THE EMPEROR'S CHILDREN- by claire messud

I couldn't wait to read this book. Ever since it first came out, just about a year ago, I've been waiting. It's great reviews and high ranking on reading lists convinced me that this would be a brilliant pick for bookclub. It finally came out in paperback at the end of June, and was therefore eligible as a bookclub pick- mine for the august meeting. In an effort to finish up another book, I put this off until a week before our meeting- maybe not such a great idea when it's 479 pages. However, I managed to finish it- mostly in one day- and was generally disappointed. In some cases, being so excited about a book (or anything, really) can lead to disappointment. There's only so many times that a book can be so great as to live up to its exaggerated hype. This may have been the case here, although I believe that I would have been disappointed even if I'd not been expecting greatness. The main characters were nothing but stereotypical- the homosexual male, Julius, cheated on his partner, did lines of cocaine, and came across as a drama queen; wealthy, beautiful Marina lacked ambition, lived with her parents, and carried an air of entitlement; and Danielle, who was initially the only character I liked, soon showed herself to be weak and trivial. Despite being laced with intricate wording and (sometimes) well written paragraphs, this book was much longer than necessary, and didn't accomplish much. Had Messud taken risks with her characters by presenting them as strong, somewhat normal (and thus, not stereotypical), people, the book could have told an entirely different story- a good one.
Netflix rating? 2/5