Scan barcode
yarnylibrarian's review against another edition
1.0
I didn't get very far into this before putting it down. The characters... I just couldn't care about them. The book is a little too heavy on dialogue, too. Smiley has written some greats but in my opinion, this isn't one of them. Didn't even finish it.
ginarae3's review against another edition
1.0
I couldn't finish. So bad. Sorry Jane Smiley, this one was just not for me. I don't want to have to listen to your narrator drone on and on about tickling scrotums (yech!) and how his "cock" was like some dildo in the Hustler store called the Big Classic. No thanks. If this sounds good though... well, this is the book for you. Randy 50-somethings going at it on top of a bunch of other Hollywood types talking about George W. Bush and the Oscars. Zzzz + *vomit* = no thanks.
livvalentine's review against another edition
4.0
It took me nearly two years to read this novel. It would have taken more had I not forced myself to push through the last two-thirds of the book the third time I got the book from the library. While the previous sentence might indicate that I didn't like the book, that's definitely not the case. While Ten Days in the Hills is a reimagining of a classic work, a humorous exploration of caricatures of Hollywood and sex, and a statement on the Iraq War, it is also EXTREMELY DENSE.
My biggest mistake was making this novel the first one I ever read by Jane Smiley. I probably should have started with A Thousand Acres or another earlier novel and worked my way up, which is what I would recommend for anyone thinking of picking up this book.
My biggest mistake was making this novel the first one I ever read by Jane Smiley. I probably should have started with A Thousand Acres or another earlier novel and worked my way up, which is what I would recommend for anyone thinking of picking up this book.
ajcousins's review against another edition
3.0
This was a good book, but it did not come close to my favorite Jane Smiley books (Moo, Horse Heaven, the really depressing one based on King Lear.) It's always interesting to see authors try to deal with incorporating 9/11 into their work and I haven't yet read a book where I didn't feel the author's own awkwardness coming through somehow (although maybe that's me projecting onto the reading?). Jane Smiley is an excellent writer, but this is a very 'talky' book (balanced by a fair amount of sex), which is something I can quite enjoy, eavesdropping on conversation after conversation. However, when I finished the book, I remember looking around for the nearest crappy adventure or spy novel where stuff just HAPPENS. I needed more plot...
By the way, Jane Smiley also suffers from the worst titles I have ever come across. She consistently has titles on her books that make me actively NOT want to read them, except for the decent title of this book. But don't let the rest of her titles turn you off: she's wonderful.
By the way, Jane Smiley also suffers from the worst titles I have ever come across. She consistently has titles on her books that make me actively NOT want to read them, except for the decent title of this book. But don't let the rest of her titles turn you off: she's wonderful.
psalmcat's review against another edition
3.0
Fail--too sprawling and apparently going nowhere I wanted to go.
msjenne's review against another edition
3.0
It wasn't exactly Moo (which I LOVE), but I still enjoyed it.
It was kind of like a Judith Krantz novel but with fancier writing and a political agenda. And don't get me wrong, I am a HUGE fan of Judith Krantz.
It was kind of like a Judith Krantz novel but with fancier writing and a political agenda. And don't get me wrong, I am a HUGE fan of Judith Krantz.
lbolesta's review against another edition
1.0
The most boring movie ever made combined with your worst family dinners.
owlmoose's review against another edition
2.0
This book is about ten people who gather for a ten-day house party in the Hollywood Hills in the early days of the Iraq War. There is a plot, but it takes a significant back seats to the characters, who spend most of ten days talking, having sex, talking while having sex, and doing very little else, at least not on stage. Smiley does some interesting things with shifting narrators, but not as interesting as I hoped it would be at first (it looked like each day would be narrated by a different member of the group, but the story doesn't follow through on that possibility, to my disappointment). All right, but Smiley has written much better.
cbking's review against another edition
2.0
Oof. I adore Jane Smiley and will read anything she writes, but this one was tough to get through. Although the book features her usual facility with multiple characters, so much of the dialogue was so unnecessary and overwrought. And while I appreciate play off of The Decameron, using the Iraq war as a pretext seemed incredibly forced. Reading the book at times felt like being trapped at a cocktail party with people who keep droning on. Plus the references to movie after movie were a bit much to take.
Had it been written by anyone but Smiley I would have given up in the first chapter, but there was enough of a spark in the characterizations to keep me a little engaged through the end.
Had it been written by anyone but Smiley I would have given up in the first chapter, but there was enough of a spark in the characterizations to keep me a little engaged through the end.
mssarahmorgan's review
2.0
I respect what she was trying to do here, and she did keep me reading all the way through, but I was never totally sold.