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laila4343's review
4.0
Well, that was a nice surprise, a random off-the-shelf library pick that turned out well. If you're a fan of Anita Brookner or Anne Tyler I'd say you'd like this. If you prefer a lot of "action" then leave it on the shelf.
meagan_louise's review
1.0
I have read many books were I didn't really like it, but was still able to appreciate it and finish it. This was different because I just didn't like it at all. (I did finish it though)
I feel like the whole book should be read with melancholy music in the background...imagine it and that's how the whole book is like...except a thousand times more pretentious. The main character of Elizabeth lives her whole life with herself as the tortured female lead in her own mental drama. She manipulates the people at work and in her personal life. She is an editor-in-chief at a vanity press and comes to enjoy the manipulation she doles out to people who believe her when she says their book is the stuff of great literary fiction.
The love story between her and aspiring author Tupper Daniels is crap. They hit all the points but there is no sincerity on either end...I think that's the way it's supposed to be for her...but I don't know if it was purposeful for him. Flat out, I didn't believe it from the beginning. I kept expecting something to be reveled that would explain everything, and it never came. I think what was supposed to pass as an explanation was just plain confusing...like I am supposed to read between the lines, but they criss cross.
In the end I thought this novel was pretentious, poorly executed, and way too reliant on melodrama.
I feel like the whole book should be read with melancholy music in the background...imagine it and that's how the whole book is like...except a thousand times more pretentious. The main character of Elizabeth lives her whole life with herself as the tortured female lead in her own mental drama. She manipulates the people at work and in her personal life. She is an editor-in-chief at a vanity press and comes to enjoy the manipulation she doles out to people who believe her when she says their book is the stuff of great literary fiction.
The love story between her and aspiring author Tupper Daniels is crap. They hit all the points but there is no sincerity on either end...I think that's the way it's supposed to be for her...but I don't know if it was purposeful for him. Flat out, I didn't believe it from the beginning. I kept expecting something to be reveled that would explain everything, and it never came. I think what was supposed to pass as an explanation was just plain confusing...like I am supposed to read between the lines, but they criss cross.
In the end I thought this novel was pretentious, poorly executed, and way too reliant on melodrama.
reads_avec_chats's review
2.0
I have read a few other Alice McDermott novels with admiration, but if A Bigamist's Daughter had been my introduction, I would have stopped reading her after this. I can see suggestions in this book of the writer that she becomes, even by her second novel, but in this book she does not seem to have a hold on her talent yet. It just doesn't come together. We spend too much time with secondary characters who drop away; there are too many scenes that don't seem to have much bearing on the whole. We never really get to know any of the characters. And though it's clear that McDermott consciously chose her points of view, I found her switching between third and first person to be disruptive. As one character says, "...some authors just take a while to get a following....some need to develop a momentum." This seems to be the case with Alice McDermott. But she does develop a "momentum" and her talent comes to the fore in her other books.
anarag's review
4.0
An intricately woven tale, set in New York in the early 80s (some things seem quaint by now) in which the "editor" of a vanity press encounters an author whose unfinished novel disturbingly touches upon her own, hidden, life. McDermott switches between the present day and memories of her character's girlhood and relationship with her mother, slowly peeling away the layers to reveal unexpected discoveries.
mikolee's review
1.0
Could not get into this book about a woman who works at a vanity press co in Nyc. She was such an unlikeable character. I couldn’t even finish it.
athenalindia's review
2.0
I've read a few later Alice McDermott books, ones that centre more around Irish-American families, and while I can't say I adored them, they certainly struck me more than this book, one of her first, if not her very first, novels. A Bigamist's Daughter, well, I just can't quite figure out what this book is supposed to be about, or even how it is about it. It's fairly mediocre.
Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.
In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook
Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.
In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook
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