i don't think i want to rate this book. in my opinion it's not a good book, but there is something very powerful about it and i don't think a rating can do justice to the combination of these two facts -- the fact that it isn't a good book and the fact that there is something powerful about it.

it isn't a good book for all the reasons everyone who gave it one star brings up. what is powerful about it is that the whole book is a tribute to womanhood. someone told me yesterday that everyone loves women. it had never occurred to me, but of course it's true. womanhood is the locus of desirability. this book is a tribute to the desirability of women. this seems to me its great power. you can say that the desirability in the book revolves around music but that would be false; it revolves around women.

what is powerful, in my opinion, is that this point -- that women are the locus of desirability -- is made in a rather unself-conscious, unexamined way in what seems to me, all things considered, a rather superficial novel (sorry everyone). i wouldn't be surprised if ann patchett were not even aware that she wrote a book about the desirability of women (or she may know now because i can't possibly be the first person to notice this, but it wouldn't surprise me if she didn't know it when she wrote it).

the fantasy here is that there is a household of men and three women, two of whom are highly desirable, and nothing bad happens to these women. all the men fall in love with the women with a passion all of them find impossible to express, but the line into violation, abuse, violence, or even genderpower is never crossed. in fact, the line barely exists. it's mentioned two or three times in the book by the narrator, but it seems as if the characters, (view spoiler)[except maybe for carmen (hide spoiler)], cannot even conceive of it. all fifty-nine (or however many they are) men think and act as if they had made a solemn pact to forget that women are ever taken advantage of. no, that's not true, because then there would be some strain, some tension. so let me try again: it's as if the power of the music or the power of the captivity or the presence of the priest or something had inoculated these guys from the male drive to possession and control of women.

as i said, the novel does nothing to delve into the complexities of this, but it is still interesting to me to see how powerfully this fantasy of female desirability/safety is constructed. everything in the novel contributes to shoring it up.

the fantasy didn't tickle me (do i love my men and women locked in mortal combat?) but my guess is that what most people liked in this book, what drew them to it, is precisely this otherwordly, peaceful, tender scenario: two women worshiped by more than fifty guys who want nothing in return and would never dream of touching a hair on their heads.