Review: The Emperor's Children

The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud

My rating: 4 of 5 stars Claire Messud's The Emperor's Children tells the story of three friends on the cusp of turning 30: Julius, Marina, and Danielle. All three are "writers" (who only write occasionally) living in Manhattan in varying degrees of luxury and coping with their inflated senses of entitlement, ambition, and urban ennui. Their (mostly) failed romantic attempts as well as the waxing and waning of their friendship provides the subject matter for the book. The novels principle strength is in the expertly drawn characters. All three principal characters, as well as the other major characters, are simultaneously endearing and off-putting. Even the characters themselves can't agree on what to make of each other. For example, Murray Thwaite, the acclaimed journalist and father of Marina, inspires reverence in his daughter, love in Danielle, and contempt in Ludo (Marina's boyfriend), who claims that Murray is a fraud and an opportunist. I found myself anxiously reading until the end because I was interested in the outcomes that these characters would face. My only real complaint with the novel has to do with the author's writing style. The sentence construction often gets overwhelmingly complex, with appositive phrases, dramatic asides, and wry observations piling up on top of each other until the sentences become a real mess. Here is a relatively mild example, the first one that I found upon opening the book:

She tried to visit other museums as well, different ones each time, and on this visit she proposed the Frick and Pierpoint Morgan, or perhaps the Public Library; but it was to the Met that she returned, as awed each time she climbed the marble steps as she had been, she always told her daughter, when she first came to New York City, a girl of eighteen in her freshman year at Ohio State, traveling with a group of girlfriends over spring break, to her own parent's noisy displeasure.

Now, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with this sentence, but I will say that when you get three or four of these in a row, it quickly become difficult to remember what was being talked about in the first place. One other potential complaint is that the book is fairly light on plotting. Each character has interesting experiences and conflicts, but there is never a strong sense that the novel is driving towards one climactic ending. In fact, the climax of the novel proves to be somewhat of a fluke that results as a matter of unfortunate chance. Nevertheless, I never felt that the book was boring, but Michael Crichton this ain't. On the whole, this was a very good book that I would recommend. View all my reviews >>

Questions for Discussion:

1. Ever read this book or anything else by the author?
2. Think you will read this book?