Didn't charm.
I wanted to love this. I was looking forward to reading it, after enjoying -- being impressed by -- "Crooked Hearts," to which is is a sort of a prequel. "Crooked Hearts" managed to combine character and plot. It managed to make an unlikeable character (a con-woman) loveable. It managed to balance humour and sentimentality, history and modern-day concerns.
Page 100+, and "Old Baggage" does none of these things. It's excessively sentimental, and not very funny. The protagonist Mattie is unlikeable in a way that screams "don't want to spend a minute in her company," not how did she become like this? And is there any hope for her?
An aside -- I have to confess that I usually don't understand negative reviews that cite characters' unlikability -- I LOVE unlikable characters. The more Unlikable, the better, usually. But hard experience has taught me that they have to be the Right Kind of unlikable. Unlikable characters can be charming, and hypnotic in their awfulness, or they can be pitiful, and always just one move away from being redeemed. Or can reveal a side to yourself that you don't usually want to admit to ...
Mattie is none of these things -- she's a crashing bore.
Also, no plot. Pardon me if I gave up before a real plot emerged but ... 100+ pages? No sense that any of the threads (gossamer threads ...) are going to weave themselves into a plot, anytime soon.
I wanted to love this. I was looking forward to reading it, after enjoying -- being impressed by -- "Crooked Hearts," to which is is a sort of a prequel. "Crooked Hearts" managed to combine character and plot. It managed to make an unlikeable character (a con-woman) loveable. It managed to balance humour and sentimentality, history and modern-day concerns.
Page 100+, and "Old Baggage" does none of these things. It's excessively sentimental, and not very funny. The protagonist Mattie is unlikeable in a way that screams "don't want to spend a minute in her company," not how did she become like this? And is there any hope for her?
An aside -- I have to confess that I usually don't understand negative reviews that cite characters' unlikability -- I LOVE unlikable characters. The more Unlikable, the better, usually. But hard experience has taught me that they have to be the Right Kind of unlikable. Unlikable characters can be charming, and hypnotic in their awfulness, or they can be pitiful, and always just one move away from being redeemed. Or can reveal a side to yourself that you don't usually want to admit to ...
Mattie is none of these things -- she's a crashing bore.
Also, no plot. Pardon me if I gave up before a real plot emerged but ... 100+ pages? No sense that any of the threads (gossamer threads ...) are going to weave themselves into a plot, anytime soon.
