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A review by roarajane552
Winner of the National Book Award: A Novel of Fame, Honor, and Really Bad Weather by Jincy Willett
1.0
The thing is, I picked up this book because of the bold title. Who names their book "Winner of the National Book Award"? Surely someone who takes risks and has a wicked sense of humor. It sold me, it worked. And I do believe Willett is capable of those things. The problem is, this book reads like a first draft. It's a jumble of great ideas and clever punchlines that get lost in masturbatory prose, poorly developed characters and a weak framework.
The story focuses on twin sisters Dorcas and Abigail. A man comes between them, Abigail kills him, goes to jail awaiting trial, and Dorcas (a librarian) sits down to read her sister's newly published biography. Each chapter (mostly) begins with the opening paragraph of each chapter of the bio until Dorcas butts in and tells her own version of the events.
The biggest "uh-oh" moment I had as a reader was when I reached a particularly clever line spoken by Dorcas about "power and dignity." I even went to underline it. And then Willett spent the rest of the book patting herself on the back for being so clever. It was unbecoming, at best. It only highlighted to me how clever Willett thinks she is in general, and the constant comparisons of her characters to mythical heroes and beasts were insufferable by the end.
There is no discernible character arc for Dorcas or the intruding man or...any of the other characters except for Abigail. I felt no empathy whatsoever for any of the characters - none were endearing and none had qualities I could connect with. Dorcas, arguably the main character, consistently made unexplained choices that only made her unlikeable and unpredictable. This, if I had to choose one thing, is Willett's fatal flaw. There are countless side characters, NONE of which have anything to do with the plot. And you know Chekhov's gun rule? "One must not put a loaded rifle on the stage if no one is thinking of firing it." That one. There were about 18 figurative guns in this book, and none of them were fired.
Finally, in theory, the framework is clever, but in practice Dorcas gives away too much of the story of the murder for the reader to care about getting to the end. There's no surprise - no drama. Save yourself the time and don't bother picking this up.
The story focuses on twin sisters Dorcas and Abigail. A man comes between them, Abigail kills him, goes to jail awaiting trial, and Dorcas (a librarian) sits down to read her sister's newly published biography. Each chapter (mostly) begins with the opening paragraph of each chapter of the bio until Dorcas butts in and tells her own version of the events.
The biggest "uh-oh" moment I had as a reader was when I reached a particularly clever line spoken by Dorcas about "power and dignity." I even went to underline it. And then Willett spent the rest of the book patting herself on the back for being so clever. It was unbecoming, at best. It only highlighted to me how clever Willett thinks she is in general, and the constant comparisons of her characters to mythical heroes and beasts were insufferable by the end.
There is no discernible character arc for Dorcas or the intruding man or...any of the other characters except for Abigail. I felt no empathy whatsoever for any of the characters - none were endearing and none had qualities I could connect with. Dorcas, arguably the main character, consistently made unexplained choices that only made her unlikeable and unpredictable. This, if I had to choose one thing, is Willett's fatal flaw. There are countless side characters, NONE of which have anything to do with the plot. And you know Chekhov's gun rule? "One must not put a loaded rifle on the stage if no one is thinking of firing it." That one. There were about 18 figurative guns in this book, and none of them were fired.
Finally, in theory, the framework is clever, but in practice Dorcas gives away too much of the story of the murder for the reader to care about getting to the end. There's no surprise - no drama. Save yourself the time and don't bother picking this up.