A Fortunate Age by Joanna Smith Rakoff

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I recently finished reading a preliminary version of a happy Joanna Smith Rakoff of the EGM and although I finished the book and I found interesting, was not part of the Turner deal for me.

The novel recalls "The Group" by Mary McCarthy, this is a group of university students trying to get ahead in life and both books begin with a wedding. During the story of McCarthy plays in the thirties, Rakoff said in the nineties.

Lil, a scientist marriedand friends, a group of Oberlin students gather for the wedding. There is Beth, wants to be an English teacher, her ex-boyfriend, Dave, a piano prodigy at a time, Emily, an actress from hunger, from the Valley, a successful actor and Sadie, editor. The novel is more like a series of studies on the nature of their work, family relationships, and then, a coherent story with a realistic plot.

We know that marriage is unexpected and surprising friends Lil ', but never a sense ofLil was like this moment in their lives. His character is not developed and has long been the first to understand better. Although the number of characters in the first chapter, it is difficult to track who have been subjected. I was not interested in any of them and do not feel sorry for them or against them.

The amount of detail on small things in life, is exaggerated to the point of irritation. However, much of naturelives have been omitted. In a chapter Beth has sex with a man impotent worrying that she would never marry. Halfway through the story, we discover that they are incurred. The reader never learns what brought them to this point. Yes, the characters develop and grow, but the reader does not know that the transformative experience with them. Especially if we are interested in a character on another side we are. The framework is also described in detail, neighborhoods, streets andRestaurants in New York.

I came to read, hoping to light that appears in conflict, but in the end I put the book disappointed. Rakoff is a good writer, but his attempt to represent an era and characters as diverse as it was too ambitious.

Publisher: Scribner (April 2009)

ISBN: 978-1416590774

416 p.