This was one of the 3 books I had the most promise for, but it certainly is one if the books that I.am the most disappointed in. Its description presented itself more like a Sliding Doors type of set-up, where one small event like missing a subway train, can change your life.
But this book has a big event that.changes the protagonist, Ridley. One of the many ways this story is offputting is the use of the first person narrative. It’s used as a way to make it easier to connect to reader with character, to draw the reader in.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t work quite so well for me. The way Unger writes it seems to impose her thoughts on me, and I severely dislike that as I disagree with her on most points.
Her character, Ridley went to NYU -also where I went – but is absurdly closed minded about the way families, relationships, and life is until this one event happens. She seems to be having a delayed awakening and coming realizes that everything she had once believed is a lie. But at NYU, you tell to realize early on that people can be very different and your perception of the world will change quite rapidly, or in fact any progressive college will do that for you.
Unfortunately, it almost reads as if Lisa Unger merely picked NYU as her character’s college with ever having any insight at to what it is really like there.
The character of Ridley just seems to immature for someone nearing her 30s and not even in the way of I-stay-up-all-night-drinking-and-partying way (many NYers I feel have an extended college/drunken experience but that’s a topic for another day) but rather in I-have-the-same-ideologies-and-belief-system-that-I-did-when-I-five sort of way. It is quite sad and horrifying to read.
I wish I could stop – or at least Google the ending – but my desire to know the ending weighs on my mind more.
And there are good things about the book such as the way NYC plays a significant role. Unger takes on an exploratory tour of the East Village, naming places and restsurants which gives the story authenticity. Being a NYCer, I love books, films, etc. that celebrate and feature the city.
If only I could appreciate the other aspects of her story telling.
Unger just oversells the story. For example, in writing about Ridley’s love of lit Christmas trees in dark rooms, she uses two sentences – one to mention the Christmas tree in a dark room – then another sentence to describe her love of it. That additional – and rather pointless – information causes a break in the subdued tone of the scene.
If Unger wanted to convey that information, she could have easily written, “Max sat in the dark room in the gleam of sparkling lights on Christmas tree, which was – and contunues to be – one of my favorite sights.” As opposed to, “…[I] found uncle Max sitting by himself in the dim light of the room before our gigantic Christmas tree. That’s one of my favorite things in the world, the sight of a lit Christmas tree in a darkened room.” Both more or less convey the same message but the former is less jarring to the reader, is concise, and doesn’t break the tone of the scene.
But in that sense, it certainly a good exercise for writers to read in only to practice trying to create smoother transitions, creating concise sentences, and learning not to add superfluous information unrelated to the narrative.
But of all the things I have read thus far in this book, one statement has struck me the hardest.
The universe conspires to reveal the truth and make the path easy, if you have the courage to follow the signs.
The sentiment of that phrase is one of most meaningful and significant ones that I read. I only wish that it was a bot conciser but still it was beautifully written.
Writer Girl In NYC 