Customer Reviews

Rameau's Niece

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

 

 

I just had to write something to offset the only review this book has been given here. Rameau's Niece is a terrific book- a clever and often very funny send-up of the world of academia and the timeless chasm between human intelligence and the human sex drive. The characters aren't *meant* to be likeable. They're generally bewildered intellectuals and wannabe hedonists, meant to be entertaining.

Take a chance. Buy this book.

I also want to respond to that bitterly negative one-star review. I'd say that I've read *Rameau's Niece* six times at least, with undiminished enjoyment. It does appeal primarily to a narrow audience (it was recommended to me when I was in graduate school), but I resent the reviewer presuming to speak for everyone in roundly asserting that reading it is "a waste of time." Reading it has been some of the best time I've ever spent.

Read this book. It's fun in a literary sort of way, so if you're not into that kind of thing, then you might want to give it a miss. I love reading and aspire to be one of those arty, high brow literary types but know I can't, so I read books like these to live vicariously through the characters. But seriously, enough with the bad reviews already! This is an entertaining, quirky, and humorous read. Sure, the characters are annoying at times... but they're meant to be that way, and besides, name one person in your own life who isn't. There you go! So read this book (be sure to have a cup of coffee and some cookies nearby, because it's just that sort of book) and come back here and tell us how much you enjoyed it.

The heroine of Schine's witty, often hilarious novel of lust and marriage, identity and obsession, Margaret Nathan, is a young academic whose scholarly book about an obscure 18-century French female anatomist "crept" onto the bestseller list and "settled in," the latest unread rage among feminists. Success spares her a teacher's fate -- the agony of intellectual exposure. For Margaret is forgetful. Not charmingly absent-minded but mortifyingly blank.

Dinner parties are silent mine fields of forgotten names and accomplishments, "unable to ask the question because of a feeling that she ought already to know the answer but didn't...." But Margaret shines at research, hungry for knowledge to entrance her mind until supplanted by the next project.

Edward, her charming, urbane, ebullient and beamingly egotistical husband insists "that her appalling memory was cleansing, that she came to everything fresh." He forgets nothing. Their marriage, a perfect complement, is replete with satisfaction and love
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But Margaret, falling under the spell of an anonymous 18th-century libertine manuscript, "Rameau's Niece," chafes at too much contentment. "Margaret was a demanding person, hard on herself, certainly; harder by far on everyone else." She determines, like some inept Don Juan, to discover herself through lustful experimentation.

Margaret's dangerous mood, her crankiness and panics are all hilariously realistic. The trouble is the manuscript that caused the trouble in the first place. Full of obscure references, plagiarisms and academic jokes, it's full of pitfalls for the forgetful Margaret and the averagely educated reader.

Nobody likes to feel they're missing the point and Schine, ("To the Birdhouse") scinitillatingly aware, makes a joke even of this-- assuming the reader makes it that far. A delightfully written novel, with a disappointingly muddled middle.

I loved this book. What it says about love on its final page is so true. The main character has her flaws, sure, but don't we all? I identified with her more because of them. You'll probably like this book if you're familiar with academic theory; otherwise you might not recognize some of the jokes/types.

actually barely managed to finish this. tried to appreciate the satire, the (ponderous musing), the literary references, but just didn't care...main character boring, silly in spite of her braininess. husband an academic stereotype...good part? her lack of memory, a true challenge ...

Who is this person, Margaret, and why should I care about her problems? Because I could not answer these basic questions, I stopped reading on page 100. I simply could not relate to her or her life. She accidentally wrote a best selling book and she has the nerve to be whining!! But that's beside the point. I really wanted to enjoy this. I liked Schine's "The Love Letter" a lot. But this was sooooo pretentious. I stopped reading the inserts from the book-within-the-book after dragging my way through one or two boring, opaque selections. There were other parts of the book I didn't understand because they were about academics. Let those in the know enjoy. The rest of us would prefer to have the author help us out. Just for your information, I like complex books. Last year I read Anna Karinena (sorry about the spelling). It was wonderful, deep, complex but understandable.

This book was chosen in our book group for the humor category....what a waste of time. Several members did not bother to finish it. The characters were not likable and we couldn't see a purpose for the story. We all agreed that this was probably the worst book we'd ever chosen/read in the 5+ years of our group. Don't bother!