Customer Reviews

Gorgeous Lies

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

I had no idea that this book was a sequel and I thought it held together very well. I'll probably go back and read the first book but I didn't feel I'd missed anything.
Anton is dying of pancreatic cancer and his life flashes before him and before his wives and children.
The various voices in the novel were sometimes confusing at first but they lent themselves to a real picture of Anton and his life and death.
I found the religious thoughts of Anton fascinating and I also found him disgusting much of the time. Family relationships are always difficult and McPhee writes of each member well.
There were many lies in this story and we don't always know who is telling the truth. We do get a good picture of a man's life and how control can be lost or won.

Somewhere between the beautiful prose and richly drawn character a novel lurks. Unfortunately, I was never able to find it. As I read I became deeply enthralled with the characters, but as in a nineteenth century Russian novel, there were too many and I had to flip pages back to determine who was whom. The language was intoxicating yet like a too fragrant flower, it became a bit tiresome and finally irritating. I so wanted this book to work because it is a rich experience, but the plot, what there is of it, never really takes hold. Will I read the first book, now that I realize this is a sequel? Probably, but not right away.

This book seems to be a memoir. The "story" could work as a play. But a novel? No way.

Nothing happens.

Ever.

The first chapter is 13 pages long and encompasses a very brief conversation of a few repetetive sentences interspersed through lots and lots of blather. The rest is pretty much the same thing.

I get that the author had a very unusual upbringing and that her stepfather was interesting, kinky, and charismatic. And he was definitely from Texas, since we're told that in practically every paragraph.

I imagine this is the kind of snooze-inducing analytical crap that therapists have to listen to all day long.

I was stunned to find out this is a sequel. I can't believe the author even got an agent, much less a publishing deal. Truly, one of the worst books I've ever tried to read.

This book is so confusing. There are so many different characters and timelines going on that it's difficult to understand. The characters bored me, frankly. Each new chapter was like reading a different unrelated book. Definitely pass on this one!

The POV remains a question and where the title came from is a mystery. Why would a girl kill her father if she loved him dearly? How can one man have that many afairs in a single lifetime? How can one man have that many children from different women in a single lifetime? How can that many women justify having a lustrious afair with a man who slept with more women than Hugh Hefner? The book was strange and it didn't have an exact ending. Nothing was accomplished and it bored me, frankly. Skip this one and move onto All The Finest Girls.