The Emperor's Children: Amazon.co.uk: Claire Messud: Books

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Product Description

Sunday Herald

'truly exceptional' --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Guardian

'this beautifully structured novel skewers moral vacuity and
hypocrisy with a sureness of touch that is deeply satisfying.' --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Customer Reviews

13 Reviews

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

Average Customer Review

3.3 out of 5 stars (13 customer reviews)

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27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars wonderful, 15 Nov 2006

By	Storytime (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Emperor's Children (Hardcover)

This book is dense and yet the story moves along well. The writing is beautiful and revelatory without losing sight of the characters or the story. Claire Messud manages to convey a real sense of New York and New Yorkers both native and adopted. It is one of the only books other than Edith Wharton or in a sense "The Bonfire of the Vanities", that I have read that gives a sense of the uniqueness of Manhattan as a city and the complex emotions it engenders in it's inhabitants and also in those who stay on the outside (ie the midwest or upstate New York). This is really an accomplishment, as it is so central to the idea of New York as a city and yet so very difficult to express. The book builds towards 9/11, which the reader knows is coming, while of course the characters are unaware of it. This adds a layer of poignancy and tension that is very effective. The twin towers and the pentagon are written about within the context of the lives of those in the book and so is apocolyptic on a human scale. There is a vibrant sense of life in the city at that exact moment in time that is really history now, even so soon afterwards(the anthrax scares?). At all times this book is amazingly well written and it does not feel either voyeuristic or opportunistic in relation to the real events of the time. Facinating and engrossing, "The Emperor's Children" will stay with me for a long time.

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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars powerful, funny portrait of pre-9/ll Manhattan, 10 Oct 2006

By	richard (edinburgh) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Emperor's Children (Hardcover)

I have to respectfully disagree with the two negative reviews here. I found I couldn't put this book down, and that much of the power and comedy comes from Messud's style, which is lyrical when it needs to be, and looser when it needs to be -- just like James or Wharton (or Stendhal or Balzac). This is a fabulously entertaining book about ambition and failure in contemporary New York, fully of witty apercus and delicious dialogue. It is also genuinely moving -- the portrait of Murray Thwaite, the aging journalist, is very well done. Also, this is surely not "a 9/11 novel." Most of it is set before 9/ll, and Messud's profound point is that 9/ll doesn't change very much about these characters' lives. Except for one character, Bootie, who is always outside the charmed circle.

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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Seven eights of a good book, 22 Sep 2006

By	Tim Coupe (London,United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Emperor's Children (Hardcover)

I wish I could share other people's overwhelming enthusiasm for this book but somehow I can't. Well crafted and well written, the book does convey a sense of what happens to people when talent, affluence and privilige isn't enough. It's familiar,if not perhaps stock,contemporary american characters move smoothly and unknowingly towards a finale marked by the tragedy of 9/11. But unlike other reviewers I was unmoved by the finale of this book. Maybe re-invention is a very contemporary response to tragedy but when its the re-invention of a relatively late coming and minor character,it seems a very feeble one. I hope there is a better New York story out there somewhere.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Out of the vacuum
For this thirty-one year-old, Claire Messud's story of thirty-somethings in 2001 New York made for mortifying reading. Read more

Published 22 months ago by Manchester Manual

2.0 out of 5 stars Abandoned after 300+ pages
I consider I just wasted valuable reading time by persevering with this novel for 300-odd pages. I was taken in by the glowing reviews inside and on the jacket and the fact that... Read more

Published 24 months ago by Bellini

1.0 out of 5 stars This book should have a pink fluffy cover!
I read this book on the basis that it was a literary book that crossed over to a good read. The writer was praised as erudite and insightful. Read more

Published on 6 Sep 2007 by Wayne Cork

4.0 out of 5 stars Manhattan through three friends
Looking at the other reviews, you'll either love this or hate it. Personally, I loved it.

This is a tightly-drawn portrait of three friends turning thirty in the... Read more

Published on 1 Sep 2007 by Sofia

1.0 out of 5 stars The Emperors Children
Our book club chose this book after researching lots of reviews. As a group we were all extremely disappointed. Read more

Published on 2 Aug 2007 by Book Worms

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing
This book falls into a category of modern 'literature' that I don't understand. The characters seem empty - vapid - and thus perhaps a mirror of our modern consumer society... Read more

Published on 24 Jun 2007 by Index Research

4.0 out of 5 stars Gripping and brilliant
This is one of the best novels I've read in years. The characters are fantastic and it all goes along at a nice pace. Read more

Published on 3 Jun 2007 by Reader

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing Post 9/11 novel
I was disappointed with this book given the reviews that it has received and the Booker long-list nomination. Read more

Published on 29 Sep 2006 by Michael Fraser

5.0 out of 5 stars "It seems as though entitlement, that mysterious gift, explains everything everyone does these days."
Murray Thwaite, a child of the sixties, has become, by 2001, a respected social critic and sought-after social commentator and writer. Read more

Published on 9 Sep 2006 by Mary Whipple

5.0 out of 5 stars Novel of 2006
Handsomely the best book on the 2006 Man Booker longlist, The Emperor's Children is by some distance Messud's most ambitious, accessible and gripping fiction. Read more

Published on 31 Aug 2006 by DMc

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The Emperor's Children (Hardcover)

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