Friday 8 August 2008

 

The latest culture as recommended by our staff

Clemency Burton-Hill
Clemency Burton-Hill

Clemency suggests


The Emperor’s Children

Thoughts, words and deeds

Claire Messud
Picador, 431pp, £14.99,
Jane Gardam
Thursday, 7th September 2006

This, Claire Messud’s fourth book, is a splendid American novel, contemporary yet historical, with an avalanche of characters flowing across the world from Australia to Manhattan to small-town America and to Florida. The time-span is a mere seven months, ending in the November after 9/11.

The emperor of the title, like the Wizard of Oz, has several different faces. Sometimes he is Napoleon, sometimes the unfortunate emperor of fairy tale who struts about naked until an innocent child shouts out that he is a dupe. Sometimes he has the face of a contemporary American national treasure called Murray Thwaite, a dedicated philosophical and political journalist whose message has always been the need to reform the whole ethos of the United States. He is a charmer, a popularist, touchingly, unrepentantly attached to whisky and cigarettes, a bon viveur, happily married but keen on women.

1 | 2  Next page 

Subscribe now

Post this entry to:   del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit

Comments

Post a comment


Your comment:*

Your name:*

Your email address:*
(We won't publish this)

*Required information

Please click the button only once - your comment will not be published immediately

Related articles

The desperate fate of Malcolm Lowry

Allan Massie

Allan Massie reflects on Malcolm Lowry

Recent crime novels

Andrew Taylor

Andrew Taylor reviews a selection of recent crime novels 

Letters from the Front

M. R. D. Foot

M. R. D. Foot on a collection of letters from WW1 soldiers

Good length delivery

John de Falbe

John De Walbe on Jennie Walker's novel

Deceit and dilemma

Simon Baker

Simon Baker reviews a collection of short stories by Tobias Wolff 

Spectator recommends

Sky - Official Site

Build your own Sky package online. Sky TV, Broadband & Talk only £16.

Sky TV, Broadband & Talk from £16 a Month

Sky TV & free broadband packages available from £16 a month. Choose from a standard free sky box, sky plus...


Spectator classifieds

ROME CENTRE

PORTA METRONIA, ROME Standing high on the top of one of the seven hills of Rome- the Coelian- this unique

City Breaks. ROME and PARIS

ROME and PARIS: over 350 holiday rentals apartments listed: visit  www.romanreference.com  and  www.parisreference.com or call +39 0648 903612.

Jewellery. RUFFS (Estd. 1904).

Goldsmiths by Design Welcome to Ruffs!  You have found a company of Goldsmiths that specialises in the manufacture, amongst other