I am having a tough time getting through this book with sentences that are three lines long at minimum and interrupt themselves at least twice each!! The characters are also painfully self-absorbed and don't seem to do a whole lot outside of their seemingly endless internal monologues (interesting feat for a book written in the third person). I am about 1/4 of the way through - does it get better??

I wanted to care about this book because it was on critics' lists... but I have to say that, for me at least, it did not get better.

I found it hard to make it through. Every character is so ego-centric, it leaves little room for the reader to care.

I am about 1/4 of the way as well, but will have to soldier through because it is a bookclub choice-I am finding it a very difficult slog-as bad as watching "Real Housewives of New York City" or something of that ilk. If I say I wish the taxes weren't done so I'd have an excuse not to read, does that adequately convey the awfulness?

I stopped turning pages because I read the last one, but my opinion hasn't changed. I know that Messud wants us to think that all the characters are, in a way, the Emperor with no clothes-but this novel, masquerading as a good book, is completely naked.

Thanks for your comments. I'm only on p.37 and am wanting to stop with every word because it doesn't seem like it's getting better. I also wanted to like this book since it was a critic's pick, but oh well, I simply can't keep going... Thanks!

I'm glad I'm not the only one. I'm almost done, and it did pick up after the introduction of each character, but not much.

Those long sentences with the - and the () were tired. By the time I got through one sentence, I forgot what the main point was.

Oh, I'm SO glad that other people had a hard time getting through this book! I eventually just gave up, and wondered how in the world it ever won any sort of award.

Jennifer, your comment is exactly how I felt when I started reading this book. It absolutely made me crazy! I finally said, "Forget it". It's like constantly being interrupted in the middle of a sentence. Thanks for your comment and go find something else to read---quick!

Started this book sometime last year and I'm still going - on and off. Apparently, the emperor's children are very, very difficult to put up with and endure... but for some reason, i don't let myself give up. :)

I couldn't do it. Tried, thought maybe it was because I was a crabby 40-some year old Manhattan-ite wannabe with a bad attitude that made me dislike every single character so intensely. Then I tried to read another book by her The Last Life and I hated them, too! And then I read Disgrace, by J.M. Coetzee, whose narrator is also self-absorbed and pretty unappealing and I loved it!! It IS possible to make unappealing characters, well, appealing. But I'm not buyin' whatever Claire Messud is selling. (And Michiko Kakatani or whatever her name is LOVES her! Go figure.)

it seems!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I didn't have trouble getting through -- maybe I was secretly eager to finish and be done! Actually, I liked this book but I can't figure out why. I'm confused! The characters were ridiculously self-centered and had the most smug superior attitudes. I don't think I liked any of the characters. The dysfunctional Booty was the most interesting of the bunch.

Reminds me of Tom Robbins' - Jitterbug Perfume, a thesis desperately trying to come out through the characters inner dialogues...but awkwardly plunked into the story...hence exhausting, interrupted sentences leaving reader to go back and reread paragraph to tie the loose ends of the - - s. Many opportunities to slow down and tell the story were missed. All that said, I did enjoy it.

Phew! I am not alone! I think I will just return this one to the library and forget about it, rather than keep slogging through, waiting for something interesting to happen (so far nothing has!).