Rameau's Niece

Rating:
Summary: A *Wonderful* Book
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Anything but a waste of time!
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: For an afternoon of fun...
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: clever and inspiring
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: For an afternoon of fun...
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Rameau's Niece
Review: This book could only get a high rating if you like a plot that presents a whirlwind of activity...all within one confused woman's mind. Otherwise not much else is happening.

Margaret Nathan suddenly gets unhappy; she longs for something more than her ultra-educated, ultra-benevolent husband Edward and his academic friends. This dissatisfaction on her part seems to stem from her discovery of an old manuscript, called Rameau's Niece, that combines philosophy and literary pornography and gets her juices flowing. She wearies of New York, journeys briefly to Prague to give a lecture--and have a surreal experience that brings her back home convinced she should have an affair and break out of the monotony of her life. From then on, Margaret contemplates sex with just about everyone she sees.

The major problem with the novel becomes Margaret herself. The book feels busy because Margaret keeps changing her mind about what she wants, but there came a point where this got tiring to read about. Her completely scattershot approach to finding new happiness left me wondering if Margaret should just cut to the chase and go insane. She seems on the verge of a mental collapse throughout the whole book.

Now, later on in the book, Margaret acts (finally) on her spontaneous impulses. But, this just leads to further frustration for the reader, because in each of the scenes where Margaret goes for the gusto, sexually, the outcome can be likened to bedroom farce. For example, Margaret decides to become a lesbian and tries to seduce one of her best friends, and this is just unfolding when--oops!--the least likely person would want to intrude intrudes. Then, Margaret walks in on her husband and--oops!--looks like he's got his pants down. Ah, but is it just a misunderstanding, such as you might see on any old Three's Company episode? The book had been starting-and-stopping throughout just so it could descend to cheap humour. I see.

Further problematical aspects: If the book is meant to have the reader experience some of Margaret's inner discoveries about the true nature of passion, then I'm not sure what to make of it. At key moments--again near the end, once the bedroom farce has played out--Margaret is forced to come to a final decision about the nature of passion, and for whom she truly feels it. But it is at these crucial moments when Margaret resorts to logic--maxims and syllogisms--to make passionate decisions! In fact, that would appear to be the point of the novel: think about passion, apply reason to your emotions (just like the old manuscript shows Rameau's niece and her lover/teacher doing), and you will find your way to true love. I am not sure what the point of all this is, but I've never tried to morph my fiery passions into logical equations.

However, if it keeps someone like Margaret from losing her mind, I suppose it can't be helped.

Rating:
Summary: Pretentious
Review: 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.