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17. Duplikate (& Henry James)
May. 20th, 2011 10:52 amA couple of book reviews. First, Cherry Cheva's Duplikate, which I liked but have mixed feelings about it.
On the one hand, I love the main character, Kate, who is an EPIC OVERACHIEVER who means to go to Yale next year with her EPIC OVERACHIEVER boyfriend (Paul, with whom she has delightful banter), assuming that she can ever find time between her five AP classes, her six million extracurricular activities, and her retake of the SATs - oh, and her friends, who for some reason want to socialize - to write her Yale application essay.
Enter Rina, Kate's computer generated double, a sweet and fun-loving ditz (though, like Kate, smart as a whip)! Their interactions crackle with interest, both because of their different personalities and because Kate is dumbfounded by Rina's existence at first. But soon she realizes that having a double has it's advantages: she can send Rina out to have her social life, while Kate stays home to get some work done.
There's a lot to like in this book. Kate is a doll - smart, hard-working, a bit confused about her priorities (sending her double to hang out with her boyfriend so she can quiz for AP History?), an excellently observed overachiever with a good if frazzled heart. Rina is a delightful foil, and the secondary characters are lively if not deep: not just Kate's boyfriend Paul, but also Kate's ex-best-friend Jake Cheng, an artist-slacker with whom she is forced to complete a physics project.
On the other hand. Well, look at this summary here, and tell me if you think there's a snowball's chance in hell this story will not end with Kate repenting of her overachiever ways. Moreover, the story never really builds to a crescendo, so Kate's repentance seems unearned: she learns her lesson because that's what characters in this kind of book do.
Moreover, she learns her lesson because Rina's shenanigans have made it dishonest for Kate to send in her Yale application. Kate withdraws the application and therefore defeats Rina - but at the cost of giving up a dream that she bent her entire life around until, oh, five pages ago. A painful turnaround, even if you're on board with the anti-over-achieving message; yet the tone at the end is too intensely triumphant to admit any melancholy, which makes it feel hollow.
Second, Henry James' Daisy Miller, which is the most boring book ever, world without end, amen.
The story concerns a fellow named Winterbourne, who never achieves a first name because that might give him an actual personality. He meets Daisy Miller, a shallow, silly American girl, promptly realizes that he will never again meet a woman who is so nearly as dull as he is, and follows her to Rome to try to - well, I would say win her heart, but that would imply some exertion on Winterbourne's part.
This book is considered a classic. Why? Why? WHY? The characters skim across the surface of life like water bugs, except the image is far too graceful; they lack emotional and intellectual depth, and seem instead like paper dolls. Minutely observed paper dolls, but paper nonetheless, moving in an arid paper world where nothing interesting ever happens.
On the bright side? It is just ninety pages long. And for the rest of your life, you can shoot down snobs by referring airily to your reading of Henry James.
On the one hand, I love the main character, Kate, who is an EPIC OVERACHIEVER who means to go to Yale next year with her EPIC OVERACHIEVER boyfriend (Paul, with whom she has delightful banter), assuming that she can ever find time between her five AP classes, her six million extracurricular activities, and her retake of the SATs - oh, and her friends, who for some reason want to socialize - to write her Yale application essay.
Enter Rina, Kate's computer generated double, a sweet and fun-loving ditz (though, like Kate, smart as a whip)! Their interactions crackle with interest, both because of their different personalities and because Kate is dumbfounded by Rina's existence at first. But soon she realizes that having a double has it's advantages: she can send Rina out to have her social life, while Kate stays home to get some work done.
There's a lot to like in this book. Kate is a doll - smart, hard-working, a bit confused about her priorities (sending her double to hang out with her boyfriend so she can quiz for AP History?), an excellently observed overachiever with a good if frazzled heart. Rina is a delightful foil, and the secondary characters are lively if not deep: not just Kate's boyfriend Paul, but also Kate's ex-best-friend Jake Cheng, an artist-slacker with whom she is forced to complete a physics project.
On the other hand. Well, look at this summary here, and tell me if you think there's a snowball's chance in hell this story will not end with Kate repenting of her overachiever ways. Moreover, the story never really builds to a crescendo, so Kate's repentance seems unearned: she learns her lesson because that's what characters in this kind of book do.
Moreover, she learns her lesson because Rina's shenanigans have made it dishonest for Kate to send in her Yale application. Kate withdraws the application and therefore defeats Rina - but at the cost of giving up a dream that she bent her entire life around until, oh, five pages ago. A painful turnaround, even if you're on board with the anti-over-achieving message; yet the tone at the end is too intensely triumphant to admit any melancholy, which makes it feel hollow.
Second, Henry James' Daisy Miller, which is the most boring book ever, world without end, amen.
The story concerns a fellow named Winterbourne, who never achieves a first name because that might give him an actual personality. He meets Daisy Miller, a shallow, silly American girl, promptly realizes that he will never again meet a woman who is so nearly as dull as he is, and follows her to Rome to try to - well, I would say win her heart, but that would imply some exertion on Winterbourne's part.
This book is considered a classic. Why? Why? WHY? The characters skim across the surface of life like water bugs, except the image is far too graceful; they lack emotional and intellectual depth, and seem instead like paper dolls. Minutely observed paper dolls, but paper nonetheless, moving in an arid paper world where nothing interesting ever happens.
On the bright side? It is just ninety pages long. And for the rest of your life, you can shoot down snobs by referring airily to your reading of Henry James.
