119. "The Necklace" by Cheryl Jarvis

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Jarvis, Cheryl. The Necklace: Thirteen Women and the Experience that Transformed their Lives. New York: Ballantine Books, 2009.

222 pages.

Reviewed by J. d'Artagnan Love

I've joined a book club and this was the May 2018 pick. 

The Necklace tells the story of thirteen (mostly) white, upper middle class, middle aged women who buy a $30,000 necklace together. They each get the wear the necklace during their birthday month and have different experiences with it from sky diving, the lending it to a co-worker, to using it for a fundraiser. The group met once a month to hand off the necklace to the next wearer and discuss group business. Often these meetings turned hostile and produced in-fighting. 

That about sums it up. Each chapter of the book is dedicated to one of the thirteen women, none of whom, with *maybe* the exception of Mrs. VanGundy, would I really want to spend time with. I didn't really like these women, and I didn't really like this book. 

I suspect many of my issues with the women stem from the way they were characterized by Jarvis. She glosses over so many problematic issues. Why did certain members leave the group? Why are the women all described as just super fantastic, pretty, slim, gorgeous, and simply THE BEST when there was so much in-fighting in the group and clear political differences? Jarvis could have done SO MUCH MORE to humanize the women to be complex, interesting people instead of making them all sound like middle aged prom queens. 

The book did get me thinking more about the concepts of consumerism and ownership. Again though, Jarvis could have gone into so much more depth with these ideas but these too are merely mentioned and not explored in any thoughtful way.

Ultimately, I thought it was an interesting idea but the writing and composition was shoddily executed. It would have worked just as well as a magazine article than a full book. 

1.5 darts out of 5.

Recommend for: mehhhhhhhh......

Not Recommend for: Readers with a good sense of plot, expository, and characterization. Really, I just don't recommend this in general.

12. "Between the Acts" by Virginia Woolf

Woolf, Virginia. Between the Acts. San Diego: Harcourt Inc., 1941.
219 pages
Reviewed by J. d’Artagnan Love

Between the Acts was the last book Virginia Woolf wrote before her suicide in 1941. It is a story about a family in England who hosts a play at their country home to raise money for the church. The plot covers the play itself as well as the interactions and happenings, as the title suggests, between the acts. There are several unhappy characters making connections with other equally unhappy characters and a lot of implied scandal that never comes to fruition.

I am usually a huge Virginia Woolf fan. She is my favorite writer, and this is the first of her novels that I’ve been disappointed by. Keeping in mind that she died before she was able to make revisions, the characters seemed to lack the motivation and depth Woolf had so frequently achieved in her earlier novels. The plot moved slowly, very slowly, and nothing really seemed to happen. The depiction of character interactions was dull and simplistic.

Maybe this is the effect Woolf was going for. Maybe she wished to illustrate how mundane life can be. If that was the goal, it sure didn’t make for good reading. This is not her best work and I would recommend Orlando or Mrs. Dalloway over Between the Acts in a heartbeat.

1.5 darts out of 5

6. "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch

Pausch, Randy and Jeffrey Zaslow. The last Lecture. New York: Hyperion, 2008.
Reviewed by J. d’Artagnan Love

This is a quick little book with pragmatic advice. Written by the late Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture reads fast but is, and I hate to say this, unoriginal. This book was written because the author, Randy Pausch was dying of pancreatic cancer and wanted to document his life for his children. He tells stories of how he met his wife, what his childhood was like, and how he was so successful at work. He offers advice but never gets too deep. It feels insensitive of me to say that I didn’t like this book but it honestly didn’t impress me. The story is written in boring prose and the advice isn’t anything I haven’t heard before.

This is a great thing for Pausch to pass on to his children, but not worth marketing to a larger audience. To me, it seemed like a way to make a lot of money fast. Now don’t get me wrong, Pausch seems like a decent fella and I’m sorry he had to suffer through cancer but, in the realm of literature, this book is a flop.

1.5 darts out of 5