Coming Out [Import] [Hardcover]

Danielle Steel (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; Book Club (BCE/BOMC) edition (2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0593053338
• ISBN-13: 978-0593053331
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (58 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,807,318 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Danielle Steel has been hailed as one of the world's most popular authors, with over 590 million copies of her novels sold. Her many international bestsellers include 44 Charles Street, Legacy, Family Ties, Big Girl, Southern Lights, Matters of the Heart, One Day at a Time, and other highly acclaimed novels. She is also the author of His Bright Light, the story of her son Nick Traina's life and death.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Coming Undone, July 13, 2006

By 

Deborah Wolf "Creator of RomanceADay.com" (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Coming Out (Danielle Steel) (Danielle Steel) (Audio CD)

Meet Olympia, a mother of four, full-time lawyer, devoted wife and daughter-in-law - As sympathetic a character as you can ask for. When she receives an invitation for her twin daughters to be presented at a debutante ball in high-society fashion, she nostalgically thinks back to her own coming out and what an experience it was. With great anticipation, Olympia excitedly resolves to provide the same to them. At this point, the story has some possibilities, and Danielle Steel has already gotten me to both sympathize (if not identify), with her heroine, and enjoy her ability to paint a narrative. I figure I'm getting into maybe a 4-star book.

The "conflict" in the story comes from one picket-toting daughter's rebellion and Olympia's current husband Harry's adamant refusal to get involved in elitist high-society. The plot "thickens" by way of a multitude of mundane crises, ranging from chickenpox to lost gloves, which of course can only be dealt with by Olympia. While these crises were realistic, they were not funny, and actually rather depressing. The end, in particular, was anticlimactic.

Complete with shallow and unchanging characters, devoid of any passion, and very little humor, we get the sense that Danielle Steel has decided to simply write realism rather than romance. The story seemed so realistic that I actually felt stressed out while reading it. I gave it two stars, because for all its faults, Danielle Steel is still a master wordsmith, and she did start off with a promising story. But what a disappointment from first impressions!

Another thing worth mentioning is that this latest book is very short, and in the hardcover goes for under 200 pages. Yet as I write this, I'm sitting down with a well-worn copy of one of her old classics, "The Ring", an enchanting novel that goes for just under 500 pages and at a smaller typeset. I guess it's nice to remind myself of just how good she used to be. But even if you collect everything by Ms. Steel, you would be wise to avoid this one. Let's just hope she recovers her old flair soon.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Can a book be any triter?, September 23, 2006

By 

MiouMiou (Delaware) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Coming Out (Hardcover)

Oh, please, this book is just ridiculous and trite.

Here we have Olympia, the "perfect" modern woman, beautiful, a successful, high powered lawyer, who has the perfect job, gets to take every Friday off even (don't we all?), a perfect and wealthy husband who loves her dearly (but of course), two gorgeous twin teen-age daughters, one a "rebel" interested in protesting everything, the other a social butterfly (would you expect anything else?), a mother in law from heaven (An Auschwitz survivor - to bring a little pathos into the story) who she loves better than her own (dead) mother, (what other kind of mother in law could she be?) and a young, perfect son (naturally). Oh, did I leave anyone out? Let's see - she has her requisite ex-husband who naturally is an alcoholic and a complete jerk (hmm, nothing new there), with his silly new wife (well, did you expect her to be anything else?) , her one black friend (yes, keeping the story "real"), and oh yes, the real point of the "coming out" - not her beautiful twin daughter's coming out ball, but her eldest son admitting to her that he is gay, at the ball, of course, while she gazes up at him proudly with tears in her eyes. (let's bring the storyline right into today's headlines).

The book was so filled with cliches it was pathetic. From the husband taking a stand against going to the ball because it was against everything he believes in (while he is, naturally, fighting for the poor and downtrodden in his high powered legal job), to the ex-alcholic husband "playing the ponies" and living on his trust fund (has not worked in 15 years), to one of the twins getting a tattoo, which just almost destroys Olympia because the tattoo will show when the twin wears her dress to the ball, oh, but, handy survivor grandma to the rescue, who manages to sew a perfect stole by hand in one afternoon, after Olympia dashes around and naturally is able to find the material in the exact shade, weight and hue as the dress.

Of course this coming out ball is supposed to be for "WASP" society only, so the husband makes a stand by refusing to come to the ball. Olympia decides to make her own stand, by inviting her black friend and her husband, as well as her Auschwitz survivor mother in law, to the ball. In the days before the ball, the youngest son gets chicken pox, the mother in law falls down and breaks her ankle, one of the twins boyfriends breaks up with her, one of the twins loses a glove (chewed up by a friend's dog) and Olivia has to run out to buy a pair of manolo blahnik heels for her daughter. Oh, yes, and the twin's escort shows up to the ball with electric blue hair.

But, because Olympia is perfect, she manages to "fix" everything at the last minute . . did you expect anything less?

This book was just awful, and did not ring true at all. Each character was a cliche in themselves, way over the top. The premise of the story was ridiculous. . . I have read most of Danielle Steele's work, ok, so she is not Dostoyevsky, but her books were good for sitting down on a long afternoon with a nice cup of tea and reading a juicy and interesting story. This short book seemed like it was almost written because she had contractual obligations to fulfill. There was no passion, the sentences were short and stilted, and she seemed totally disinterested in her characters. Come on Danielle Steele, you can and have done a lot better than this!!!

Don't bother with this book. When I finished reading it I literally groaned, it was that bad.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Coming undone who have been a better title, August 2, 2006

By 

M. E. Newell (Georgia, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Coming Out (Hardcover)

I have been reading Danielle Steel book since the late 1980's, and it seem with each book, her writing get worst. Her early books were great, filled with romance, some far off place and over all great reads. In her latest book, Coming Out, Ms.Steel tells the story of a modern woman, who lets her daughters be present to society. This book had none of Ms.Steel's charm of earlier works. It like she wrote it for the pay check. If Ms. Steel wants to reclaim me as a fan, may she should go back and read some of earlier books any then maybe she will remember what made such a great writer.