Customer Reviews

Attachment

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Attachment has been advertised as a "bold" fictional debut that "reaches from the Indian Ocean to London and New York" and "into the most confounding precincts of the human heart." While the other claims are arguable, it's certainly confounding. The biggest question is, why would anyone care about the protagonist when she demonstrates nothing but the most humorless pomposity and self-obsession? Her every other character is a cardboard cut-out, and the prose is so overwritten as to be indigestible. In the end, who could blame the fictional husband for having an affair?

I read Fonseca's non-fiction study of the gypsies, which had an engrossing subject but was not well organized. I had hoped that her interesting life had led her to write engaging fiction, and I was moved to buy the book after reading about it in the New York Times.

From the start, I was not at all convinced by the character's behaviors. I needed much more psychological background about what would drive a woman to pretend to be her husband and correspond with the "other woman." It is unclear why the woman chooses not to confront her husband.

The characters of this book did not feel fully evolved. The dialogue, especially that of the American characters, did not read as truly American in style. Much of what they said resembled English phrasing (where Fonseca now lives) rather than American. When the characters are in New York, one should feel that through the language.

Characters in the book exit and enter scenes clumsily. Sometimes someone has seemed to have left the scene, but suddenly, there they are again. I beleive the editors did Fonseca a disservice by not catching more of these little inconsistencies.

I was really ready to enjoy this book, but is feel flat with me. I really tried to make myself read it, but why, I am not sure.

Having read the endless puff about Fonseca in the New York Times and other publications, I was expecting a graceful and intelligent piece of work. Attachment is neither. How this talentless woman ever got this book published in the first place is beyond me. (Marriage to a famous author, anyone?)

Attachment is Isabel Fonseca's fiction debut. This is a book about a woman who is, on the surface, pretty comfortable with her life, as a writer living on a remote island with her husband. That is, until she finds a risque letter to her husband. This initiates a whole string of emails between the woman and her husband's lover. The woman seems to be in the midst of a self-image breakdown as she's dealing with insecurity, deceit, dishonesty and manipulation from every relationship she is a part of.

There are almost no developing relationships that really give you insight into who she is, or even was, at some point in her life. There is very little actual attachment in these relationships at all. There are classic appearances of an overbearing mother, an ex-boyfriend, a past lover, and an insensitive and overachieving co-worker. The language used by the main character seems odd in some areas of the book. There are few areas where the basic vocabulary used by the characters were substituted by obscure words the reader will have to look up. Upon reading the book, the reader could become a bit confused as to who the antagonists are. There are quite a few and some even flip back and forth in the end. The ending is a bit unbelievable and doesn't really have much cohesion.

I read this based on good critical reviews. Boy, was I disappointed! I found the main character to be completely unlikeable and not fully developed. Indeed, none of the characters were relatable or likeable. It also seemed like the author started many different plots and dropped them just as quickly. This book isn't worth your time or energy and I echo the other reviewers who wondered how it even got published.

Worse than boring... boring with delusions of Serious Insight. The main character's life is so dull that she extrapolates from ordinary events a series of crises to serve as a sort of vacation from her own monotony. But rather than realizing this or showing any insight or growth whatsoever, we are presented with each of these imagined and proximal tragedies as major plot points even though none of them ever go anywhere or amount to anything. I finished the book only to see if she really was going to complete an entire book consisting entirely of false alarms as the plot, and sure enough, she did. A terrible waste of time and paper.

I bought this tedious exercise in vanity imagining that Martin Amis had had a hand in editing it; I was wrong. Fonseca is a talentless fiction writer. I didn't care what happened to any of the rigid, spiritually bankrupt characters, or their meaningless little lives.

This is an excellent novel: sly, sophisticated, funny, contemporary. It evokes a wonderful sense of place, reveals characters and their relationships in all their ambiguity and complexity (and what relationship is not complex and ambiguous?) and begins with the glorious premise: just how far can a misunderstanding unravel a marriage? It's worth reading just for the wise asides. I was confused by some of the other reviews - what mealy-mouthed planet are these readers on? Confound them! I could not put this book down.

A long way from being an insightful look at infidelity - which is what I was looking for - Attachment is an excuse for Fonseca to waffle on (and on ... and on ...) about herself and her (incorrectly) self-diagnosed brilliance. Her contempt for husband Martin Amis is also obvious, and seriously creepy. I found "The Other Woman" to be a superior read in every way, and also much more telling in terms of infidelity and its impact on marriage.

My book club and I would highly recommend it! Jean was hilarious she was like part of us. Some of us could relate to her It was a story well told and a great book for others to sit back and read.

- from the literature circle of Women

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