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Laura Rider's Masterpiece
Laura and Charlie Rider have been married for twelve years. They share their nursery business in rural Wisconsin, their love for their animals, and their zeal for storytelling. Although Charlie's enthusiasm in the bedroom has worn Laura out, although she no longer sleeps with him, they are happy enough going along in their routine.
Jenna Faroli is the host of a popular radio show, and in Laura's mind is "the single most famous person in the Town of Dover." When Jenna happens to cross Charlie's path one day, and they begin an e-mail correspondence, Laura cannot resist using Charlie to try out her new writing skills. Together, Laura and Charlie craft florid, strangely intimate messages that entice Jenna in an unexpected way. The "project" quickly spins out of control. The lines between Laura's words and Charlie's feelings are blurred and complicated, Jenna is transformed in ways that deeply disturb her, and Laura is transformed in her mind's eye into an artist. The transformations are hilarious and poignant, and for Laura Rider, beyond her wildest expectations.
Jenna Faroli is the host of a popular radio show, and in Laura's mind is "the single most famous person in the Town of Dover." When Jenna happens to cross Charlie's path one day, and they begin an e-mail correspondence, Laura cannot resist using Charlie to try out her new writing skills. Together, Laura and Charlie craft florid, strangely intimate messages that entice Jenna in an unexpected way. The "project" quickly spins out of control. The lines between Laura's words and Charlie's feelings are blurred and complicated, Jenna is transformed in ways that deeply disturb her, and Laura is transformed in her mind's eye into an artist. The transformations are hilarious and poignant, and for Laura Rider, beyond her wildest expectations.
240 pages, Paperback
First published February 25, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 337 reviews
February 18, 2009
A fairly dull little sex comedy, in which wannabe romance novelist Laura Rider sorta kinda engineers an affair between her husband, Charlie, and Jenna Faroli, a local radio personality. Despite the possibility of some Cyrano-like shenanigans (Laura writes or co-writes many of Charlie's amorous emails to Jenna), the relationships between all three parties (um, and Jenna's husband, I suppose) remain pretty tame. Barely a thing is made of Laura's obvious attraction--whether sexual or just worshipful--to Jenna. And all the characters remain unlikeable and even vaguely unpleasant; there are only two types of people in the world, Hamilton seems to think: unbearably pretentious sophisticate snobs (Jenna, hubby, and friends--one a poet laureate, no less!) or uncultured hicks who believe in alien abduction and think they know literature if they've seen the Keira Knightley Pride and Prejudice (Charlie and Laura). There's the occasional flash of wit, but there are also a number of so-bizarre-it-throws-you similes--Charlie finds Jenna attractive because she's "a woman like a bowl of dough"? Huh? I'll go with the obvious joke: this certainly isn't Jane Hamilton's masterpiece.
September 10, 2009
Laura Rider’s Masterpiece is the story of Laura, an aspiring writer, her affable and henpecked husband, Charlie, and the object of their affection, local radio personality Janna Faroli. The book is described as a “full-blown comedy”, but the humor is of the driest, darkest variety. The story reads like a doomed love affair, in that we meet the three main characters and see them as shining with potential, but as they are revealed in their entirety, we see that they are in fact boring, tawdry, clueless, pretentious and just plain thoughtless individuals. At the end, there is none of the initial infatuation and plenty of “I can’t wait to be done with you” disgust. I didn’t find the comedy in watching these three idiots (yes, I said it) tear apart their lives, but I don’t laugh when I drive by a train wreck either. I appreciated Jane Hamilton’s writing style much more in The Book of Ruth; Ruth is at least noble in her suffering. I picked this one up on a whim at the library, and had hopes that it would combine Jane Hamilton’s beautiful writing with a good laugh- not so.
February 1, 2009
Jane Hamilton, author of the emotionally wrenching "A Map of the World" and "The Book of Ruth", is trying her hand at humor this spring in this tale of two marriages and four profoundly disassociated people.
Laura and Charlie Rider are childless and the proprietors of a grand and successful plant nursery where Laura does the designs and Charlie does the hard work (including the quiet work of fixing Laura's designs). Laura is bold, bright, ambitious, completely self
centered and just as completely uninterested in Charlie anymore. Charlie is an immature, simple, pleasant guy who prides himself mostly for being great in bed despite most of the town being convinced he's gay. They run the business together and make up stories about their 4 cats to give them something to talk about with each other.
Jenna Faroli is the town celebrity, hosting a syndicated radio talk show that brings in all the stars, hot authors and politicos. She is married to Frank who is a judge, Rhodes Scholar and budding amateur chef who is 15 years her senior and still in love with his college sweetheart who married his best friend. Jenna and Frank's marriage has been basically passionless since the complicated birth of their daughter 20-some years ago (an emotionally troubled and clingy young woman prone to multiple frantic calls to her mother every day). Their's is a marriage of intellects more than anything.
Things change when Charlie and Jenna meet by accident just about the time that Laura decides that she wants to write romance novels. Trying to figure out a plot, she begins to experiment on Charlie and Jenna, with Charlie's knowledge, establishing an email relationship between the two (that she partially ghost writes) until an actual affair begins. That's when things begin to get out of control for everybody.
This is a darkly hilarious novel that I would categorized as "suburban Machiavellian chic lit with a slight literary twist". It's also an extremely quick read--I knocked it out in a matter of a few hours. While it doesn't resonate like Hamilton's previous work,
it's definitely worth the read for it's creativity and wicked humor.
Laura and Charlie Rider are childless and the proprietors of a grand and successful plant nursery where Laura does the designs and Charlie does the hard work (including the quiet work of fixing Laura's designs). Laura is bold, bright, ambitious, completely self
centered and just as completely uninterested in Charlie anymore. Charlie is an immature, simple, pleasant guy who prides himself mostly for being great in bed despite most of the town being convinced he's gay. They run the business together and make up stories about their 4 cats to give them something to talk about with each other.
Jenna Faroli is the town celebrity, hosting a syndicated radio talk show that brings in all the stars, hot authors and politicos. She is married to Frank who is a judge, Rhodes Scholar and budding amateur chef who is 15 years her senior and still in love with his college sweetheart who married his best friend. Jenna and Frank's marriage has been basically passionless since the complicated birth of their daughter 20-some years ago (an emotionally troubled and clingy young woman prone to multiple frantic calls to her mother every day). Their's is a marriage of intellects more than anything.
Things change when Charlie and Jenna meet by accident just about the time that Laura decides that she wants to write romance novels. Trying to figure out a plot, she begins to experiment on Charlie and Jenna, with Charlie's knowledge, establishing an email relationship between the two (that she partially ghost writes) until an actual affair begins. That's when things begin to get out of control for everybody.
This is a darkly hilarious novel that I would categorized as "suburban Machiavellian chic lit with a slight literary twist". It's also an extremely quick read--I knocked it out in a matter of a few hours. While it doesn't resonate like Hamilton's previous work,
it's definitely worth the read for it's creativity and wicked humor.
April 18, 2009
I could not get into this book even after a couple of chapters. I actually returned it to the bookstore.
August 12, 2009
Jane Hamilton's latest novel has a delightful premise. Laura and Charlie Rider own a Midwestern landscape business, for which Laura writes a newsletter. Charlie is a fantastic lover, a man whose equal doses of femininity and masculinity make his understanding of women profound. Laura suffers from “sexual fatigue,” and after twelve years of marriage, she has decided to stop sleeping with Charlie.
Jenna Faroli, the host of Milwaukee Public Radio's Jenna Faroli Show, has recently moved to Laura and Charlie's town of Hartley. Laura has always greatly admired Jenna. In fact, she has told Charlie that Jenna has “the biggest cranium on the planet.” When Laura meets Jenna at the Hartley Garden Club, she is awe struck, and decides Jenna would be a good person for Charlie to befriend. Laura has always dreamed of writing a novel, and she imagines that if she could bring Charlie and Jenna together, she would have real-life inspiration for the characters in her novel, and at the same time, she would be relieved of the sexual guilt she carries for not sleeping with her very sexual husband.
Hamilton's premise is intriguing, her characters quirky, and the setting is charming. But Laura Rider's Masterpiece seems to barely skim the surface of the complications that might arise from such an unusual triangle. Hamilton uses an omniscient narrator who follows all three main characters. This device might have been more successful had Hamilton not written such a brief novel. Coming in at merely 214 pages, the book doesn't quite give us the chance to know any of the characters well as we move quickly back and forth between them.
There are far too many oddities to be contained within these few pages. Charlie believes he saw a UFO when he was a teenager, and he and Jenna first meet when they see bobbing lights in the night sky. Charlie tells her about the Silver People he saw as a teenager. Jenna, who doesn't believe in UFOs, is taken with Charlie's story nonetheless. The Silver People are referenced frequently when Charlie and Jenna begin an email correspondence, yet ultimately, they serve as nothing more than a red herring in Masterpiece's plot. In addition, Laura's book idea disappears almost completely from the novel, along with the Silver People, while Charlie and Jenna pursue their off-beat romance.
Hamilton's prose is at times simply stunning. Early in the novel, when she is trying to think of ways to bring Charlie and Jenna together, Laura remembers that Charlie has Jenna's e-mail address: “Laura, thinking of that, closed her eyes and saw all at once a small opening, as if in the distance. A prick of light. It was the warm, well-lit tunnel of cyberspace, and she could hear it, too, hear the scurrying, the hum of the channel that would connect Jenna and Charlie.” Masterpiece is peppered with such illuminating passages. The various threads of the plot are all, in themselves, rich ideas, but the story and the characters are deserving of fuller treatment. Ultimately, Laura Rider's Masterpiece leaves the reader wanting more.
Review by Natasha Bauman
Jenna Faroli, the host of Milwaukee Public Radio's Jenna Faroli Show, has recently moved to Laura and Charlie's town of Hartley. Laura has always greatly admired Jenna. In fact, she has told Charlie that Jenna has “the biggest cranium on the planet.” When Laura meets Jenna at the Hartley Garden Club, she is awe struck, and decides Jenna would be a good person for Charlie to befriend. Laura has always dreamed of writing a novel, and she imagines that if she could bring Charlie and Jenna together, she would have real-life inspiration for the characters in her novel, and at the same time, she would be relieved of the sexual guilt she carries for not sleeping with her very sexual husband.
Hamilton's premise is intriguing, her characters quirky, and the setting is charming. But Laura Rider's Masterpiece seems to barely skim the surface of the complications that might arise from such an unusual triangle. Hamilton uses an omniscient narrator who follows all three main characters. This device might have been more successful had Hamilton not written such a brief novel. Coming in at merely 214 pages, the book doesn't quite give us the chance to know any of the characters well as we move quickly back and forth between them.
There are far too many oddities to be contained within these few pages. Charlie believes he saw a UFO when he was a teenager, and he and Jenna first meet when they see bobbing lights in the night sky. Charlie tells her about the Silver People he saw as a teenager. Jenna, who doesn't believe in UFOs, is taken with Charlie's story nonetheless. The Silver People are referenced frequently when Charlie and Jenna begin an email correspondence, yet ultimately, they serve as nothing more than a red herring in Masterpiece's plot. In addition, Laura's book idea disappears almost completely from the novel, along with the Silver People, while Charlie and Jenna pursue their off-beat romance.
Hamilton's prose is at times simply stunning. Early in the novel, when she is trying to think of ways to bring Charlie and Jenna together, Laura remembers that Charlie has Jenna's e-mail address: “Laura, thinking of that, closed her eyes and saw all at once a small opening, as if in the distance. A prick of light. It was the warm, well-lit tunnel of cyberspace, and she could hear it, too, hear the scurrying, the hum of the channel that would connect Jenna and Charlie.” Masterpiece is peppered with such illuminating passages. The various threads of the plot are all, in themselves, rich ideas, but the story and the characters are deserving of fuller treatment. Ultimately, Laura Rider's Masterpiece leaves the reader wanting more.
Review by Natasha Bauman
October 6, 2009
Other Jane Hamilton books have received good reviews, so I thought that I would try this one when I saw it at the library. I hated it. I found that the main character's attempts to research how a fully actualized, successful woman would fall in love by engineering an affair between her husband and the woman that she idolizes to be quite callous. She's trying to write a story about a "conscious romance," but is remarkably unconscious of the actual feelings of the two people she claims to care of for. I found her to be a clueless conniving bitch, which for me was worse than if she was really planning to ruin their lives. This book has been reviewed as being funny, but I found it narcissistically cruel. I think I'll skip other Jane Hamilton books.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 4, 2009
What can I say? I was excited to read the ARC of Jane Hamilton's newest book because I've read her fiction before and liked it but nowadays I'm just not as intrigued by novels about infidelity. I'm just now and that's the whole premise of this book and I'm not spoiling it because it says so on the back. The characters were fully formed although I had trouble keeping Jenna, the radio personality, separate in my mind from Laura, the would-be author of a romance novel, who essentially encourages her husband to have an affair with this woman so she can use it in her book! And I have trouble understanding how a couple who once had a healthy sex life, after 12 years the wife decides she's no longer interested in it even though she said the husband was quite a skilled partner!
April 26, 2009
Jane Hamilton's satirical take on romance is a curiously, fun examination of relationships, sex, writing, and even the cult of personality. When Laura Rider manipulates her husband Charlie, and national talk show host Jenna Faroli into a relationship so she can study the progression for the romance novel she wants to write, she has no idea what she's getting into. This book is a delightful paradox, romance and literary examination rolled into one.
May 4, 2009
Hmmm. I'm having trouble getting past the first chapter. This is like a bad stereotype of a small midwestern town and its people -- doesn't ring true to me at all. One cheap shot after another.
[LATER:] OK, I officially give up. Hamilton's depiction of Laura Rider is cliched, as is her depiction of Jenna Whoever, but at least the Jenna Whoever character seems less of a mean cliche. You can see Hamilton working in this, and it ain't pretty. Maybe I should have kept going, but.... I didn't.
[LATER:] OK, I officially give up. Hamilton's depiction of Laura Rider is cliched, as is her depiction of Jenna Whoever, but at least the Jenna Whoever character seems less of a mean cliche. You can see Hamilton working in this, and it ain't pretty. Maybe I should have kept going, but.... I didn't.
May 1, 2009
Adult fiction. A woman obsessed is a dangerous thing, apparently. I'm not sure what to think about this book, actually--it's pretty strange.
August 1, 2010
I feel guilty about being too critical, but the word "masterpiece" has no place being used anywhere in reference to this book. Perhaps it is intended to come off as trashy, as some sort of commentary on the romance novel Laura hopes to write, but that intention is swallowed up beyond any hope of ironic redemption.
Foremost among the book's sins is that Hamilton seems to have no idea how people talk. Consider the first conversation in the book, between Laura and Jenna, which is little more than a series of lengthy non sequiturs, with each woman rambling along some weird tangent. All the characters in the book, to be sure, speak as if reciting some carefully-constructed, previously-written dissertation.
Even aside from the awkwardness of their dialogue, Hamilton's characters are insufferable boors -- pretentious, yet somehow still ignorant. They seem to exist in a state where their every utterance could be a precursor to some grand personal revelation. They orate from a limited sphere of cultural references, as if they'd selected ten items from some list of topics about which learned people think and discuss, and so must constantly return and rereference Faulkner or the Clintons.
To her credit, Hamilton does manage to glimpse some of the goofiness to which otherwise reasonable people might succumb in the throes of new love or obsession, but buried beneath the weight of her nauseatingly florid prose, the only hope that a reader can have for Laura Rider's Masterpiece is that it will end.
Foremost among the book's sins is that Hamilton seems to have no idea how people talk. Consider the first conversation in the book, between Laura and Jenna, which is little more than a series of lengthy non sequiturs, with each woman rambling along some weird tangent. All the characters in the book, to be sure, speak as if reciting some carefully-constructed, previously-written dissertation.
Even aside from the awkwardness of their dialogue, Hamilton's characters are insufferable boors -- pretentious, yet somehow still ignorant. They seem to exist in a state where their every utterance could be a precursor to some grand personal revelation. They orate from a limited sphere of cultural references, as if they'd selected ten items from some list of topics about which learned people think and discuss, and so must constantly return and rereference Faulkner or the Clintons.
To her credit, Hamilton does manage to glimpse some of the goofiness to which otherwise reasonable people might succumb in the throes of new love or obsession, but buried beneath the weight of her nauseatingly florid prose, the only hope that a reader can have for Laura Rider's Masterpiece is that it will end.
December 9, 2009
Laura Rider’s Masterpiece was a fun and playful book. Other than the ending it was light hearted. It was good for casual readers like me - if reading is an enjoyment then why would I want to read a book which jerks my tears?
The tempo of the book was very fast paced and short (roughly 58 thousand words only!). The characters were original and unique and the plots used in the novel were atypical as well. However the shortness of the book meant that the characters didn’t have time to be completely explored. Although we are given their background and we know a lot about their character, we don’t see their growth or the development of their personality. We ‘know’ Laura well, but we don’t know anything beyond what she is like in the book. How does her personality change in different situations? What is she really like when the tables are turned against her? Things like these we don’t find out in a short novel.
The characters go about doing their business and we don’t get to know the characters well enough to get into their shoes. If we do, the storyline becomes more engaging because plot twists or downfalls make us cringe more. Yes, we feel bad for Jenna, but it’s no different from watching a random women screw up big time.
However the different narrative point of view uses the shortness of the book to its advantages. The less we know about the characters, the ‘funnier’ things get when a character catches us off guard. Sometimes multiple narrative point of view backfire, when the reader gets confused as to where the story is leading, get lost between narration changes, or when the author doesn’t utilize this device to its potential. Hamilton pulled it off pretty well. When she moves on to the next character’s point of view she doesn’t give us too much story to swallow. She lets us take it bite by bite so it doesn’t get confusing. I’ve read books when authors fail to do that, and it takes way longer to follow with the story.
In terms of the text itself, something which nagged at me a bit was the beginning of the story. The first chapter with the heavy introduction was really hard to follow. Everything becomes clear as you read along, but I had to read the intro several times before I understood what it was saying. It was too much to swallow in the first 10 pages.
Dissatisfaction was a subtle theme in the story. Charlie was dissatisfied with his wife’s lack of sex drive and Jenna was dissatisfied with being around so many important people; she just wants to cut loose a bit at times. I am not going to say anything about Charlie, because Charlie’s concern is a bit too mature for me, but Jenna’s concern would relate to all of us.
Jenna’s job is probably one of the better jobs. She gets to meet with intellectual, high-end and famous people; people always admire people who are constantly interacting with those people. Ironically all Jenna wanted was the exact opposite and meet someone who “didn’t know something important, or had something important to say”. This really got to me because, especially now, we are all scrambling to get somewhere in life. We are all (hopefully) aiming for that one path that we’d follow, but is it really as good as we think it is? I believe nothing is a win-win situation. If you set about your life imagining everything will be perfect you’ll be in for a rough ride. In fact I’d even go as far as set my expectations a bit lower. In terms of career we honestly don’t know what in front of us. We are too immature to understand what the real world really is, and most of us don’t learn from warnings and word of mouth either. If we don’t go into the adult world with a mindset like that we’d be more dissatisfied than people who prepare themselves. But in the end this book is worth nothing more than an alternative warning, and as much as we learn and prepare to be disappointed, we will still be disappointed and dissatisfied.
Another issue present in the book that popped out at me was the concept of blind determination or ignorant determination. In fact this topic also ties in with morals, self control, priorities and a lot more factors, but it all ties in under things that happen when someone is blindly or ignorantly trying to achieve a goal. This could apply to many different things in our lives. Some people often blindly go about their work, ignoring other aspects of their lives. They neglect health, what other people think and what is happening to yourself to achieve a goal which may not be worth the effort. Jenna falls under this type. She is so obsessed with the affair with Charlie she risks her life, reputations, and morals knowingly to meet up with him. People need to learn to be rational and differentiate between wants and needs, or they will hurt themselves.
The other type are people who don’t care what happens, they just want their results. In shorter words they are like ignorant people who step over others, people or things, to achieve their goals. Laura falls under this category, although I wouldn’t consider her a villain at all. People like her don’t think things through. Similar to blindly determined people, they don’t think enough. She was essentially breaking up her marriage to achieve a goal, and didn’t think of the outcome when her goal was achieved. Had she had done so if she considered the benefactors and the losers?
These flaws (as I perceive them) or issues are instrumental to the plotline of the story. Imperfection or mistakes thicken the plot, but these issues struck out at me when I read and they deserved to be mentioned.
I would recommend this book. It is true that the topic was a bit hard for me to comprehend (adultery when I’m not even married), but it wasn’t a truly difficult book.
If you like short, fast paced novels, this novel is for you. My questionable math claims this book hovers around the 58,000 word mark, at 214 pages and around 270 words a page. Readers plow through the pages quickly and chapters come in manageable sizes. If you need to stop reading, you can always find breaks between story arcs so you wouldn’t have to close the book during the action. If you’re bored on your way to work, and need a bit of bed time story before you sleep, this book is for you.
If you like a light-hearted book, this one is for you. As much as it is light hearted the ending was a complete bombshell, and the book will never be a completely light hearted book with that kind of ending. Other than that, the novel is soft on the reader. It rarely throws you down trench like plotlines where to understand it you have to think hard, nor does it challenge your values in life and wants you to experience an epiphany. If you’re reading to kill time or hate thinking about too much this book is for you.
On the other hand, readers who like to be deeply engaged in the characters life, those who crave to walk in the character’s shoe and those who wishes to live the moment, this book isn’t for you. The shortness means that you won’t have enough page count to give the author time to let you merge into one with the characters. The story is also straight forward due to that. No external conflict or multiple conflicts that novel fans know and love. If you expect everything single book to be a masterpiece, and wishes to be completely engaged by them, this short book isn’t for you.
If you don’t like reading about adultery this book isn’t for you. It dives pretty deep into the world of adultery and this book might be too much for you. It is also pretty sexually graphic at times, so view discretion is advised. As comedic as it claims to be, if you’re unwilling to read about those topics then please steer clear of this book.
If you, like me, believes reading is an enjoyment, not a tear-jerker, heart-pounder or a brain-burner, this book could be right for you.
The tempo of the book was very fast paced and short (roughly 58 thousand words only!). The characters were original and unique and the plots used in the novel were atypical as well. However the shortness of the book meant that the characters didn’t have time to be completely explored. Although we are given their background and we know a lot about their character, we don’t see their growth or the development of their personality. We ‘know’ Laura well, but we don’t know anything beyond what she is like in the book. How does her personality change in different situations? What is she really like when the tables are turned against her? Things like these we don’t find out in a short novel.
The characters go about doing their business and we don’t get to know the characters well enough to get into their shoes. If we do, the storyline becomes more engaging because plot twists or downfalls make us cringe more. Yes, we feel bad for Jenna, but it’s no different from watching a random women screw up big time.
However the different narrative point of view uses the shortness of the book to its advantages. The less we know about the characters, the ‘funnier’ things get when a character catches us off guard. Sometimes multiple narrative point of view backfire, when the reader gets confused as to where the story is leading, get lost between narration changes, or when the author doesn’t utilize this device to its potential. Hamilton pulled it off pretty well. When she moves on to the next character’s point of view she doesn’t give us too much story to swallow. She lets us take it bite by bite so it doesn’t get confusing. I’ve read books when authors fail to do that, and it takes way longer to follow with the story.
In terms of the text itself, something which nagged at me a bit was the beginning of the story. The first chapter with the heavy introduction was really hard to follow. Everything becomes clear as you read along, but I had to read the intro several times before I understood what it was saying. It was too much to swallow in the first 10 pages.
Dissatisfaction was a subtle theme in the story. Charlie was dissatisfied with his wife’s lack of sex drive and Jenna was dissatisfied with being around so many important people; she just wants to cut loose a bit at times. I am not going to say anything about Charlie, because Charlie’s concern is a bit too mature for me, but Jenna’s concern would relate to all of us.
Jenna’s job is probably one of the better jobs. She gets to meet with intellectual, high-end and famous people; people always admire people who are constantly interacting with those people. Ironically all Jenna wanted was the exact opposite and meet someone who “didn’t know something important, or had something important to say”. This really got to me because, especially now, we are all scrambling to get somewhere in life. We are all (hopefully) aiming for that one path that we’d follow, but is it really as good as we think it is? I believe nothing is a win-win situation. If you set about your life imagining everything will be perfect you’ll be in for a rough ride. In fact I’d even go as far as set my expectations a bit lower. In terms of career we honestly don’t know what in front of us. We are too immature to understand what the real world really is, and most of us don’t learn from warnings and word of mouth either. If we don’t go into the adult world with a mindset like that we’d be more dissatisfied than people who prepare themselves. But in the end this book is worth nothing more than an alternative warning, and as much as we learn and prepare to be disappointed, we will still be disappointed and dissatisfied.
Another issue present in the book that popped out at me was the concept of blind determination or ignorant determination. In fact this topic also ties in with morals, self control, priorities and a lot more factors, but it all ties in under things that happen when someone is blindly or ignorantly trying to achieve a goal. This could apply to many different things in our lives. Some people often blindly go about their work, ignoring other aspects of their lives. They neglect health, what other people think and what is happening to yourself to achieve a goal which may not be worth the effort. Jenna falls under this type. She is so obsessed with the affair with Charlie she risks her life, reputations, and morals knowingly to meet up with him. People need to learn to be rational and differentiate between wants and needs, or they will hurt themselves.
The other type are people who don’t care what happens, they just want their results. In shorter words they are like ignorant people who step over others, people or things, to achieve their goals. Laura falls under this category, although I wouldn’t consider her a villain at all. People like her don’t think things through. Similar to blindly determined people, they don’t think enough. She was essentially breaking up her marriage to achieve a goal, and didn’t think of the outcome when her goal was achieved. Had she had done so if she considered the benefactors and the losers?
These flaws (as I perceive them) or issues are instrumental to the plotline of the story. Imperfection or mistakes thicken the plot, but these issues struck out at me when I read and they deserved to be mentioned.
I would recommend this book. It is true that the topic was a bit hard for me to comprehend (adultery when I’m not even married), but it wasn’t a truly difficult book.
If you like short, fast paced novels, this novel is for you. My questionable math claims this book hovers around the 58,000 word mark, at 214 pages and around 270 words a page. Readers plow through the pages quickly and chapters come in manageable sizes. If you need to stop reading, you can always find breaks between story arcs so you wouldn’t have to close the book during the action. If you’re bored on your way to work, and need a bit of bed time story before you sleep, this book is for you.
If you like a light-hearted book, this one is for you. As much as it is light hearted the ending was a complete bombshell, and the book will never be a completely light hearted book with that kind of ending. Other than that, the novel is soft on the reader. It rarely throws you down trench like plotlines where to understand it you have to think hard, nor does it challenge your values in life and wants you to experience an epiphany. If you’re reading to kill time or hate thinking about too much this book is for you.
On the other hand, readers who like to be deeply engaged in the characters life, those who crave to walk in the character’s shoe and those who wishes to live the moment, this book isn’t for you. The shortness means that you won’t have enough page count to give the author time to let you merge into one with the characters. The story is also straight forward due to that. No external conflict or multiple conflicts that novel fans know and love. If you expect everything single book to be a masterpiece, and wishes to be completely engaged by them, this short book isn’t for you.
If you don’t like reading about adultery this book isn’t for you. It dives pretty deep into the world of adultery and this book might be too much for you. It is also pretty sexually graphic at times, so view discretion is advised. As comedic as it claims to be, if you’re unwilling to read about those topics then please steer clear of this book.
If you, like me, believes reading is an enjoyment, not a tear-jerker, heart-pounder or a brain-burner, this book could be right for you.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 17, 2021
Clever satire making fun of romance novels all while being a novel about a budding writer who uses her husband and her female icon as puppets/inspiration for her romance novel in progress.
February 15, 2015
The first few pages of Jane Hamilton’s new novel elicit chuckles, snorts and a couple of laughs loud enough to require explanation to others in the vicinity.
Yes, it’s a sex comedy from the same Jane Hamilton known for her weighty, complex stories of families and relationships, such as “The Book of Ruth,” “A Map of the World” and “When Madeline Was Young.”
But while “Laura Rider’s Masterpiece” is a departure in terms of tone — quick, breezy, funny — from Hamilton’s previous work, it touches on the same themes of relationships and personal identity. It also has the same smart writing and pitch-perfect characterization as Hamilton’s other novels.
The story centers on Laura Rider and her husband, happy-go-lucky Charlie, who own a nursery in rural Wisconsin. They’re close friends and good partners, but — by Laura’s unilateral decision — they’ve ceased and desisted their conjugal relations.
One day Charlie meets, by chance, radio personality Jenna Faroli, who hosts a talk show on NPR that Laura faithfully listens to. Both are a little star-struck when she sends him a brief e-mail afterward, and together they compose a reply, and then another, and soon they’re each writing long, thoughtful messages to Jenna under Charlie’s name.
The correspondence continues electronically for a while, until Charlie, with Laura’s not-so-tacit encouragement, seeks a closer relationship with Jenna, whose judge husband has engrossed himself in the writing of a book on law.
Laura, who is not much of a reader but has decided to write a romance novel, sees the whole affair as an experiment, a way to examine characters and figure out what kind of hero and heroine she would write about, what they would want from each other, what their conflict would be — because every romance novel has to have a conflict — and how it could get resolved.
As one can imagine, misunderstandings and mayhem ensue, but what specifically happens is not at all predictable, which adds to the sense of fun.
However, a darker undercurrent flows through “Laura Rider’s Masterpiece” as well. While Jenna presents a calm, erudite persona on the air, in reality she’s impatient, bored, snarky and idling in a not particularly exciting marriage.
“What had Jenna said to Suzie? Try to find the thrill in sound judgment. What fly-by-night Girl Scout leader had had that come from?”
The need for a thrill makes Jenna toss out her own sound judgment and connect with a person like Charlie; it also makes her vulnerable to Laura’s machinations.
For Laura, writing is quite a selfish pursuit; it’s all about her. So it’s unsurprising that the insights she comes away with fit her own point of view: “Maybe the whole point of love was to break each other so that from those shattered selves you could build a better, a sturdier self, so that you could go forward — not hand in hand but a comfortable arm’s length apart.”
Laura blithely carries on, unaware, or unconcerned, that the players in her experiment have feelings that messily spill outside any predetermined plot formula. Charlie is “constitutionally incapable of being unhappy for too long,” though Jenna’s hurt may stick around a little longer.
But the hurts in “Laura Rider’s Masterpiece” are mainly to pride. No lives are destroyed, no families torn asunder. And there are plenty of funny lines, droll observations and humorous situations along the way.
Readers will quickly devour this light novel, but discover that it’s more filling and satisfying than it appears.
Yes, it’s a sex comedy from the same Jane Hamilton known for her weighty, complex stories of families and relationships, such as “The Book of Ruth,” “A Map of the World” and “When Madeline Was Young.”
But while “Laura Rider’s Masterpiece” is a departure in terms of tone — quick, breezy, funny — from Hamilton’s previous work, it touches on the same themes of relationships and personal identity. It also has the same smart writing and pitch-perfect characterization as Hamilton’s other novels.
The story centers on Laura Rider and her husband, happy-go-lucky Charlie, who own a nursery in rural Wisconsin. They’re close friends and good partners, but — by Laura’s unilateral decision — they’ve ceased and desisted their conjugal relations.
One day Charlie meets, by chance, radio personality Jenna Faroli, who hosts a talk show on NPR that Laura faithfully listens to. Both are a little star-struck when she sends him a brief e-mail afterward, and together they compose a reply, and then another, and soon they’re each writing long, thoughtful messages to Jenna under Charlie’s name.
The correspondence continues electronically for a while, until Charlie, with Laura’s not-so-tacit encouragement, seeks a closer relationship with Jenna, whose judge husband has engrossed himself in the writing of a book on law.
Laura, who is not much of a reader but has decided to write a romance novel, sees the whole affair as an experiment, a way to examine characters and figure out what kind of hero and heroine she would write about, what they would want from each other, what their conflict would be — because every romance novel has to have a conflict — and how it could get resolved.
As one can imagine, misunderstandings and mayhem ensue, but what specifically happens is not at all predictable, which adds to the sense of fun.
However, a darker undercurrent flows through “Laura Rider’s Masterpiece” as well. While Jenna presents a calm, erudite persona on the air, in reality she’s impatient, bored, snarky and idling in a not particularly exciting marriage.
“What had Jenna said to Suzie? Try to find the thrill in sound judgment. What fly-by-night Girl Scout leader had had that come from?”
The need for a thrill makes Jenna toss out her own sound judgment and connect with a person like Charlie; it also makes her vulnerable to Laura’s machinations.
For Laura, writing is quite a selfish pursuit; it’s all about her. So it’s unsurprising that the insights she comes away with fit her own point of view: “Maybe the whole point of love was to break each other so that from those shattered selves you could build a better, a sturdier self, so that you could go forward — not hand in hand but a comfortable arm’s length apart.”
Laura blithely carries on, unaware, or unconcerned, that the players in her experiment have feelings that messily spill outside any predetermined plot formula. Charlie is “constitutionally incapable of being unhappy for too long,” though Jenna’s hurt may stick around a little longer.
But the hurts in “Laura Rider’s Masterpiece” are mainly to pride. No lives are destroyed, no families torn asunder. And there are plenty of funny lines, droll observations and humorous situations along the way.
Readers will quickly devour this light novel, but discover that it’s more filling and satisfying than it appears.
January 24, 2020
Really did not enjoy this book club choice. Supposed to be a comedy but afraid I didn't get it. Laura and Charlie Rider run a beautiful nursery but are not sleeping together anymore because supposedly Charlie wore Laura out. She loves listening to Jenna Farolli's radio program and decides after Charlie meets Jenna that they should become lovers so she can use their affair to guide Laura in writing a romance novel. It is very strange and I guess it's supposed to be sarcastic.
March 30, 2009
Synopsis:
"Married for 12 years, Laura and Charlie Rider have come to share almost everything: their nursery business, their love for their animals, and, most especially, their zeal for storytelling. And though they no longer share a bed, they are happy enough continuing along in their pleasant, platonic routine. Then Charlie begins an email exchange in earnest with Jenna Faroli, the host of a popular radio show, and, according to Laura, "the single most famous person in the town." Seeing her opportunity, Laura cannot resist using Charlie’s new connection to promote her writing skills, and together, the couple crafts florid, strangely intimate messages that entice Jenna into their game. "The Project," as they come to call it, quickly spins out of control. As the lines between Laura’s words and Charlie’s feelings become blurred, Jenna finds herself effected in ways most disturbing, while Laura is transformed into an artist of the highest caliber—in her own mind. The end results are hilarious and poignant, and for Laura Rider, beyond even her wildest imagination. "
It had a rough start, some of the writing towards the beginning forced me to reread a sentence or two to get to their meaning. Too many words and emotions in one sentence? Once we get to the point where we are introduced to all the characters, it flows simpler.
I loved the packaging of this little book, it was quite adorable. A cute little hardcover with a vintage cover, but I had mixed feelings about the contents. I could not bring myself to empathize with any of the main characters and the subject matter was pretty shallow, or convoluted. I can't make up my mind. It is good that it was an 'easy read'; I am glad to not have spent a lot of time on it. I do not think I enjoy reading about flippant infidelity ***************
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June 29, 2009
It should surprise no one who knows me to learn my bookshelves have a ranking system.
Where a book is placed -- on five sets of shelves across four rooms -- will show you how high it is on my personal favorites list. Both A Map of the World and The Book of Ruth, by Jane Hamilton, are on the "favorite modern books" shelf. (It's small, holding only 10 or so novels, and next to the "favorite classics" shelf.)
So finding Laura Rider's Masterpiece in the library's new release section made me happy. And I was incredibly intrigued that it seemed to be a comedy. Both Map and Ruth are some of the most painful books I've ever read. I'm happy to report Masterpiece is one of the sweetest and funniest.
SPOILERS AHEAD
The story is told from three differing perspectives: a "done with sex" wife, her "sex was my favorite thing" husband and a local celeb (gotta love a book in which an NPR host is a star). The first couple own a local gardening company -- she's clearly the boss and he takes her orders. The relationship, even though she's pushed them into separate beds, works for them, though they both yearn for something more.
For Laura, "something" is becoming an author. She's long been proud of her writing, even though it's mostly showcased in company correspondence. So when her dear husband and radio mentor meet, Laura encourages the friendship -- even going as far as to help hubby craft emails to her.
What follows is one of the funniest, most honest takes on passion I think I've ever read. Hamilton reveals how awkward our greatest pleasures can be, even in the midst of them. And the love triangle she creates is classic.
And oddly, the ending -- which not only lacks the neat little bow but any sort of a final knot -- left me more satisfied than an epilogue cataloging the next 10 years would've.
Where a book is placed -- on five sets of shelves across four rooms -- will show you how high it is on my personal favorites list. Both A Map of the World and The Book of Ruth, by Jane Hamilton, are on the "favorite modern books" shelf. (It's small, holding only 10 or so novels, and next to the "favorite classics" shelf.)
So finding Laura Rider's Masterpiece in the library's new release section made me happy. And I was incredibly intrigued that it seemed to be a comedy. Both Map and Ruth are some of the most painful books I've ever read. I'm happy to report Masterpiece is one of the sweetest and funniest.
SPOILERS AHEAD
The story is told from three differing perspectives: a "done with sex" wife, her "sex was my favorite thing" husband and a local celeb (gotta love a book in which an NPR host is a star). The first couple own a local gardening company -- she's clearly the boss and he takes her orders. The relationship, even though she's pushed them into separate beds, works for them, though they both yearn for something more.
For Laura, "something" is becoming an author. She's long been proud of her writing, even though it's mostly showcased in company correspondence. So when her dear husband and radio mentor meet, Laura encourages the friendship -- even going as far as to help hubby craft emails to her.
What follows is one of the funniest, most honest takes on passion I think I've ever read. Hamilton reveals how awkward our greatest pleasures can be, even in the midst of them. And the love triangle she creates is classic.
And oddly, the ending -- which not only lacks the neat little bow but any sort of a final knot -- left me more satisfied than an epilogue cataloging the next 10 years would've.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 13, 2020
I have read most of this author's work and had I been on Goodreads at the time, I would have given them all 5 stars. I was therefore very disappointed to find that this novel would fit into the 'chick lit' category. Not my scene and I don't think it is hers. I did not finish the book.
November 28, 2012
I read this as it was highly recommended on the book-a-day calendar on my desk (which has suggested several good books over the last couple of years).
This was well outside my usual reading range.
Not sure how to describe it - literary romance?
Technically it was well written but the story was just too unbelievable for me.
Young middle-aged gardening business owner (Laura Rider) married to hunk decides (a) to never have sex again with said hunk and (b) to organise the friendship (and later sexual relationship) between said hunk and a peri-menopausal, intellectual radio personality who moves into their small town.
WTF?
And then, to make matters worse, in some odd plot convulsion Laura wants to write a romance novel. Near the end she's actually at a writer's convention learning how to write.
I really, really dislike it when writers write about writers. Come on! Make the effort and research other occupations!!
This book was mercifully short (it's a small book and only just over 200 pages). It was irritating, silly, and a waste of time.
I admit I am probably not in the author's target audience but, even so, this was poor. I've never read anything else by her, and have no plans to do so.
1/10
This was well outside my usual reading range.
Not sure how to describe it - literary romance?
Technically it was well written but the story was just too unbelievable for me.
Young middle-aged gardening business owner (Laura Rider) married to hunk decides (a) to never have sex again with said hunk and (b) to organise the friendship (and later sexual relationship) between said hunk and a peri-menopausal, intellectual radio personality who moves into their small town.
WTF?
And then, to make matters worse, in some odd plot convulsion Laura wants to write a romance novel. Near the end she's actually at a writer's convention learning how to write.
I really, really dislike it when writers write about writers. Come on! Make the effort and research other occupations!!
This book was mercifully short (it's a small book and only just over 200 pages). It was irritating, silly, and a waste of time.
I admit I am probably not in the author's target audience but, even so, this was poor. I've never read anything else by her, and have no plans to do so.
1/10
October 7, 2011
This is really a one-and-a-half star kind of book, but I'm bumping it up to two because I was able to finish it. Yup, that's where I draw my line. And that should tell you something about what I really think of Laura Rider's Masterpiece.
First off, neither this book nor Laura Rider's is anything close to a masterpiece. Of course, the title was meant to be tongue-in-cheek, but if you're going to attach that kind of name to your book, you better be ready for the inevitable puns that follow.
Secondly, I enjoy a good satirical novel as much as the next person, but it really has to be good. This just wasn't. I read 214 pages and I still don't get what Charlie saw in Jenna, what Jenna saw in Charlie, or what Laura saw in Charlie or Jenna. If you aren't on board with a satire's characters, then the "joke" just isn't that funny.
I could go on, but I want to spare Jane Hamilton the additional criticism as I did enjoy A Map of the World and The Book of Ruth. Stick to those kinds of books in the future, Hamilton. Leave the sex farces to someone else.
First off, neither this book nor Laura Rider's is anything close to a masterpiece. Of course, the title was meant to be tongue-in-cheek, but if you're going to attach that kind of name to your book, you better be ready for the inevitable puns that follow.
Secondly, I enjoy a good satirical novel as much as the next person, but it really has to be good. This just wasn't. I read 214 pages and I still don't get what Charlie saw in Jenna, what Jenna saw in Charlie, or what Laura saw in Charlie or Jenna. If you aren't on board with a satire's characters, then the "joke" just isn't that funny.
I could go on, but I want to spare Jane Hamilton the additional criticism as I did enjoy A Map of the World and The Book of Ruth. Stick to those kinds of books in the future, Hamilton. Leave the sex farces to someone else.
July 31, 2009
I give this book 4 stars because it was well-written with a good dose of humor and some real depth. Not really 5 stars because although I liked the characters they never became "real" to me, in the sense that I forgot they were characters in a novel.
On the surface, the story is about a woman who, wanting to pursue her dream of being a writer, creates a situation where her husband will have an affair with another woman. She wants to use the affair and its progress as source material for her romance novel. The plot was original and fresh. Creative use of language and quirky (but not overly so) characters made me laugh frequently as I read. The author is adept at capturing events from a particular character's point of view, and this is actually what the "deeper meaning" of the story was for me: that everyone creates their own world through their perceptions of events, and how they process those.
This is the first time I've read Jane Hamilton, but I will look for more of her books based on this experience.
On the surface, the story is about a woman who, wanting to pursue her dream of being a writer, creates a situation where her husband will have an affair with another woman. She wants to use the affair and its progress as source material for her romance novel. The plot was original and fresh. Creative use of language and quirky (but not overly so) characters made me laugh frequently as I read. The author is adept at capturing events from a particular character's point of view, and this is actually what the "deeper meaning" of the story was for me: that everyone creates their own world through their perceptions of events, and how they process those.
This is the first time I've read Jane Hamilton, but I will look for more of her books based on this experience.
June 6, 2011
I was all set to hang up one lowly star. I was disappointed with Jane Hamilton all the way through for having written this book. But at the very end, I started to feel that she might have pulled off something ingenious after all.
Laura Rider might just be a character to demand my admiration. Or my grudging respect, at least.
"Not a reader", she has decided to write a seminal work of fiction. In fact, she has decided, she will create an entirely new genre of fiction. Her hubris is stunning. How tempting to snigger at her. But finally I realized that in her complete, utter, and totally ignorant self-confidence, someone like Laura will inevitably pull it off. I'll struggle all my life to write a novel I can be proud of, a novel I'd love to read. She'll pound away at the keyboard in her spare time and be the next Jacqueline Susann, Barbara Cartland or Helen Gurley Brown. sailing serenely all the way to the bank.
So, two stars, Jane, you sly fox.
Laura Rider might just be a character to demand my admiration. Or my grudging respect, at least.
"Not a reader", she has decided to write a seminal work of fiction. In fact, she has decided, she will create an entirely new genre of fiction. Her hubris is stunning. How tempting to snigger at her. But finally I realized that in her complete, utter, and totally ignorant self-confidence, someone like Laura will inevitably pull it off. I'll struggle all my life to write a novel I can be proud of, a novel I'd love to read. She'll pound away at the keyboard in her spare time and be the next Jacqueline Susann, Barbara Cartland or Helen Gurley Brown. sailing serenely all the way to the bank.
So, two stars, Jane, you sly fox.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 15, 2019
Maybe he had not ever loved her physically, maybe in courtship he had put on a show of ardor and worship out of love for everything else about her, or maybe the boated pustule of her mother-self was a permanent turnoff. (72)
He, a more or less perfect specimen, save for a rash on his back, seemed to be stricken by the loveliness of her body, by the indoor white lumpishness of her flesh; stricken by the welt of her scar, the rude reminder of her hysterectomy, stricken by her broad hips, her thinning pubic hair, and her ample bottom. She did ask herself, in the briefest moment of reason, how she had come to be lying on a scratchy blanket, naked, and probably resembling a small harpoonable whale. (124)
"I'm afraid of a force in her. A force that is always there but lying low. A force that could spring up at any moment."
"What kind of force?"
"Dissatisfaction, maybe, I'd call it. Unhappiness coiled and at the ready? Or rage, waiting in the wings?" (160)
He, a more or less perfect specimen, save for a rash on his back, seemed to be stricken by the loveliness of her body, by the indoor white lumpishness of her flesh; stricken by the welt of her scar, the rude reminder of her hysterectomy, stricken by her broad hips, her thinning pubic hair, and her ample bottom. She did ask herself, in the briefest moment of reason, how she had come to be lying on a scratchy blanket, naked, and probably resembling a small harpoonable whale. (124)
"I'm afraid of a force in her. A force that is always there but lying low. A force that could spring up at any moment."
"What kind of force?"
"Dissatisfaction, maybe, I'd call it. Unhappiness coiled and at the ready? Or rage, waiting in the wings?" (160)
January 25, 2010
This was well-crafted story, but I found it very hard to like. Especially the main protagonist, Laura Rider. I found her totally self-absorbed, and obnoxious. Everything is about what she wants and needs and she has a complete disregard for how her actions and machinations affect others on an emotional level. She uses the two people she supposedly loves, her husband and radio personality Jenna Faroli like lab rats in an abhorrent "reasearch" project to further her ambition of writing a romance novel. I found her despicable and the story heart-breaking. But maybe this is what Ms. Hamilton was after.
January 18, 2012
I could not wrap my brain around the premise of this book- that a wife would willingly help her husband begin an email affair (which blossoms into a real affair) with her media hero in the name of practicing her writing skills. By the end of the book I really disliked Laura Rider- she is self-absorbed and oblivious to her effect on others' lives. The description of the book kept mentioning that this was a venture into humor by Jane Hamilton, but truly, it became apparent by the end that it is actually a tragedy. Too bad that Laura Rider messed up her marriage and wrecked a chance at having any kind of mutually positive relationship with her idol, Jenna.
June 26, 2009
Not a book I would recommend. I was not thrilled with the storyline. Struggling couple wehre the wife is trying to further her career. She uses to husband to make friends with a TV persoanlity (encourages romance and a fling) just to get a gig on her show to promote her own writings and career. Little does she know that her husband really does fall for the lady :O) Needless to say there are a couple of sex scenes that are way to graphic thus not a book I would recommend. I am honestsly sorry that I finished it.
June 18, 2019
For a quick “beach read” type of book, I felt this was a fairly well written, fast paced, silly but intriguing read. It kept my interest for most of the 214 short pages and included topics I’m interested in like want-to-be novelists, horticulturists, and NPR hosts (think a Terri Gross type of character). This is not your deep, existential, change-the-world type of book but it might be one your friend might enjoy in a weekend. Light and airy but still has some twists (nothing you can’t really see coming)...
March 23, 2010
I won this book in a giveaway, and unfortunately, I wish I hadn't. There was not a single character I felt a connection to in this story, and I tremendously disliked all three main characters. All three seemed heartless, selfish, cruel, and uncaring. I find it hard to get into a book where the characters don't care about how much they're screwing up their owns lives as well as everyone else's. I wouldn't bother picking this up.
August 23, 2010
I was very disappointed in this book. The characters were never appealing to me. The story was not interesting until the very end of Disk 4 out of 5. Then the story tanked...I have no idea what Jane was thinking when she wrote this book. There just seemed to be something major missing from it...the ending was kind of just there...I did not even think the book had ended!! What a shame.
December 29, 2012
I'm a fan of Jane Hamilton's and she has fun here with this comic novel. An enjoyable read.
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