When We Were Bad [Import] [Paperback]

Charlotte Mendelson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2008

Softcover book

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Picador (February 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0330456105
• ISBN-13: 978-0330456104
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,377,100 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Dysfunctional, enmeshed family headed by narcissistic matriarch, May 30, 2008

By 

Marron (Boston) - See all my reviews

This review is from: When We Were Bad (Hardcover)

SPOILER ALERT

This book is well written, and at times amusing, but quite exasperating in its depiction of the Rubin family. I disliked half the characters, and the least likable ones were so broadly drawn as to be unbelievable (e.g., a 27 year old woman in so many words telling her brother, who wants to live with his lover, "How could you? We all have to sacrifice our lives for mum's sake!"). As a therapist I found the level of family dysfunction and enmeshment not very funny at all. Was it supposed to be endearing, despite its quirks? Well, it wasn't!

Three stars for readability, and for giving us two characters who escaped (more or less).

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars When We Were Bad, November 11, 2007

By 

Book Bag (Newfoundland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: When We Were Bad (Hardcover)

Have just finished reading When We Were Bad and found the story very entertaining and humorous. Great depiction of a family who appears to be "the perfect family" to outsiders, but when we see the family from the inside, is just as dysfunctional as many of us. Very clever writing.

Would recommend this book - definitely.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not easy to characterize, December 31, 2007

By 

algo41 "algo41" (philadelphia, pa United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: When We Were Bad (Hardcover)

This book is not easy to characterize, and that is one of its strong points. It is the story of a dominating woman, her children and her husband who have all suffered from this domination, but it is also what I call a feel good story, thanks to its outcomes; it is also a social satire and even a comedy. Francis at one point is behaving strangely, but she is only dimly aware of this, "no more than of the thick gray dust crushed beneath the wheels (of the train), the gray mice trembling against the track as the train races past into darkness". Mendelsohn is not a particularly good prose stylist, but the quoted material is from an author who sometimes expects her readers to laugh with her at her characters and their weaknesses and situations.

The dominating woman is a Rabbi, and her professional life certainly adds interest to the story, though theology plays no real role. I think Mendelsohn goes a little overboard with the 2 younger children, and I think an editor could have eliminated Simeon with good effect.