The Emperor's Children
Review: The Emperor's Children is about three friends near 30 all living in New York City and the circle that makes up their social network. Their is the beautiful Marina who is stalled, working on her first novel. Their is her father Murray Thwaite, a famous writer and lecturer and her mother, Annabel, a lawyer involved in social work. Their is Frederick, or Booty Tubb, Marina's cousin and Murray's nephew, who yearns for a meaningful life filled with importance and gravity away from Watertown and his adoring mother, Judy. There is Danielle, Marina's best friend, and Julius, Danielle and Marina's gay friend, both of whom are floundering in love and into their third decade of life. This novel is about a city, a generation, a moment. A small slice of a sprawling city that shows one particular social network and how it is impacted in that moment.
"But somebody's got to tell people that the emperor has no clothes" (197). Despite their efforts and constant ruminating on their lives and their life directions, the characters of Messud's novel are unable to grasp that they are living their lives in a climate of pervasive evasion of the true meaning and purpose their lives could hold - no one believes, and yet each of them is convinced that the other believes in the purpose they have found for themselves. The characters in this novel have no grounding, and despite all being 30, are aimlessly wandering through their own life, unaware of how truly out of touch they really are. In revealing their complexes, Messud attempts to reveal the patterns that ground American society in the moment of her writing.
Messud's novel has been called pretentious but in actuality its her characters who are wholly unaware of their very pretentious way of looking at the world. This is seen in Danielle's apartment; "she had kept some books since college that she had acquired for courses and never read - Frederic Jameson, for example, and Kant's Critique of Judgment - but which suggested to her that she was, or might be, a person of seriousness, a thinker in some seeping, ubiquitous way" (89). And also in their conversations, "Questioning essays. Like, is PEN really a worthwhile institution, for example. Or a renegade appraisal of modern art, the New York art scene, is Matthew Barney a fraud, that kind of thing" (197). Yet real concerns, such as Annabel's teenage client who is being beaten by a step-father and doesn't have a place to stay for the night are shooed away like an irritating imposition.
Is Messud arguing that the events of September 11th were a wake up call for the drifting fabric of American society? Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that way. It is an event among many. A large event, but just one nonetheless. Julius seems almost more distraught by his cheek, scarred by the physical attack of his boyfriend and Marina is more concerned with her relationship with her husband. And Danielle, who is supposedly gravely affected by watching the towers fall from her apartment windows is last seen in the novel on a beach, sipping drinks with her mother while recovering from her ordeal. None of the characters are bad people, but they are flawed and it seems difficult for them to alter their course. Perhaps Bootie was right after all to start completely anew. Or perhaps he will fail to develop the "great qualities" he longs to possess, just like his uncle disappointed him in being less than the great, important man he first appears to be.
Stars: 3
Comments
Post a Comment