I was given this book as part of a swap from a community on Livejournal. I really, really enjoyed Lucia, Lucia by the same when I read it a couple of years ago, and I thought that I might like to try some of her other books. Rococo was the first that I came across that didn’t require going to a regular bookstore to buy. Sure, it cost me $12 in international shipping, but the fact that it came with a personalized card inside made it all worth it. Nothing beats knowing that your “new” book was once enjoyed by someone else. (I do admit to enjoying brand new books just as much, though…)
Suffice it to say that I really, really wanted to like this book. In my experience, really, really wanting to like it generally leads to a big disappointment. Unfortunately, this book was no exception.
As someone who has no idea what Rococo actually is, I started the book with no real expectations other than the description on the back of the book, which in my experience, rarely gives the actual idea and scope of the storyline. This one did, come to think of it. From the outset, I felt there was far too much description and far too little plot. I never did figure out where the plot began and it was so weak that when it ended, where one should usually feel a sense of elation at things working out just the way they should, it just felt preachy in the pretty little group ending. Honestly, it felt like the ending of a sub-par movie that never really got its plot off of the ground.
When I say too much description, please bear in mind that I love descriptive works. I love to have an appropriate amount of description of clothes, settings, scenes and decor - when it is right. I felt like the main character, who is an interior designer, was used as an excuse to describe everything. Recipes show up in the middle of scenes, descriptions down to the most minute detail are given about most of the characters at one point or another, focusing mainly on what the character is wearing rather than their own features. It was only mildly annoying at the beginning and became more and more maddening as the story progressed. I do not want to hear about how the ottoman was decorated with short, purple fringe against an avacado fabric rather than the long drippy fringe that was iconic of the 1920’s. I would rather have some plot. The recipes felt out of place in the middle of the story and I think they would have been better suited at the end of the book. For one, if people want to make them, then they won’t have to try to find the recipes somewhere in the middle of the book and for another, I won’t have to read them or at least skip over them to continue with the story. As far as I’m concerned, the recipes were speed bumps which did irreparable damage to the story.
The main character was more a source of irritation than of pleasant reading. He was petulant, selfish and constantly in denial about something. Well, when he wasn’t telling the other characters how to live their own lives. This main character was flawed, and not in the human-and-I-want-to-read-about-him kind of way. He was annoying. He was exactly the kind of person who I want to spend as little time as possible with. And yet I read nearly 400 pages of him as a vessel to the other characters.
To be frank, this book started out vaguely promising and ended up as a waste of my time. The ending was sweet but I wasn’t convinced to like the characters enough to actually care in the end. My recommendation would be not to read this one if you don’t have to.
Oh, and while I’m here, I looked up rococo because nowhere in the book can I find a reference to what the hell it actually is, and if I gain nothing else from this book, I will gain a definition:
- ro·co·co
- 1. A style of architecture and decoration, originating in France about 1720, evolved from Baroque types and distinguished by its elegant refinement in using different materials for a delicate overall effect and by its ornament of shellwork, foliage, etc.
- 2. A homophonic musical style of the middle 18th century, marked by a generally superficial elegance and charm and by the use of elaborate ornamentation and stereotyped devices.
- 3. (initial capital letter) Fine Arts.
- Noting or pertaining to a style of painting developed simultaneously with the rococo in architecture and decoration, characterized chiefly by smallness of scale, delicacy of color, freedom of brushwork, and the selection of playful subjects as thematic material.
- Designating a corresponding style of sculpture, chiefly characterized by diminutiveness of Baroque forms and playfulness of theme.
- 4. Of, pertaining to, in the manner of, or suggested by rococo architecture, decoration, or music or the general atmosphere and spirit of the rococo: rococo charm.
- 5. Ornate or florid in speech, literary style, etc.
Posted by Laura on July 12, 2008 at 7:20 AM
Tags: books, review
No Comments »