The Emperor’s Children (1)

Title: The Emperor’s Children
Author: Claire Messud
Genre: Fiction
I can’t decide whether I’m pleased that this was the first book I read in 2007 or not. I enjoyed reading the book but I do not like the book. Does that make sense? For something so decidedly high brow it employed far too many soap opera plot lines for my taste. The soap opera plot lines were very, very well written but they were still not what I was wanting in this book. I expected a deeper look into the main characters instead of just an acknowledgment of their faults by other characters, and at least some resolution to the major fallout that was hinted at throughout, instead of bringing it to the breaking point and then letting it drift off. The author is clearly a brilliant writer, I found her prose very engaging and I read the 430 page book quite quickly. I just wish she’d trimmed 75 pages and left the soap opera stuff to All My Children.