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meganmccuenwitt 's review for:
The Hopefuls
by Jennifer Close
In early August, I found myself in Washington DC on a quasi-family road trip/visit to some of my dear friends in DC. As I listened to my friend’s lives in DC, I became increasingly curious about their lives there. I wondered what it might be like to live in such a young, intellectual, and politically driven city. When I saw a review for this DC set book, I instantly decided to buy it for my drive home.
To be honest, when I started this book, I didn’t really like it. It reads more like a memoire than fiction. The narrator, Beth, does a lot more showing than she does telling. She recounts how she and her husband met, a product of 9/11, essentially- as well as her previous life in New York. All of this is before we can dig into the actual DC part of the plot. And even as the plot moves from backstory into the heart of the narrative, most of it is recounted as if it is memoire.
At first, this really annoyed me. I wanted to get to the drama, the heart of the story- that is, till I realized that this was the style of the writing. Once I accepted that, I was able to get absorbed in the story. Mostly, what sold me on this novel, was that I came to really care about the characters. I cared about Matt’s political ambitions. I understood Beth’s frustration. I was intrigued with Ash’s vivacious life. I was curious about Jimmy’s charisma. By the time the climax arrived, I was so wrapped up in the lives of each character that I truly wanted to find out how it all worked out.
One aspect of the book that both bothered and provoked thought from me, was the role of women. Both Beth and Ash sit back from their husbands’ careers, accessories to their political ambitions, but never diving into politics on their own. This really bothered me at first, Beth spent so much time complaining about Matt’s career and everything that it brought. I was frustrated with her for not thinking that his work was cool (He works for Obama!!), or for not having ambitions of her own. Beth is content to write for DC Love, a Buzzfeed-esque online magazine for DC. But at the same time, Beth judges Ash for working for part of a pyramid scheme, for diving into parenthood, for arguing with Jimmy. This made me ask a lot of interior questions: Is the author simply not empowering to women, having them always on the sidelines of their husband’s careers? Or is she trying to make us ask questions of women’s roles? Is it anti-feminist to have protagonists that are accessories to men’s careers? Or is it anti-feminist of me to judge Beth and Ash for not being ambitious enough? Shouldn’t women be able to whatever they want with their lives, even if it working for a pyramid scheme and raising children?
Another aspect of this novel that I thought was interesting was the role of memoiristic fiction. I talked a bit about this in my review of The Age of Miracles, but there is a trend in post-post-modernist literature to write in the style and with the authority of a memoire, despite it being a work of fiction. I think what made this novel most interesting, is that isn’t something a politicians wife would ever actual write a memoire about. No politican’s wife would write about how she was led to momentarily cheat on her husband with her best friend’s husband, but that is what makes the novel so intriguing: it’s essentially the memoire that you’ll never get to read.
To be honest, when I started this book, I didn’t really like it. It reads more like a memoire than fiction. The narrator, Beth, does a lot more showing than she does telling. She recounts how she and her husband met, a product of 9/11, essentially- as well as her previous life in New York. All of this is before we can dig into the actual DC part of the plot. And even as the plot moves from backstory into the heart of the narrative, most of it is recounted as if it is memoire.
At first, this really annoyed me. I wanted to get to the drama, the heart of the story- that is, till I realized that this was the style of the writing. Once I accepted that, I was able to get absorbed in the story. Mostly, what sold me on this novel, was that I came to really care about the characters. I cared about Matt’s political ambitions. I understood Beth’s frustration. I was intrigued with Ash’s vivacious life. I was curious about Jimmy’s charisma. By the time the climax arrived, I was so wrapped up in the lives of each character that I truly wanted to find out how it all worked out.
One aspect of the book that both bothered and provoked thought from me, was the role of women. Both Beth and Ash sit back from their husbands’ careers, accessories to their political ambitions, but never diving into politics on their own. This really bothered me at first, Beth spent so much time complaining about Matt’s career and everything that it brought. I was frustrated with her for not thinking that his work was cool (He works for Obama!!), or for not having ambitions of her own. Beth is content to write for DC Love, a Buzzfeed-esque online magazine for DC. But at the same time, Beth judges Ash for working for part of a pyramid scheme, for diving into parenthood, for arguing with Jimmy. This made me ask a lot of interior questions: Is the author simply not empowering to women, having them always on the sidelines of their husband’s careers? Or is she trying to make us ask questions of women’s roles? Is it anti-feminist to have protagonists that are accessories to men’s careers? Or is it anti-feminist of me to judge Beth and Ash for not being ambitious enough? Shouldn’t women be able to whatever they want with their lives, even if it working for a pyramid scheme and raising children?
Another aspect of this novel that I thought was interesting was the role of memoiristic fiction. I talked a bit about this in my review of The Age of Miracles, but there is a trend in post-post-modernist literature to write in the style and with the authority of a memoire, despite it being a work of fiction. I think what made this novel most interesting, is that isn’t something a politicians wife would ever actual write a memoire about. No politican’s wife would write about how she was led to momentarily cheat on her husband with her best friend’s husband, but that is what makes the novel so intriguing: it’s essentially the memoire that you’ll never get to read.