Dnf

Critics and readers have always loved this author so I gave her another go. This one sounded promising but again bleak characters that I dislike doing things I don’t care about so a no from me.

Too long, too wandering, too much effort.

About three days too many. And yet I kept reading. I like the way she seems to invent these characters and then just turn them loose to make the story themselves. (I know that's not really how it's done) Unfortunately, these particular characters, though good talkers, are not much for plot and there are longueurs. Yet I kept reading. Because it's Jane smiley and she writes such good characters.

It’s hard to describe this book and why I loved it. But the best comparison I can give is how much it resembles a Robert Altman movie in the way it portrays an ensemble cast of characters. We get to see the characters interacting and arguing as they find themselves congregating at the home of film director, Max, and his partner, Elena, the day after the Academy Awards, trying to make sense of the war on Iraq, while Max is also working out some film proposals. We’re also taken into the personal and inter-personal dramas of the individual characters.

I think this type of story works when the characters add interest to the overall story. This particular cast of characters isn’t particularly likable, but they all do add interest to the story in their own way. Unlike some of Altman’s films, where it feels like the director gave too much free rein to his actors, Smiley as the author, allows for a certain looseness in the proceedings without losing rein of her characters. Having said this, I do feel the second part of the novel, in which the setting moves to another house, is weaker, and the ending is a head-scratcher of sorts. But nevertheless I enjoyed the ride, although I’ll admit this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.

Noooooooo. Don’t waste your time. A book about self-absorbed, self-indulgent, rich Hollywood folks. Not my cup of tea. Didn’t expect this out of Jane Smiley. Tho she did write the book about the animals in the park (the horse who ran away from the track and friends). Still scratching my head about that one. Did read it though. All the way to the end.

I was disappointed in this book. A number of sex scenes that added nothing to the plot and lots of run on sentences. The basic concept is good but it shouldn't have taken 400+ pages to tell this story.

I tried to like this book, but just had to give up after 85 pages. These people are so full of themselves that it's hard to like any of them. Isabel seemed the most mature, even though she was the next to youngest.

Peak Hollywood people stuck together in peak Hollywood setting -- why hasn't Sofia Coppola made a movie of this? Dense, isolated, survivalistic even. Sort of a drag to get into but surprised to really love it. This is the kind of book that spoils me into wishing everyone talked like these people talk all the time.

Jane Smiley, who won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for A Thousand Acres, has written on a range of topics: horses, midwestern university life, real estate, Greenland, and, most recently, literature (13 Ways of Looking at the Novel, ***1/2 Jan/Feb 2006). Ten Days, a social satire, tackles the superficial lives of Hollywood denizens__to mixed acclaim. Many reviewers were sufficiently entertained by watching Smiley's set of spoiled, if smart, individuals interact and ruminate on their self-involved concerns; others found the conversations hackneyed. While Smiley's use of the Iraq war created some enlightened discussion, it also seemed like a heavy-handed device. Critics similarly diverged on the characters, which reflected their own view of the novel: some characters stood out; others did not. A few learned important lessons at the end of ten days__but most did not.

This is an excerpt from a review published in Bookmarks magazine.

Despite who she is I found this very slow, with little conflict, a bit overwritten, paragraphs that went on for more than a page, etc. I stopped reading at page 180 out of 449. Sex is well-written. A good example of how to write non-purplish sex scenes.

A chatty book of ten people living in the same house for ten days. I would imagine that is where the similarities to The Decameron end, but it did make me want to read the Italian classic. Smiley was able to imbue each of the characters with individuality and points of view on each other. It had been a long time since I have read a Smiley novel and I now want to read more.