Customer Reviews

The Romantics

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

 

 

with the cast of "The Big Chill". I didn't much care for Niederhoffer's first novel, "A Taxonomy of Barnacles". In fact, I didn't finish it (rare for me, actually). Her writing was just way too "precious". It's as if she was trying to channel the "Royal Tenenbaums" and it just didn't work.

This novel, her second, is much better. Not "5 star" better, but at least readable. The same cast of rich WASPs who populated the wedding family of the "Philadelphia Story" are here, complete with domineering mother, bratty little sister (called here "Minnow" - oh, don't you just love the nicknames the rich give each other?)and marginalised father. The bride, whether named "Tracy" or "Lila", is the same blond goddess we've seen before and will see again.

The supporting players of the wedding, the "wedding party" is made up of "Big Chill" extras. While Niederhoffer tries to give the three groomsmen and the three bridesmaids some individual identities for the reader to respond to, I'm afraid all six just sorta merge into one big pile of late 20's Yalies.

The two "stars" of the book are Laura, the maid of honor, who has had an off-and-on relationship with Tom, the groom-to-be since college 10 years earlier. Tom had basically flitted from Laura to Lila, back and forth over a ten year period, and now, has found himself marrying Lila. Not for any good reason, it seems, because he has always loved Laura. Laura and Lila have also been "best friends" for this period, not best friends who truly love each other, but best friends competing for the same man, so they have to keep each other in clear sight.

This book is pretty good, and it's not long, so if you're so inclined, dear reader, go to it!

This is just the kind of novel I love -- lots of insight into human nature and social mores, beautifully written, scandals and mini-drama within a small group of friends (9 twenty-somethings who all went to Yale together), suspense -- all takes place during one wedding weekend. I devoured the book.

I'm so glad that my friends and I are not that screwed up. With that being said it was hard for me to like this book at times. It went back and forth between points of view and though some of the characters were interesting some of them were too self centered. It felt like I was skimming the paragraphs rather than reading. The author has a plethora of knowledge when it come to etiquette. I really didn't know how snotty some people could be. I really liked the ending to this book because up until the very end your still not sure which way its going to end up. Even though I'd tell him to go fly a kite.

I bought this book after seeing the movie on TV a few months ago. To be honest, I had never even heard of the movie, even though there are some well known names in it. The movie interested me, but I really felt like there was a lot I was missing. I decided to search for the book and found it here on Amazon. I am so glad I bought this book. As with most movies, there is simply no way to convey everything that you can with a book. Then ending of the book is far more clear, and everything before it just makes more sense in print. You get a far greater sense of the thoughts, motivations, and feelings of these characters.

I rarely write reviews, but I couldn't resist.
The Romantics is a story that aims to please, but falls short of doing so.
The story is predictable and contrived. Set in Maine and New Hampshire, the story takes place over a two-day period of time, where college buddies reunite for a wedding. Typical WASPY rich folk from New England, the characters are wholly unlikable. Not just the main characters, all of the characters. Even the little sister and the grandmother. Not a likable one in the bunch, for various reasons. Without giving anything away, the story ends how you imagine it will.
The book was also flawed in that there were a few contradictions-one in a discussion between 2 characters, of the color of the bridesmaid dresses, another during a memory of 2 characters' time spent together-the number of 'times' these characters had seen each other does not match up...within the same paragraph on the same page. There may have been other contradictions as well, but I can't be bothered to recall them at the moment.
That being said, it was a quick and easy read, so I carried on with the book and got through it.
As someone who loves sharing books with friends, this will not be one I recommend to anyone.

Terrible. I wanted to see the movie, so I bought the book to read first, but the book annoyed and bored me so much I no longer care about seeing the movie. As a general rule, I try to finish bad books in case something redeeming surfaces toward the end, so I finished this one despite wanting desperately for it to be over from the first page. I'm so bored just thinking about it that I can barely muster this review, but I want to warn you all. It's shallow, contrived, annoying, cliche-ridden and sodden with tired similes and metaphors. I spent more time rolling my eyes than reading. Completely forgettable.

Ever have one of those friends that loves the sound of their own voice, and yammers on and on using every obscure word in their vocabulary in an effort to impress you??? Well that is what reading this book is like. The characters are all unlikeable. The protagonists are boring and shallow. The ending leaves MUCH to be desired. All in all in my humble opinion is that it is not a book worth reading.

This book reads like a poorly written Nancy Drew - sentences filled with archaic cringe-worthy adjectives. The characters are stereotypical except for some unintentional jarring notes that betray the author's outsider status. Wish I had heeded the Publishers Weekly review and saved my money.

I wish I had never picked up this book. I have a problem with starting a book and not finishing it, and I had to force myself to finish this one. Several contradictions, and I feel like the author was just trying too hard to impress with her vocabulary. I will NEVER purchase a Niederhoffer book again.

I was really excited to read this book because I saw the movie previews and for me, it was nice to be able to give faces to the characters that you were going to read about.
The book however was soooooo slow moving. The main characters struggles with her being Jewish and dark haired and trying to find a comfortable place in the Wasp society is sometimes so annoying that I found myself having to put the book down, or skip the pity party.
The relationships between the characters are so tangled that it gets difficult to keep up with who kissed who, who slept with who and etc etc.