Truly Madly Guilty
Liane Moriarty is great when I want a quick-plotted, entertaining read. She creates incredibly detailed, flawed characters who balance the line of "people I never want to meet" and "people I can unfortunately relate to somehow". She places them in difficult situations and watches everything unravel. And then she tries to tie everything up in the happiest ending possible. Sometimes this works, other times it comes across as trite or manipulative.
This book focuses on three couples who attend a BBQ where Something Bad happens. The first half of the book is devoted to teasing out what that Something Bad is while everyone copes (or fails to cope) with the aftermath. The book alternates between the day of the BBQ (starting early in the morning, well before anything has happened), and the fallout a few months later. Moriarty does this to tease out her big reveal for as long as possible.
The problem is that she goes on a bit too long. The first half of the book really drags. It hits a point where you almost don't care what happens at the BBQ because nothing could really justify the behavior of the various adults.
After the big reveal, the books stops being so coy and gets a lot better, in my opinion. Around the events of the BBQ is an interesting portrait of three marriages in various degrees of stability and the fracturing friendships among the people in those marriages. They're all dealing with a huge amount of baggage, and some of it is more exasperating than others.
This wasn't my favorite book, but it's not the worst of Moriarty's either. And at the end of the day, I'm probably going to keep buying and reading her books. They're incredibly easy to get my hands on, they go by quickly, and I know exactly what I'm getting in to. Sometimes you just need something that's a bit entertaining and a bit mindless to get you through the rest of your life.
This book focuses on three couples who attend a BBQ where Something Bad happens. The first half of the book is devoted to teasing out what that Something Bad is while everyone copes (or fails to cope) with the aftermath. The book alternates between the day of the BBQ (starting early in the morning, well before anything has happened), and the fallout a few months later. Moriarty does this to tease out her big reveal for as long as possible.
The problem is that she goes on a bit too long. The first half of the book really drags. It hits a point where you almost don't care what happens at the BBQ because nothing could really justify the behavior of the various adults.
After the big reveal, the books stops being so coy and gets a lot better, in my opinion. Around the events of the BBQ is an interesting portrait of three marriages in various degrees of stability and the fracturing friendships among the people in those marriages. They're all dealing with a huge amount of baggage, and some of it is more exasperating than others.
This wasn't my favorite book, but it's not the worst of Moriarty's either. And at the end of the day, I'm probably going to keep buying and reading her books. They're incredibly easy to get my hands on, they go by quickly, and I know exactly what I'm getting in to. Sometimes you just need something that's a bit entertaining and a bit mindless to get you through the rest of your life.
Comments
Post a Comment