- Hardcover: 352 pages
- Publisher: William Morrow & Company (Dec 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0066211166
- ISBN-13: 978-0066211169
- Product Dimensions: 23.7 x 16.2 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 3,188,263 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Third Child: A Novel
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First Sentence
Your father is an important man. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Your father is an important man. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The Third child is an absolutely riveting and sensational melodrama. I just loved this book. Nothing about this story can be taken seriously, but this doesn’t really matter because you will be enormously entertained by the over-the-top scenario. Yes – The Third Child is a literary thriller, a love story and a saga of espionage, but the novel also offers us some insights into political corruption and the ramifications of family lies and betrayal.
Melissa Dickinson is the neglected, needy third child of Republican senator Dick Dickinson and his cold, scheming wife, Rosemary. In her first year at Wesleyan College, she meets Blake Ackerman, a classmate who is both dark-skinned and Jewish, qualities sure to distress her parents. They fall into an intensely symbiotic relationship fueled by sexual compatibility as well as by Melissa's resentment of her emotionally inaccessible family who are “over-the-top” in their conservatism and their efforts to keep up appearances. Blake's desire for vengeance for his dead father, which includes hacking into Melissa's parents' computer to find evidence that might destroy her father’s career, has ramifications that destroy almost everyone in the novel.
As the narrative is told from Melissa’s view, we get an emotional roller coaster of thoughts and views, as she shifts alliances and realizes that her family are stifling her and not giving her the emotional support that she wants. Rosemary the archetypal control freak, never bothers to give Melissa affection; “ she monitors Melissa - “she puts up fence posts and strings barbed wire.” And as the story progresses we get a feeling of inevitable doom as Blake and her start to meddle in political cover-ups that spiral out of their control. The effects of lies, deceit and betrayal are at the thematic core of this novel. Melissa lies to her mother and father, her best friend Emily, her lover Blake, and her siblings. And Blake, in turn, lies to Emily and his family, the consequences of this are that no one is ever as they seem, as loyalties of friends and family shift and blur. This is a terrific piece of work, and is almost reminiscent of Donna Tartt’s A Secret History, in tone and content. You won’t be able to put The Third Child down.
Michael
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I've read most, if not all of the author's works and generally found her books enjoyable. However, this latest novel becomes fairly - almost unbelievably - transparent just a few chapters in. The family of the main character are hideously two-dimensional and a significant employee is loyal to the point of lobotomy. The plot make much use of hacked computer information, the technicalities of which seeming rather far-fetched. If you are a fan, you'll probably want to read it anyway but don't be in a hurry. If you're not a fan. don't even bother.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I'm a fan of Marge Piercy's novels, and although this one has the customary broad scope, I found it a bit disappointing and lacking the usual detailed observation that gives you a clear picture of the societies you write about. She doesn't often write about the lives of the rich and privileged, and it feels as if it interests her less than middle-class or working-class lives.
If you like her other novels it's definitely worth a look, but if you haven't read any of her novels before, start with Braided Lives or Vida instead, which I'd happily give five stars.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Another great read from Marge Piercy...
Marge Piercy is a writer like Joyce Carol Oats - a very tight writer, not a word out of place or a dangling plot line or character. Just good writing. (Or good editing). Read more
Published on 17 Mar 2010 by Jill Meyer
Great read
I have never read a Marge Piercy book before, and not really a great lover of politically themed books. Read more
Published on 15 Mar 2005 by Vanessa Vinos
"Our path is together. Don't you know that yet?"
It is difficult to characterize this novel. It's certainly a coming-of-age novel, tracing, as it does, Melissa Dickinson's life from age 17 - 19, and it's certainly a political... Read more
Published on 26 Nov 2003 by Mary Whipple
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