Don't Waste Your Time!

[Viviana D.]

Ernest Hemmingway once wrote, ““I write one page of masterpiece to ninety-one pages of sh-t. I try to put the sh-t in the wastebasket.” (134) ¹ Claire Messud should have thrown out most of her impressive words in many sections of The Emperor’s Children. In addition, it seems that Messud’s target reader in the novel is that of an educated individual. Either taught by a higher institution or self-taught, the reader must force himself or herself to appreciate Messud’s extensive sentences. On the other hand, we must be patient as we take the voyage through each intricate paragraph, because we witness each character’s shocking, ironic revelation about human existence in a precarious world. although Messud's narrative is somewhat of an exhausting journey to its climax, her use of indirect and direct characterization introduces the reader to a variety of complex yet interesting individuals who make New York their home. We view each character’s actions and dialogue through a lens as they passionately strive for self-ratification and self-fulfillment in competitive New York City—a city that Messud clearly depicts through detailed narrative.

Style
The sixty-seven chapters in The Emperor’s Children are wisely positioned within monthly parts that begin with March of 2001. “Darlings! Welcome! And you must be Danielle?”(3)² Messud’s opening sentence in the first chapter of part one (March) is a simple and clear question that introduces the reader to the novel’s first character, Danielle. However, as we read the third and final sentence of the first paragraph, we also get a bit of a sour taste of Messud’s complex and extensive style when she introduces a supporting character; Lucy Leverett. A host of a dinner party in Australia, Lucy welcomes Danielle and her friends. Lucy’s “… dangling fan earrings clanked at her neck as she leaned in to kiss each of them, Danielle too, and although she held her cigarette, in its mother-of-pearl holder, at arm’s length, it’s smoke wafted between them and brought tears to Danielle’s eyes.”(3)² Messud’s characterization is precise, yet the exhausting description on how Lucy holds her cigarette completely takes the reader by surprise; and we are forced to check back and see if we missed a detail. Another example of Messud’s intricate sentences is when we get a glimpse of Julius’s inner doubts. A self conscious homosexual, Julius, Messud tells us as he thinks about his relationship to his lover David that “… aware, too, of his propensity to brood, too visibly to succumb to his interior demons and to freight each conversation, each outing, each sexual interaction, with greater import than could rationally be found in it—aware of all these failings they were, he was consciously striving, in this instance, to be Natasha rather than Pierre, to remain a sparkling, light-handed companion behind whose mercurial liveliness he had to trust David could discern, when he was ready, the makings of a devoted partner.”(111)²

Setting
Those who have been to New York City and have walked its streets can appreciate Messud’s outlined view of the City. Even readers, who have never been to New York, can certainly feel as if walking alongside Messud’s characters in The Emperor’s Children. The reader is taken on a journey to a meticulous place and time through the architecture, smells, sounds, and people who walk the city streets. We can visit Central Park and people-watch through Frederick’s eyes (a young man in his twenties, who decides to move to the city from a small town). Messud describes his first visit to Central Park, “He marveled silently at the shapes in which New Yorkers came, skinny driven men and women, in work clothes or clinging sportsgear, their veins popping along their rigid necks or at their tiny, taut calves…”(147)² We travel to the subway as Frederick takes his first ride through the deep tunnels, “The train, or the air-conditioning, he wasn’t sure which, gave a rising gnatlike whine as they accelerated, and at speed they rattled and bumped like a fairground spin…”(152)² Through Messud’s articulate imagery of the city, we view each character’s daily routine as they make their way through a massive yet beloved city.


Characterization
Each character in The Emperor’s Children has a unique and complex story. We are aware of each character’s strengths and weaknesses through Messud’s thoroughly structured indirect and direct clues about their fears and passions. The reader quickly learns that each character strives to succeed and to be accepted in the most popular circles though their confessions and their conversation with others. Messud’s successful depiction about each character, however; derives from the descriptive narrative of each character’s thoughts and actions. Messud is a true genius who has given us the privilege to meet these amazing individuals, and makes us cheer and sob for them through every page.
Danielle Minkoff is an intelligent television producer who in her early thirties has yet to find the special someone in her life at the beginning of the novel. She does, however, fall for a man who is much older than her and soon realizes that the married man will never be a one woman man. Mariana Thwaite, Danielle’s best friend, is a gorgeous woman who we find at first has yet to find her place in the world. She is overshadowed by the immense popularity and success of her father, until she meets a man who persuades her to professionally detach herself from her father. Mariana, we find though her words and her actions, is somewhat of a dreamer who feels that life owes her a break. Murray Thwaite, Mariana’s father, is a writer who worked diligently as a young man to make a name for himself in the literary world. He is absorbed in his daily work and he continuously gives his input about writing and hard work to those around him. Murray is a vivacious man who accepts his life whether he believes he is a charlatan or not. His wife, Annabel Thwaite, is a sweet and caring woman who is constantly concerned for her daughter’s happiness and the well-being of a young man she counsels. The reader can see through her words just how much of a caring person she is in spite of her husband’s infidelities. When we first meet Ludovic Seeley in the fist chapter, we are introduced to a handsome, very opinionated Australian who decides to move to New York and take the literary world by storm. Once in New York, he is obsessed with his strenuous work to launch his new magazine, The Monitor. Although he marries Mariana, just months after meeting her; Ludo, as he likes to be called, remains betrothed to his work and success.
One of the most interesting characters in The Emperor’s Children is Julius Clarke. A gay man in New York City, he finds solace only in excitement. He goes through great lengths to make sure that he lives a dangerous life even if he knows it will eventually lead to disaster. Julius is eventually employed by David Cohen, who is a successful professional. They both form a strong bond which begins to bore Julius at last. Their relationship takes a dangerous turn when Julius makes a terrible, deceitful decision and he is soon faced with David’s violently, jealous response.
And then there is Bootie. Frederick Tubbs is an intelligent college dropout who is constantly nagged by his mother Judy to return to school. Although Judy loves her son, she fails to understand that Bootie, her nickname for her son, has an agenda of his own. Bootie is an avid reader who thinks that college is boring and a waste of time. He would rather read from his classic novels than to sit through a college course. He feels that self-reliance will give him the power to succeed and become an apprentice to his uncle Murray Thwaite. Bootie believes that only he has the power to be the man he wants to become, and through a naïve yet simplistic way, he decides to jump into a world that soon turns its back on him. He is obsessed in becoming the Murray Thwaite of his time; and he fails to responsibly and humbly practice his own work once in New York. In the end, Bootie reaches a dramatic realization that he needs to become a solid rock before he can actually make ripples in the water.

Fortune’s Fools
Even though we strive to reach a point of fulfillment in our lives, we are not truly prepared to what the world has in store fore us. Claire Messud’s novel reminds us that we can plan carefully plan our future, but fate can take over in the end. Even though Messud’s narrative is a bit exhausting at times, her book reveals a truthful glimpse about our destiny in a somewhat surprising world. We learn to respect each character as if we truly know them in person, and in the end we suffer through their sense of fragility and loss. The reader is forced to witness, through strong narrative, each character’s sense of indulgence and then to their astonishing realization that fortune outlines their future. Eventually, each character must learn to perilously adapt to a new plan that a higher power bestows on them in a New York minute.

1. Phillips, Larry W., ed. Ernest Hemingway: On Writing. New York: Scribber, 1983.
2. Messud, Claire. The Emperor’s Children. New York: Vintage Books, 2006.

[aPriL does feral sometimes]

Every character struck me as shallow. I started this the same way as it happens feeling the way when I meet someone fascinating. By the middle of the book my heart was sinking as I realized these characters all were incredibly myopic and immature, without a hope of sudden insight saving them or changing them. They were all sitting in a cave watching shadow play, suffering or overjoyed as the perception moved them, but from my viewpoint their passions were those of blinkered children mistaking the cave for the world. Since it was all about Them worrying about themselves in these self-centered matters, without growth or a widening of viewpoint for too many pages I got very bored with them and not a little irked. I kept thinking maybe the author was irked by similar people in real life and was getting them down in a book as a cautionary tale or simply revenge on them. Julius was the most interesting one.