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What a pleasure this novel is—I couldn’t put it down—and how tricky it is to say why or anything about it, because to do so would rob other readers of the pleasure of discovery.
Since it happens immediately, it is safe to tell you that it begins with the execution of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, but where it goes from there is so unpredictable that it’s best to say nothing.
As a writer, I enjoyed the “inside” look at book publishing and book politics, but nonwriters will also relate: if you’ve ever suffered betrayal from someone you like/love/trust or if you were ever screwed at a job, you’ll have some kind of personal identification. The plot leaps in this story may seem extreme . . . unless you know some real history of extreme political actions. (Hint: Ian McEwan covered some of the same territory in Sweet Tooth, a book that has almost nothing else in common with this one, but having read it, I’m sure what seems far-fetched is not.* Add to that our current cultural divides in the U.S. over truth and fiction . . . Suffice it to say, facts and "alternative facts" have proven to be a matter of belief and are easily manipulated.)
I’m being a tease and can’t help it. I should just shut up and say, boy, was this book fun to read.
Thanks to HarperCollins Netgalley for the ARC. I can’t wait until there are tons of reviews. I’m so curious how others will react.
This is my fourth Francine Prose novel and my favorite.
______________
*7/11/21 Update
I found myself contemplating this book as well as McEwan's Sweet Tooth this morning, wondering if there was a true historical article to be mined from their similar plot choices, and I did some research. Which leads me to this correction: the plot leap, which I cannot divulge without spoiing it, is not based on historical truth, as far as I can tell.
That said, for the past 25 or so years, I've been learning the history I was never taught in my white suburban New York schools. This effort began when I landed in a job which threw me into indigenous rights communities about which I knew nothing. Feeling like an idiot, I began educating myself. This self-education has escalated since the Big Liar took office and falsehoods about everything from the seriousness of COVID to election results exploded the already roiling culture war. I've written many reviews of the books that have helped me in my efforts (too many to list here), so suffice it to say that although the plot twist in this and McEwan's novel are fiction, there is plenty of basis for Francine Prose's imagination.
Since it happens immediately, it is safe to tell you that it begins with the execution of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, but where it goes from there is so unpredictable that it’s best to say nothing.
As a writer, I enjoyed the “inside” look at book publishing and book politics, but nonwriters will also relate: if you’ve ever suffered betrayal from someone you like/love/trust or if you were ever screwed at a job, you’ll have some kind of personal identification. The plot leaps in this story may seem extreme . . . unless you know some real history of extreme political actions. (Hint: Ian McEwan covered some of the same territory in Sweet Tooth, a book that has almost nothing else in common with this one, but having read it, I’m sure what seems far-fetched is not.* Add to that our current cultural divides in the U.S. over truth and fiction . . . Suffice it to say, facts and "alternative facts" have proven to be a matter of belief and are easily manipulated.)
I’m being a tease and can’t help it. I should just shut up and say, boy, was this book fun to read.
Thanks to HarperCollins Netgalley for the ARC. I can’t wait until there are tons of reviews. I’m so curious how others will react.
This is my fourth Francine Prose novel and my favorite.
______________
*7/11/21 Update
I found myself contemplating this book as well as McEwan's Sweet Tooth this morning, wondering if there was a true historical article to be mined from their similar plot choices, and I did some research. Which leads me to this correction: the plot leap, which I cannot divulge without spoiing it, is not based on historical truth, as far as I can tell.
That said, for the past 25 or so years, I've been learning the history I was never taught in my white suburban New York schools. This effort began when I landed in a job which threw me into indigenous rights communities about which I knew nothing. Feeling like an idiot, I began educating myself. This self-education has escalated since the Big Liar took office and falsehoods about everything from the seriousness of COVID to election results exploded the already roiling culture war. I've written many reviews of the books that have helped me in my efforts (too many to list here), so suffice it to say that although the plot twist in this and McEwan's novel are fiction, there is plenty of basis for Francine Prose's imagination.