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Summary: Everything a Novel Should Be: Peter Cameron's new "City"
Review: After reading his prior novels (particularly "The Weekend" and "Andorra"), I've come to expect that Peter Cameron's novels will be beautifully crafted and full of rich, human dialogue and insight. Peter Cameron's new novel, "The City of Your Final Destination," met my expectations and then some. Like his other works, "City" is full with wonderful yet unassuming prose and dialogue, and intelligent observations on modern life. What makes "City" really special, though, is its generosity towards its characters and their fortunes. The novel recounts, without any of that easy cynicism, but with lots of humor, an exiled and splintered family's coming to terms with a beguiling offer from a young graduate student who descends upon them unannounced. Never syruppy or sentimental, Cameron warmly shows us what it's like today to try, all at once, to do the right thing by all, the best thing for yourself and, in the process, manage to carve out a little love and happiness. Not an easy task, but when rendered with heart and pluck by Peter Cameron, it makes for great, rewarding reading. Enjoy.
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Summary: He can do much better than this!
Review: After The Weekend and Andorra, both of which were sophisticated and fascinating, City of Your Final Destination does not completely succeed, mainly because -- I think -- of the stilted and unnatural dialogue. Very unlike Peter Cameron, who can do much better than this!
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Summary: No proper research about Uruguay
Review: First of all I would like to say that I am from Uruguay. I bought this novel not only because I read good reviews, but also because the story happens in my country. This is the first Peter Cameron's novel I read. Although I liked the story, the characters and the way it was written, I found it disappointing that he knows almost nothing about Uruguay. I admit that this novel could have happened in any country in the world, just being distant from the USA. I think the place is not very important for the development of the novel, but once he chose Uruguay I think he could have done a better research about the country and our customs. He wrote several wrong statements about the country, the landscape, the food we eat and our customs. Even I know that while writing a novel the author can made up everything, those statements where disappointing for me.
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Summary: Enchanting
Review: I just read Peter Cameron's new novel after reading its glowing review in the New York Times. I'd read and enjoyed his other novels and short stories, and so I was happy to see that he had a new novel out. This one is more light-hearted than his other books but doesn't sacrifice any of the elements that made the other books satisfying to me. His elegant writing and almost uncanny way with dialogue is still on display. Most important for me, though, is the way Cameron manages to convey so much about his characters in such few words. Each of the characters is interesting and unique. It's a really fine book.
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Summary: Cameron slightly off form
Review: I liked this book...but I must say I was somewhat disapointed,,,,,it does not compare to Andorra or Weekend, two of Cameron's earlier books that I had read,,,,and, I don't know if this ever happens to you but I had just finished Minton's A Fine Balance.. a book I found incredibly compelling and was so emotionally caught up in it that this latest book of Cameron's just paled by comparison....there was something essentially missign from this book -- I did like the characterizations, but I found some of the dialogue beyond eccentric and just a bit unrealistic...I liked it ..but I didn't love it..and it left me feeling somewhat unfulfilled until the very end....the ending sort of reminded me a bit of Bel Canto, in it's attempt to tie up loose ends in a very conventional and convenient manner.
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Summary: Grossly over-rated
Review: I picked up this book off the street in San Francisco - it was the best-looking of a pile that someone had put out on the sidewalk. I should have left it there.
The plot is poor, the characters pathetic. It's all very derivative. Even the "authentic-sounding" "Ochos Rios" is lousy Spanish. "Eight rivers" is "Ocho Rios" (no S on ocho) in Spanish. In fact, there is an "Ochos Rios" in Jamaica. Maybe he should have set it in Jamaica - there is certainly no sign that the author visited Uruguay - it might as well be set in Iowa for all the real local detail we get.
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Summary: As good as a novel gets...
Review: I read this wonderful novel after reading Richard Eder's rave review in The New York Times. For once, a critic's hype was absolutelyl justified. I haven't read a more beautifully written and satisfying -- not to mention howlingly funny -- novel in ages. Peter Cameron gives you everything you want from a novel (or at least everything I want): amazingly complex and sympathetic characters, a gorgeous depiction of scene and event (it's no wonder Eder claims the book would make a fantastic movie -- you can almost see the movie as you read the book, it's so vivid and alive), the smartest, wittiest, most moving dialogue of any contemporary writer, and a hurtling plot that encompasses all sorts of human questions of morals and manners and love. The book is a light as a summer breeze, but has considerable depth -- it is explores its moral quandries with the sort of effortless, sure touch of E. M. Forster. My tastes may be old-fashioned, but I didn't think people were writing novels like this anymore: smart, beautiful, supremely moving. No cynicism or authorial ego here. Yes, it's conventional, but wow is it a wonderful book.
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Summary: The City of Your Final Destination
Review: I was thoroughly riveted by this novel. The characters were very well framed, complete with human foibles and touchingly human. There is a certain melancholy to this story but also deft touches of humor. Cameron's ability to set a scene, whether in the U.S. or Uruguay is achieved in few words but in beautiful language. Both the dialogue and the structure seem perfect. The unfamiliar setting affects the reader as much as it does the main characters and allows both to see things differently. A must read.
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Summary: How did this get published?
Review: Many readers rated this book highly, but I thought it was terrible (at least the first 50 pages; that's as far as I got). The plot is a good one, but it doesn't get fleshed out right. The writing, in general, is trite and stiff. The dialogue is peppered with amateurish prompts and awkward explanations of what a character just said. Example:
"and I remember how happy I was once."
"Why were you happy?"
"I forget. Who knows? It is enough to remember the fact of the happiness. I'm sure I was happy. Otherwise I would never have bought such a beautiful tie."
"It's not beautiful now," said Pete. "It's stained."
"Is it?" Adam leaned toward his reflection. "It looks fine to me. I am really happy to be losing my sight. Everything looks fine to me. It is the best evidence I know that there is a God."
"What?" (Convenient prompt so he can do more explaining)
"That he dims our vision as we age. Otherwise it would be too horrible to bear. Especially for those who were beautiful when they were young."
"Were you beautiful when you were young?" (Computer generated response)
This is not how people talk, it is how characters in bad lit talk.
Or how about this for stiff prose?
"Good evening, Adam," said Carloine. She did not turn around.
"Good evening," said Adam.
"Please don't say anything more about my painting," said Caroline.
"All right," said Adam, "Except really, the colors --,"
"Please," said Caroline.
This guy really likes the word "said," said the reviewer. He sure does, said the reader. That and other problems make this book is a real stinker, said the reviewer. Thanks for the warning, said the reader.
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Summary: Amazing novel - brilliant dialogue and characterisation
Review: Not many people would have heard of Peter Cameron's "The City Of Your Final Destination (COYFD)" had it not garnered a brace of rave notices from book critics and found itself on the shortlist for the PEN/FaulknerAward. I'm just grateful it came to my attention because it's a priceless gem and one of the most offhandedly brilliant and enduring works of literature I have read . Omar Razaghi desperately needs to obtain authorisation for the publication of the biography of little known novelist Jules Gund but the executors of the late author's estate won't grant it. He needs to change their mind or his university career is over. Egged on by his American girlfriend Deirdre, Omar hops on board a plane and arrives in Uruguay unannounced to do just that. Unbeknown to him, his visit would alter the course of his own life and that of the three executors who chose to languish - frozen in time - in a remote residence in Ochos Rios, inaccessible to casual callers and in a state of uneasy mutual coexistence. Omar's effect on the tired chemistry that binds the wife (Caroline), the mistress (Arden) and the brother (Adam) to each other is imperceptible but real and by the time the story draws to a close, the alignments would have changed forever. Apart from its tantalisingly exotic premise, COYFD is distinguished by its gloriously pristine dialogue and absolutely marvellous characterisation. Not many writers are capable of writing dialogue of this quality. It's deceptively easy, but eloquent and true and stays well clear of the mundane. The sparkling dialogue that fills the pages never less than illuminates the souls of its characters, each of whom is vividly drawn and etched in our minds. Omar was tentative, uncertain and confused when he set out for Uruguay. Little did he know that it would lead to a journey of self-discovery that would locate the final resting place for his unsettled soul. All it took was the sting of a honey bee. Deirdre, the pushy, conventional minded American girlfriend, grows increasingly irritating as the plot develops but shows her redeeming qualities in the end. Adam, the aging gay brother, is a genius creation of fiction - never a caricature - and not surprisingly given the novel's sharpest and funniest lines. Caroline has a deep dark secret to hide and is all control and repression. She exudes pure unadulterated negative energy. Arden, on the other hand, isn't quite ready to close the chapter on her life. She is quietly waiting in the wings for someone to extend a hand to yank her back to the land of the living. The careful reader will have observed Cameron's use of differentiating imagery for the two women, dead flowers for Caroline and fresh flowers for Arden. How apt. Peter Cameron's "The City Of Your Final Destination" stands tall among other great contemporary novels of today. It is to my mind far superior to many other overpraised titles and deserves a much wider readership than it gets. One of the best novels to have been published in 2002. Highly recommended.
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