot resolutions do not come, some details are just not believable. Worse of all, some of the main characters are just not that interesting. Lots of great books have been written about characters which don´t have a clue about life and much causeless despair. But, sorry, here it just exasperates instead of creating empathy or any revelation.

An extraordinary and deeply memorable book which I loved from first to last pages - I cannot comprehend why the reviews I read first on Goodreads were so negative and derogative - envy perhaps at the skilled language and literary stylistic ability of this author - at last a modern novel written with panache - displaying interesting and potent vocabulary and sentence structure with superb characterisation and storytelling as well as a deeply felt philosophy of life and all set against a wonderful and believable backdrop of early 21 st Century New York and the drama and tragedy of the Twin Towers attacks
I can only say read this and you will understand why this is on a Bestseller List
I for one will be seeking out Claire Messuds work in the future.

Clearly I must be a fucking philistine because this was some straight up pretentious. ass. drivel. Only worth reading if you're about to take the SAT and there's nothing else in your bathroom to peruse while you poop. 9/11 was a welcome relief - not a phrase I ever thought I'd write. I only read this shit because I heard Eric Bana was going to star in the movie version of it, but it turns out I was reading an article from 2010 and that's probably never happening. It's what she deserves.gif