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Title details for The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud - Wait list

The Emperor's Children

by Claire Messud
Suzanne Toren
Audiobook
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Wait time: About 2 weeks
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0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 2 weeks
In Manhattan, just after the century's turn, three thirty-year-old friends, Danielle, Marina and Julius, are seeking their fortunes. But the arrival of Marina's young cousin Bootie fresh from the provinces and keen, too, to make his mark forces them to confront their own desires and expectations. The Emperor's Children is a sweeping portrait of one of the most fascinating cities in the world, and a haunting illustration of how the events of a single day can change everything, for ever. 'Brilliant ...a masterpiece' Independent on Sunday 'Intelligent and unsparing ...The Emperor's Children is likely to be one of the most talked-about novels of the autumn ...Buy two copies; give one to a friend' The Economist 'Messud's prose is a timely and intensely pleasurable reminder of the possibilities of the English language. To use the word clarity about her style dense, chaste, luminously intelligent is to return the word to its origins; this is style as illumination, shining a searching yet sympathetic light on the minds and inner worlds of her characters, and as a radiant mode of moral inquiry' The Times 'As large-hearted as it is ambitious, this is a novel that combines the old-fashioned art of storytelling with a clear-eyed view of the modern world' Sunday Times

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    August 4, 2006

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781449896416
      • File size: 538579 KB
      • Duration: 18:42:02

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      One of the criticisms sometimes heard of audiobooks is that they filter a piece of writing through a third party--the narrator--thereby influencing the reader's own pure reaction to the book. That complaint comes to mind here, despite what is clearly an expert, fiercely intelligent narration by Suzanne Toren. From the beginning, she captures the pomposity and hypocrisy of the central character, Murray Thwaite, a liberal intellectual journalist in New York in the period before and after 9/11. But, whereas Messud's brilliant novel about the privileged, unfulfilled young of Manhattan reveals Thwaite's essential negative qualities OVER TIME, Toren's dead-on characterization nails his essence from his very first appearance--depriving the reader's own sense of discovery. This performance is a useful reminder that narrators are more than that. They are guides. M.O. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from May 8, 2006
      Marina Thwaite, Danielle Minkoff and Julian Clarke were buddies at Brown, certain that they would soon do something important in the world. But as all near 30, Danielle is struggling as a TV documentary maker, and Julius is barely surviving financially as a freelance critic. Marina, the startlingly beautiful daughter of celebrated social activist, journalist and hob-nobber Murray Thwaite, is living with her parents on the Upper West Side, unable to finish her book—titled The Emperor's Children Have No Clothes
      (on how changing fashions in children's clothes mirror changes in society). Two arrivals upset the group stasis: Ludovic, a fiercely ambitious Aussie who woos Marina to gain entrée into society (meanwhile planning to destroy Murray's reputation), and Murray's nephew, Frederick "Bootie" Tubb, an immature, idealistic college dropout and autodidact who is determined to live the life of a New York intellectual. The group orbits around the post–September 11 city with disconcerting entitlement—and around Murray, who is, in a sense, the emperor. Messud, in her fourth novel, remains wickedly observant of pretensions—intellectual, sexual, class and gender. Her writing is so fluid, and her plot so cleverly constructed, that events seem inevitable, yet the narrative is ultimately surprising and masterful as a contemporary comedy of manners. 100,00 announced first printing; author tour.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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