Turn of the Century

Rating:
Summary: Is it art imitating life, or the other way around?
Review: This book has marvelously drawn characters and a deft plot. But what lingers in my mind are the constant, droll little absurdities that abound in the characters' world, understated seeming little asides which charactertize postmodern American urban and media life. And give Andersen credit that he was actually prescient, in that things we accept as unremarkable are getting more postmodern and more absurd all the time. Every time I see or read about something like the Secretary of the Treasury touring the Third World with Bono, I think to myself, "this is just like something out of 'Turn of the Century.'"

Rating:
Summary: Is it art imitating life, or the other way around?
Review: This book has marvelously drawn characters and a deft plot. But what lingers in my mind are the constant, droll little absurdities that abound in the characters' world, understated seeming little asides which charactertize postmodern American urban and media life. And give Andersen credit that he was actually prescient, in that things we accept as unremarkable are getting more postmodern and more absurd all the time. Every time I see or read about something like the Secretary of the Treasury touring the Third World with Bono, I think to myself, "this is just like something out of 'Turn of the Century.'"

Rating:
Summary: A Postmodern Trollope
Review: This is one of those books that buzzes in your head for weeks after you've read it. "Turn of the Century" is loaded with dazzling riffs and observations about contemporary life, of course, but the people in it are equally memorable and sharply drawn. You really start to see folks you know in light of characters from Andersen's novel. ("Oh, he's a sort of Timothy Featherstone type," I found myself saying of an acquaintance.) The satire -- of the worlds of media and entertainment -- is unsparing, and yet the book has surprising warmth. Andersen has pulled off something remarkable here: a 21st-century version of Trollope's "The Way We Live Now." It's really true: the novel is stippled with present-day counterparts of Augustus Melmotte, Sir Felix Carbury, and the rest of Trollope's immortal cast. As with Trollope, Andersen's essential humanity infuses the book with a sense of worldly compassion. (Tom Wolfe seems tinny and shrill by comparison.) "Turn of the Century" is a novel that will make you laugh out loud, without feeling bad about it later. I can't remember when I've had a better time with a novel, or learned so much along the way.

Rating:
Summary: One unused to dispose of
Review: Turn of the century continues to serve a most useful purpose, months after I gave up on it. I have a door that rattles if it's not wedged open and T-o-C is just big enough and heavy enough to do the job on its own. I struggled, oh how I struggled to try and even begin to understand some of the characters. I stirred the pages wildly while I waited for the plot to thicken. I fought against closing eyelids while the book became heavier and heavier. I searched my abridged guide to good grammar to see if I had missed a couple of chapters explaining that sentences after all don't need a subject, a verb and an object - or even a permutation of two out of three. I left it on the front doorstep hoping somebody would steal it. I offered it to my neighbor so he could jack up his car. I considered lighting the fire with it. I wondered whether, if I took just a few pages a day, I could eat it and get rid of the evidence. I offered it to my mother-in-law for Christmas. I took it scuba diving with me instead of a weight belt. And then, eventually, voila! The rattling door! What a fine tome T-o-C is. Another few hundred pages [...] and I could have used it as a sea anchor for the Titanic.

Rating:
Summary: Terrible. It's boring, slow and dull... and stupid.
Review: Turn of the Century is so boring and slow moving that it's not worth reading. In the first half of the book, literally close to nothing happens. Added to which, Anderson makes the book so convoluted it's like a badly executed Altman ensemble drama. It's impossible to keep track of all of these characters and formulate a good idea of what they're actually like. Added to which, the highly trumpeted 'Tom Wolfe' style satire in the book is so blunt and obvious that one wonders how many made the connection between Anderson and the esteemed writer of 'Bonfire of the Vanities'. Bottom line: boring, dull and pretty stupid really.