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Laura and Charlie Rider have been married for twelve years. They share their nursery business in rural Wisconsin, their love for their animals, and their zeal for storytelling. Although Charlie's enthusiasm in the bedroom has worn Laura out, although she no longer sleeps with him, they are happy enough going along in their routine. Jenna Faroli is the host of a popular radio show, and in Laura's mind is "the single most famous person in the Town of Dover." When Jenna happens to cross Charlie's path one day, and they begin an e-mail correspondence, Laura cannot resist using Charlie to try out her new writing skills. Together, Laura and Charlie craft florid, strangely intimate messages that entice Jenna in an unexpected way. The "project" quickly spins out of control. The lines between Laura's words and Charlie's feelings are blurred and complicated, Jenna is transformed in ways that deeply disturb her, and Laura is transformed in her mind's eye into an artist. The transformations are hilarious and poignant, and for Laura Rider, beyond her wildest expectations.… (more)
User reviews
I found it a bit hard to get through the first couple of chapters, but eventually the story started to grow on me. I especially liked reading the e-mails between the supposed-Charlie and Jenna. And, although Laura was mischievous, conniving and manipulative (at times) - she was also quite funny and I really ended up liking her.
Overall, I thought this story was fun, and Ms. Hamilton’s writing was witty and smart.
This book has not been released yet, it comes out on April 9, 2009.
I loved the packaging of this little
I did enjoy the book, and more so after the first twenty pages. At first it was almost too dreamy too be enjoyable, but it eventually moved along into an interesting look at the characters’ motivations. Each was scheming to reach his or her objective, and I do not believe anyone actually did.
I read this quickly, as it was entertaining and the characters felt real. What is missing, for me, is a little more depth: there is a great deal of grief in all of the characters, but which I felt somewhat distanced from. I think the form and content are well-married, though, and Jane Hamilton's writing is refreshing and witty. It appears to be an exploration about the mysteries of motivation, of people who do not always behave in ways that are predictable to themselves and others. It raises quite a few questions about human nature, especially at mid-life, especially in regards to love, sex and marriage.
I'll read more by her.
Not sure what Jane Hamilton was trying to accomplish with this novel - an exploration of what love really is? Does it have to be fire and passion and heartache or can there be "conscious romance" that avoids all the mess? But it ends up abruptly switching focus from Charlie and Jenna back to Laura and tries to make a statement about authorship instead.
This book may just be over my head, like many of the literary references it contains!
The only good thing about this book is the cover.
Me: Did I just read the same book?
Laura Rider's Masterpiece is a
I love Jane Hamilton's novels, but one of my favorite things about her novels is that it's always easy to relate to the characters, regardless of their background. Laura Rider's Masterpiece started off well. I was instantly intrigued with Laura's wit and honesty as a narrator. Her description of small-town life was comedic and spot-on. As the narrative shifted to Jenna as the narrator, I again found myself mesmerized by her experiences and perspective.
As the novel wore on (and it's hard to say it wore on at all, given it's only 214 pages), it became more satirical, which made the characters less accessible. I was torn between feeling sorry for them and not caring about how things turned out. For such a great start, I did not enjoy the second half of the book. The setup was more enjoyable than the fulfillment. I really wanted to like this novel, and I loved the first half of it, but ultimately, it was underwhelming.
Laura Rider is a successful businesswoman who, with her husband, Charlie, runs a greenhouse and
Although she reads little and has written little besides her business newsletter, Laura yearns to become a writer of romances. Stuck for a plot, she decides to orchestrate a real-life romance featuring her unassuming husband.
One day Charlie happens by accident to meet Jenna Faroli, host of a popular radio show that Laura listens to regularly. When she hears about this meeting, Laura sees her chance to create a romantic plot. She encourages Charlie to see Jenna again and to maintain an e-mail correspondence, with Laura writing most of Charlie's e-mails for him.
The romance turns hot. Jenna's husband remains in the dark, while Charlie's wife manipulates events to thicken her plot.
Laura is a strange character, intelligent yet at the same time mindless and heartless. When the affair, thanks to her, becomes a public scandal, she simply revels in the story she has created. She has her masterpiece, never mind the pain it has caused others.
Jane Hamilton obviously had fun writing this short 2009 novel, and her readers will have fun reading it, though they may find themselves a bit disturbed, as well.
Foremost among the book's sins is that Hamilton seems to have no idea how people talk. Consider the first conversation in the book, between Laura and Jenna, which is little more than a series of lengthy non sequiturs, with each woman rambling along some weird tangent. All the characters in the book, to be sure, speak as if reciting some carefully-constructed, previously-written dissertation.
Even aside from the awkwardness of their dialogue, Hamilton's characters are insufferable boors -- pretentious, yet somehow still ignorant. They seem to exist in a state where their every utterance could be a precursor to some grand personal revelation. They orate from a limited sphere of cultural references, as if they'd selected ten items from some list of topics about which learned people think and discuss, and so must constantly return and rereference Faulkner or the Clintons.
To her credit, Hamilton does manage to glimpse some of the goofiness to which otherwise reasonable people might succumb in the throes of new love or obsession, but buried beneath the weight of her nauseatingly florid prose, the only hope that a reader can have for Laura Rider's Masterpiece is that it will end.
Jenna is smart and knowledgeable and elitist. She believes that being a
“Maybe the whole point of love was to break each other so that from those shattered selves you could build a better, a sturdier self, so that you could go forward - not had in hand but a comfortable arm’s length apart. Ideally, if both parties were conscious in the romance, Every Man and Every Woman would enter the relationship with arms spread wide open, ready for the adventure of being broken to pieces and reassembled.”