Rate this book

This One Is Mine (2008)

by Maria Semple(Favorite Author)

3.06 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

031603116X (ISBN13: 9780316031165)

languge

English

genre

Humor

publisher

Little, Brown and Company

review 1: While Where'd You Go Bernadette was a great novel, Semple had yet to find her voice in her first novel, This One is Mine. The story felt pedestrian, the type of story that students write in college. David, Violet, and Sally are the main characters. David is a rich music executive. Violet is his wife. She is unhappy with her life. She quit her job to take care of her first daughter but she isn't fulfilled by it. She meets Teddy Reyes at a low point in her life and contemplates having an affair with him Sally is David's sister. She is type one Diabetic. She wants to get married and cares more about how much the man makes than if they love each other. She tries to seduce Jeremy, an up and coming Sports broadcaster. Sally was probably my least favorite character. ... moreShe was just messed up. Violet was also really annoying. They are characters with lots of problems and no self-realization. There was some redemption at towards the end of the novel, but I just didn't like any of the characters and didn't relate to their problems. This novel was highly flawed and clearly the author had not found her voice and developed her own way of writing. It relied too much on convention and felt too young in the writing style.
review 2: This was hard to review. So many interesting characters that will stick with me, but ultimately a plot that made little sense. Hard to understand the motivation of the main character, yet perhaps that is part of the story, given that it is about getting to a point in life where we do things that make absolutely NO sense. In any case, the crazy plot twists and reveals about "how all the characters come together" is here and at this kind of stuff the author shines. It is clear that her history as a writer for the "Arrested Development" tv show helped prepare her for writing this book.Read this one or don't -- you might like it or find it silly. But be aware that her next book of a very similar "nature" was a complete SUCCESS and is not to be missed. So reviews of this novel should do nothing if not BEG YOU to read her following one, "WHere'd You Go, Bernadette?" less

Download links for: This One is Mine

Advertising