Customer Reviews

Lunch

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

 

 

Although I found some of the sex scenes repetitive and somewhat repellent, I continued reading in hopes that the past of "M" would be revealed. This hope was disappointed, only brief glimpses were allowed. I think this is part of the reason I didn't make a deep connection with the characters, I didn't know them well enough.

The story line was interesting, as was the obsessive downward spiral of the relationship. The ending was ambiguous, but certainly fit the scope of the novel.

This is no feminist manifesto. It's clumsily written and the "shocking" sexual situations are the most common that you could imagine. Still, it's a lot of fun, a guilty pleasure with some mystery and grace- just not much. I enjoyed it thoroughly and would read anything this author wrote even though I might hide it under the bed if I had dinner guests.

Tedious. It's rare that I speed through a book solely for the purpose of getting to the end of it so I can throw it down and get to a better book, but this was certainly the case with "Lunch". This formula has been done before, more engagingly and intricately, by better writers. The author's attempt at provocation fails miserably and the book reads like an over-dramatized romance novel with a buffoon for a central character. The author also has a tendency to build up to nothing which I first noticed in "Belladonna", (which was, nevertheless, better written and more engaging than "Lunch", due to the narrator's viewpoint of the story and a more developed plot and central characters). This novel may have been quite the scandal if it were written in 1940, but it certainly doesn't cut it today. Lunch? No thanks.

This is not the type of book I normally read, but I'm glad I took a chance on "Lunch." As a writer myself, I found Moline's tale thoroughly compelling. Her characterization's sharp and believable, her narrative as breathless and urgent as the relationship between her protagonists, and though her dialogue's a little off, it didn't get in the way of my enjoyment of her story. Nick and Olivia's haunting affair tapped into something deep with my soul, and I'm not at all sure how I feel about that!

LUNCH is a book that is clearly not for the average reader. The story is a rollercoaster ride into the black abyss of sexual obsession gone off the cliff! The characters are among the most arresting that I've ever read, and the prose is sharp and clear with an intensity quite appropriate for this tale. Towards the end of the book, you might even find a poignancy that brings you even deeper into the heart of the story's main character, movie star Nick Muncie. This LUNCH is a readable feast-eat it up!

This is not the type of book I normally read, but I took a chance and am very glad I did. This author writes in prose as urgent as the relationship between her protagonists, Nick and Olivia. Her dialogue's not the best, but her characterization's sharp and believable and managed to make me care about characters who are obviously quite sick! She managed, through them, to tap into something within my soul--and frankly, I'm not quite sure how I feel about that. But as a writer myself, I'm quite impressed with her work. As a reader, I'm exhausted!