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schopflin's review
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I started this book wondering why I have such trouble with Charlotte Mendelson's books. So well-written! Such clever observations! And then the frustratingly passive characters then put themselves into excruciating situations and I sat there wincing. I would still recommend this book, but you may need a strong stomach for social embarrassment.
hatto's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
neuroak's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
margaret21's review against another edition
3.0
I struggled at first to get into this book. So many characters, all equally important as the story unfolds. All so flawed. All so Jewish. That isn’t a criticism. Just an observation that understanding the Rubin family (and all the characters are family members) means getting to grips a bit with what it means to be Jewish too.
I persisted. It was worth it.
The lives of every family member begin to unravel as son Leo’s life very publicly does, the day he leaves his wife-to-be some 4 minutes before they take their vows. It turns out that he isn’t the only one in inner turmoil.
By turns funny, touching and embarrassing, I was engaged with every character, despite their many and obvious flaws, long before the conclusion of the book.
I persisted. It was worth it.
The lives of every family member begin to unravel as son Leo’s life very publicly does, the day he leaves his wife-to-be some 4 minutes before they take their vows. It turns out that he isn’t the only one in inner turmoil.
By turns funny, touching and embarrassing, I was engaged with every character, despite their many and obvious flaws, long before the conclusion of the book.
citrusboombox's review against another edition
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
em_sea's review against another edition
dumped by my partner and had to leave my home and library books
sophiewilliams's review against another edition
3.0
Enjoyable look at what happens whjem a family fails to live up to expectations
alisbooknook's review against another edition
4.0
This book got me back into reading after about 5 years of not doing so. Fair to say it was pretty good. The book is based around a Jewish family living in London called the Rubin family. The mother, Claudia, is a well known rabbi who's always wanting to keep appearances up yet struggling to do so. I won't give too much away, but there's drama, infidelity and some moments that leave you going 'what?!'. Although a lot of the book always circles back to Claudia, I feel as though her son Leo and daughter Frances are also main characters. Alongside her husband Norman whom is probably one of my least favourite characters. Frances seems to struggle/have struggled with OCD and not loving the perfect family married life. Leos struggle is with love, which is shown very early on in the book. I think Frances may be my favourite character and also the best written in my opinion. She's quite complex at times but I think she was left off on a good note. Claudia has two other children but I wouldn't say the spotlights really on them. As far as endings go, I think it was quite good, although I highly doubt there will be a sequel to this book, not only because this was released in 2007, but also because the ending didn't leave much room for one. Which I think is a good thing. There doesn't need to be another book. Although you are left with some questions, it's not enough to require answering. You get to imagine where everyones lives are at now and I enjoy that. My only criticism is that in certain points it could feel like it was dragging on. But I think that happens with most books. There's a lot of jewish terms that I didn't understand (I'm not Jewish) but there's a glossary in the back which is great. All in all, I definitely think it's a good read. Although it took me a while, for someone that reads frequently I think you could get through it quite quickly. Definitely give it a go!
derconnor's review against another edition
2.0
What Charlotte Mendelson achieves with her great skill of writing, she loses through her storytelling. I struggled with When We Were Bad to begin with, because I just found it so confusing. With so many different characters being initially thrown at you, I had a real difficulty in remembering who was who. As soon as I was around 100 pages in, I had managed to achieve a firm grasp over who all the characters were, but introducing so many right from the beginning made it difficult for me to divulge in.
About a Jewish family, finding their devotion to each other increasingly difficult, the novel is a family-in-crisis kind of tale. It is written very well, and sentences flow into images without many problems, but as I stated before it's the storytelling that makes it so frustrating.
A family who values truth, so infected by its own hypocrisy that the frustration boils inside you as you want to scream at the world and ask people why they don't just talk to each other: this was very well portrayed. Each family member's pretty, (and generally inconsequential) dirty little secrets gradually erode the family's 'firm' structure, not because of its content but because of the fact that they are kept secrets. The character of Jonathan is another example of Mendelson's literary talent; he is supposed to be hopelessly boring, and he is certainly viewed that way. The structure of his vocabulary is ingeniously designed to allude to that conclusion. He is the definition of a Daily Mail reader.
One point near the end of the book, there was a bit I didn't quite understand (even though it was a major part of the climax), but I understand its inclusion did make sense as it was deeply rooted in the character shown by previous developments.
The book has a helpful glossary full of Jewish words that are used in the novel in order to help readers unfamiliar with such terms reach a better understanding of the character's lives, while still using realism as a tool. Annoyingly there were a few gaps in this glossary, and as I would turn to the back of the book to find out what secrets this foreign-looking word was hiding, I would swiftly become bitterly disappointed, resorting to the distractions of my laptop instead. If you're going to have a glossary, why wouldn't you be thorough?
Although I may not have liked this book much, I respect Charlotte Mendelson's talent as a writer, but her skill of literature is not as much to my taste.
About a Jewish family, finding their devotion to each other increasingly difficult, the novel is a family-in-crisis kind of tale. It is written very well, and sentences flow into images without many problems, but as I stated before it's the storytelling that makes it so frustrating.
A family who values truth, so infected by its own hypocrisy that the frustration boils inside you as you want to scream at the world and ask people why they don't just talk to each other: this was very well portrayed. Each family member's pretty, (and generally inconsequential) dirty little secrets gradually erode the family's 'firm' structure, not because of its content but because of the fact that they are kept secrets. The character of Jonathan is another example of Mendelson's literary talent; he is supposed to be hopelessly boring, and he is certainly viewed that way. The structure of his vocabulary is ingeniously designed to allude to that conclusion. He is the definition of a Daily Mail reader.
One point near the end of the book, there was a bit I didn't quite understand (even though it was a major part of the climax), but I understand its inclusion did make sense as it was deeply rooted in the character shown by previous developments.
The book has a helpful glossary full of Jewish words that are used in the novel in order to help readers unfamiliar with such terms reach a better understanding of the character's lives, while still using realism as a tool. Annoyingly there were a few gaps in this glossary, and as I would turn to the back of the book to find out what secrets this foreign-looking word was hiding, I would swiftly become bitterly disappointed, resorting to the distractions of my laptop instead. If you're going to have a glossary, why wouldn't you be thorough?
Although I may not have liked this book much, I respect Charlotte Mendelson's talent as a writer, but her skill of literature is not as much to my taste.
nocto's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this. A rambling kind of family saga in some ways, but the sort that cover a lot of family in a short space of time rather than sort that transcend generations. The central characters are the members of a London Jewish family - Claudia, successful mother, and Norman, unsucessful father, and their four grown up children (for various values of "grown up").
I found the characters all pretty believable, often they are "larger than life" in the way that real people really are. What I really liked was that the ending of the book didn't wrap everything up neatly (because frankly I wouldn't have believed that - there were characters here who weren't going to see the error of their ways) and that the author didn't make it clear who she thought was right and who was wrong. (My take would be that I loved Frances, liked Norman and could see where Leo was coming from; totally disliked Claudia and the two younger children were hideous.) I thought it was all going to end in either a big morality tale finish or a huge party where they all lived happily ever after. Neither happened I'm glad to say.
I'll certainly watch out for more by Mendelson.