Sign in with FacebookJonna Rubin's Reviews > The Double Bind
The Double Bind
by Chris Bohjalian (Goodreads Author)
by Chris Bohjalian (Goodreads Author)
Offensively bad. Poorly written and/or poorly edited -- likely both -- oh dear crap, it was awful. Overwritten. Stupid. Carelessly written. Used the word "dowager" at least five hundred times -- so much that I laughed out loud and wished I'd made a drinking game of it. And it was UNNECESSARY. Who edited this? Who allowed "epoxied" to stand in for "glued" three times on three consecutive pages in totally needless contexts? Who greenlighted "dowager" so many damn times? Who decided to refer to Laurel as "the social worker" in such a manner that it became absurdly confusing as to who THE HELL he was referring to?
No, really: I want to know who edited this. Has Chris Bohjalian reached such great heights that he doesn't NEED an editor? Because someone should tell him that he does. Someone should also have told him that he wrote better books than this in the past, and that maybe he should have trashed it and started over again at the drawing board.
The plot -- if you can call it that -- was so incredibly inane, the character(s) so unlikable, that I honestly didn't give a rip about what was happening. I don't even care enough to summarize it for you, because it would be laughable, and explains why the book description didn't REMOTELY match what the story was about. Like, at all.
I slogged forward because I felt an obligation to make it through to the "twist" -- which I figured out at a stupidly early time, such was the sad transparency of what he'd written -- the whole time thinking, this better be one hell of a twist (perhaps one that did my laundry for me and served me crackers and cheese in bed) for me to feel AT ALL decent about having suffered through this piece of utter crap. (DOWAGER. JESUS CHRIST HE SAID IT A THOUSAND TIMES. EPOXIED. I EPOXIED MY FIST TO MY FACE OUT OF FRUSTRATION ABOUT THE DOWAGER USAGE. HOW IS THAT, CHRIS? SOUND GOOD? BECAUSE I DID.)
I am so distraught that I slogged through this that I ... I can't even articulate it without being a jerk, as I just finished it.
RUN. RUN AWAY. Awful. Awful awful awful.
No, really: I want to know who edited this. Has Chris Bohjalian reached such great heights that he doesn't NEED an editor? Because someone should tell him that he does. Someone should also have told him that he wrote better books than this in the past, and that maybe he should have trashed it and started over again at the drawing board.
The plot -- if you can call it that -- was so incredibly inane, the character(s) so unlikable, that I honestly didn't give a rip about what was happening. I don't even care enough to summarize it for you, because it would be laughable, and explains why the book description didn't REMOTELY match what the story was about. Like, at all.
I slogged forward because I felt an obligation to make it through to the "twist" -- which I figured out at a stupidly early time, such was the sad transparency of what he'd written -- the whole time thinking, this better be one hell of a twist (perhaps one that did my laundry for me and served me crackers and cheese in bed) for me to feel AT ALL decent about having suffered through this piece of utter crap. (DOWAGER. JESUS CHRIST HE SAID IT A THOUSAND TIMES. EPOXIED. I EPOXIED MY FIST TO MY FACE OUT OF FRUSTRATION ABOUT THE DOWAGER USAGE. HOW IS THAT, CHRIS? SOUND GOOD? BECAUSE I DID.)
I am so distraught that I slogged through this that I ... I can't even articulate it without being a jerk, as I just finished it.
RUN. RUN AWAY. Awful. Awful awful awful.
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Carolyn
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May 19, 2008 04:04pm
Yes yes yes yes yes!!! I absolutely agree with you. It has been months since I read this awful book, but even now as I browse the shelves at the library and see this one I have a physical reaction to it (no, not projectile vomiting, thank goodness). I give a tiny shudder at the memory of the horror of it all, and the realization that I'll never get those hours back.
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Thank you. I thought that there was something wrong with me because I hated the book so much, I groaned out loud on a crowded airplane. There is no excuse for what he did with the English language.
You are all totally right. Epoxied indeed. Epoxied dowagers make it impossible for me to believe he has written better books. This is the first and probably only one I've read of his. Jonniker nails it. Explains why it is a little bit entrancing at various times in various ways until all of a sudden it just collapses into a messy pudding, a cheap, old con-trick.
Totally agree! I thought the book was scattered and repetitive. I absolutely hated the ending, it was rushed and wasn't in keeping with the rest of the story. Another word he used twice was "infirm" and it's usage completely bothered me. Two giant thumbs down!!I usually buy my books used and for some strange reason, I thought it would be okay to purchase this one at full price at a local book chain. GAHH What a waste!
I read your review prior to reading the book so I was on the look-out for the examples mentioned. Epoxied was used twice, separate chapters. I was put off by it's usage the second time because it was attributed to an 11 year old's thoughts. Not a word that an 11 year old would use, especially in regards to popcorn kernels stuck on her sister's mouth. I picked up on dowager immediately and found it annoying and repetitive. But it was actually the usage of the phrase "the social worker" that cleared it all up, at least for me. It's not the author of the Double Bind that needs an editor, it's the author of the story being told in the Double Bind. I'm trying to protect the ending. The usage of those repetitive and at times jarring phrases are used on purpose. They are actually a clue. An 11 year old probably won't use the word epoxied... but Laurel used that word when meeting Pamela's lawyer. Chris Bohjalian is actually quite clever and it's unfortunate that so many people missed the point of his word choices.
Badly Drawn Girl, I'm willing to go with you on this, as that might be a good clue. But, errr, the twist wasn't that hard to figure out, so it was an unnecessary and jarring and still, to me, offensive. (The ending, that is.)
