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Interviews | December 1, 2009

Megan: IMG A Meaty Tale: The Powells.com Interview with Julie Powell



juliepowellJulie Powell charmed readers with Julie and Julia, in which she chronicled her quest to cook, in one year, every recipe out of Julia Child's... Continue »
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10 Local Warehouse Literature- A to Z

Other titles in the Vintage Contemporaries series:

  1. A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You: Stories
  2. A Brief History of the Flood
  3. A Closed Eye
  4. A Cure for Dreams
  5. A Far Country
  6. A Handbook to Luck
  7. A Lesson Before Dying
  8. A Movie...and a Book
  9. A Piece of My Heart
  10. A Special Providence
  11. A Stranger in This World: Stories
  12. A Thing (or Two) about Curtis and Camilla
  13. Abandon
  14. All I Could Get
  15. American Psycho
  16. Anagrams
  17. Angel Rock
  18. Another Green World
  19. Asa, as I Knew Him
  20. Ash Wednesday
  21. Atlas of Unknowns
  22. Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse
  23. Babylon and Other Stories
  24. Babylon Rolling
  25. Back in the World: Stories
  26. Bailey's Cafe
  27. Bicycle Days
  28. Big Bad Love: Stories
  29. Birds of America: Stories
  30. Black Tickets ((Rev)79 Edition)
  31. Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Had to
  32. Breaking and entering
  33. Bridge of Sighs
  34. Brief Lives
  35. Bright Lights, Big City
  36. Brightness Falls
  37. Brother, I'm Dying
  38. Buffalo Soldiers
  39. Burning House
  40. Cathedral
  41. Catherine Carmier
  42. Chasing Windmills
  43. Checkpoint
  44. Chilly Scenes of Winter
  45. Claire Marvel
  46. Company
  47. Dangerous Laughter: Thirteen Stories
  48. Day
  49. Day of the Bees
  50. December
  51. Decreation: Poetry, Essays, Opera
  52. Delcorso's Gallery
  53. Dirty Work
  54. Distortions
  55. Dogwalker: Stories
  56. Don't Cry
  57. Dr. Haggard's Disease
  58. East of the Mountains
  59. East of the Mountains
  60. Edgewater Angels
  61. Edwin Mullhouse: The Life and Death of an American Writer, 1943-1954, by Jeffrey Cartwright: A Novel
  62. Empire Falls (HBO Tie-In)
  63. Enchanted Night
  64. Et Tu, Babe
  65. Evening
  66. Falling in Place (80 Edition)
  67. Father's Day
  68. Fidel's Last Days
  69. Fires: Essays, Poems, Stories
  70. Fireworks
  71. Five Gates of Hell
  72. Fraud
  73. Friend of My Youth
  74. Gallatin Canyon
  75. Ghost
  76. Glamorama
  77. God's Fool
  78. Goodnight, Nebraska
  79. Gorilla, My Love
  80. Great Neck
  81. Happy All the Time
  82. Henry of Atlantic City
  83. Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen
  84. Honeymoon: And Other Stories
  85. House of Sand and Fog
  86. House on Mango Street
  87. How It Ended: New and Collected Stories
  88. How to Breathe Underwater: Stories
  89. In a Country of Mothers
  90. In Lucia's Eyes
  91. In My Father's House
  92. In the Cut
  93. In the Driver's Seat
  94. In the Fall
  95. In Times of Siege
  96. Indelible Acts
  97. Jack
  98. Jamesland
  99. Jernigan
  100. Keep the Change
  101. Kentucky Straight: Stories
  102. King Bongo: A Novel of Havana
  103. Krik? Krak!
  104. La Casa En Mango Street
  105. Lark and Termite
  106. Last of the Menu Girls
  107. Latecomers
  108. Leaving Home
  109. Lewis Percy
  110. Like Life: Stories
  111. Like You'd Understand, Anyway
  112. Little America
  113. Love Always
  114. Love Among the Ruins
  115. Love in the Present Tense
  116. Lunar Park
  117. Lust and Other Stories
  118. Lying Awake
  119. Mama Day
  120. Matrimony
  121. Meditations from a Movable Chair: Essays
  122. Meditations in Green
  123. Memoirs of a Geisha
  124. Mile Zero
  125. Monkeys
  126. Mortimer of the Maghreb: Stories
  127. Mozart and Leadbelly (05 Edition)
  128. My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist
  129. Netherland
  130. New England White
  131. Ninety-Two in the Shade
  132. Nobody's Angel
  133. Nothing But Blue Skies
  134. Nothing Lost
  135. Of Love and Dust
  136. Off Keck Road: A Novella
  137. Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All
  138. One To Count Cadence
  139. Our Lady of the Forest
  140. Our Story Begins: New and Selected Stories
  141. Palace Council
  142. Panama
  143. Paradise
  144. Park City: New and Selected Stories
  145. Particles and Luck
  146. Peace
  147. Philadelphia Fire
  148. Picturing Will
  149. Plainsong
  150. Players
  151. Preston Falls
  152. Prisoners of War
  153. Project X
  154. Providence
  155. Rabbit Boss
  156. Ransom
  157. Ratner's Star
  158. Reservation Road
  159. Reservation Road
  160. Revolutionary Road (Movie Tie-In Edition)
  161. Rocket City
  162. Salmonella Men on Planet Porno
  163. Sam the Cat: And Other Stories
  164. Samedi the Deafness
  165. SAP Rising
  166. Scooter
  167. Secrets and Surprises
  168. Selected Stories
  169. Self-Help
  170. Short Cuts: Selected Stories
  171. Short People
  172. Snow Falling on Cedars
  173. So I Am Glad
  174. Songs without Words
  175. Spider
  176. Spinning Tropics
  177. St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves: Stories
  178. State of Grace
  179. Still Life with Husband
  180. Story of My Life
  181. Taking Care: Short Stories
  182. The Abomination
  183. The Abortionist's Daughter
  184. The Amalgamation Polka
  185. The Assassin's Song
  186. The Back Nine
  187. The Beggar Maid: Stories of Flo and Rose
  188. The Big Girls
  189. The Bird Is a Raven
  190. The Brief History of the Dead
  191. The Cadence of Grass
  192. The Cage Keeper: And Other Stories
  193. The Chosen Place, the Timeless People
  194. The Clearing
  195. The Clearing
  196. The Closed Circle
  197. The Commitments
  198. The Commoner
  199. The Communist's Daughter
  200. The Country Ahead of Us, The Country Behind: Stories
  201. The Dead Fish Museum: Stories
  202. The Dive from Clausen's Pier
  203. The Double Bind
  204. The Emperor of Ocean Park: A Novel
  205. The End of California
  206. The Fan Man
  207. The Favorite Game
  208. The Feast of Love
  209. The Feast of Love (Mti)
  210. The Gone-Away World
  211. The Good Life
  212. The Great Divorce
  213. The Grotesque
  214. The Half-Life of Happiness
  215. The House of Sleep
  216. The House on Mango Street
  217. The Hundred Brothers
  218. The Joy Luck Club
  219. The King in the Tree
  220. The King Is Dead
  221. The Last Good Kiss
  222. The Laughing Sutra
  223. The Lay of the Land
  224. The Legal Limit
  225. The Lost City
  226. The Lost Father
  227. The Mezzanine
  228. The Moons of Jupiter
  229. The Names
  230. The Other
  231. The Outside World
  232. The Practical Heart
  233. The Progress of Love
  234. The Queen's Gambit
  235. The Rain Before It Falls
  236. The Revolution of Little Girls
  237. The Rotters' Club
  238. The Sabotage Cafe
  239. The Salt Eaters
  240. The Senator's Wife
  241. The Soul Thief
  242. The Sporting Club
  243. The Tattoo Artist
  244. The Theory of Light and Matter
  245. The Translation of Dr. Apelles: A Love Story
  246. The Ultimate Good Luck
  247. The Uses of Enchantment
  248. The Varieties of Romantic Experience
  249. The View from the Seventh Layer
  250. The Voyage
  251. The Way Through Doors
  252. The Whore's Child: And Other Stories
  253. The Willow Field
  254. The Winemaker's Daughter
  255. The Wrong Case
  256. Things That Fall from the Sky
  257. Through the Ivory Gate
  258. Tietam Brown
  259. To My Dearest Friends
  260. To Skin a Cat
  261. Traffic and Laughter: Ted Mooney
  262. Trans-Sister Radio
  263. Trauma
  264. Trespass (Vintage)
  265. Trouble: Stories
  266. Typical American
  267. Unaccustomed Earth
  268. Undiscovered Gyrl
  269. Veronica
  270. Visible Spirits
  271. Wetware
  272. What Was Mine: & Other Stories
  273. When the World Was Steady
  274. Where I'm Calling from: New and Selected Stories
  275. Whores on the Hill
  276. Wildlife
  277. Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?: Stories
  278. Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories: And Other Stories
  279. You Don't Love Me Yet
  280. Young Hearts Crying
  281. Zoology
  282. Zoot-Suit Murders

The Emperor's Children

by Claire Messud

The Emperor's Children Cover

Awards

The Rooster 2007 Morning News Tournament of Books Nominee

Staff Pick

Absolutely brilliant. The best novel I've read in months, if not years, The Emperor's Children has left me powerfully moved; Claire Messud's knowledge of the human psyche is uncanny, and her characters became, in one afternoon, more important to me than the friend who I made wait on my couch while I finished the book. Gorgeously written, painfully honest, and, often enough, funny as hell, The Emperor's Children is a classical novel which perfectly depicts modern times, describing what humanity looks like up close with a brutal yet sympathetic clarity.
Recommended by Tessa, Powells.com

Review-a-Day   (What is Review-a-Day?)

"[A] riveting comedy of manners....Gradually, Messud...converts academic hairsplitting into a matter of larger consequence, extracting considerable suspense from the young cultural pretenders' attempts to topple the old guard and wrest an erotic prize." Elizabeth Judd, The Atlantic Monthly (read the entire Atlantic Monthly review)

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

From a writer "of near-miraculous perfection" (The New York Times Book Review) and "a literary intelligence far surpassing most other writers of her generation" (San Francisco Chronicle), The Emperor's Children is a dazzling, masterful novel about the intersections in the lives of three friends, now on the cusp of their thirties, making their way — and not — in New York City.

There is beautiful, sophisticated Marina Thwaite — an "It" girl finishing her first book; the daughter of Murray Thwaite, celebrated intellectual and journalist — and her two closest friends from Brown, Danielle, a quietly appealing television producer, and Julius, a cash-strapped freelance critic. The delicious complications that arise among them become dangerous when Murray's nephew, Frederick "Bootie" Tubb, an idealistic college dropout determined to make his mark, comes to town. As the skies darken, it is Bootie's unexpected decisions — and their stunning, heartbreaking outcome — that will change each of their lives forever.

A richly drawn, brilliantly observed novel of fate and fortune — of innocence and experience, seduction and self-invention; of ambition, including literary ambition; of glamour, disaster, and promise — The Emperor's Children is a tour de force that brings to life a city, a generation, and the way we live in this moment.

Review:

"Marina Thwaite, Danielle Minkoff and Julian Clarke were buddies at Brown, certain that they would soon do something important in the world. But as all near 30, Danielle is struggling as a TV documentary maker, and Julius is barely surviving financially as a freelance critic. Marina, the startlingly beautiful daughter of celebrated social activist, journalist and hob-nobber Murray Thwaite, is living with her parents on the Upper West Side, unable to finish her book — titled The Emperor's Children Have No Clothes (on how changing fashions in children's clothes mirror changes in society). Two arrivals upset the group stasis: Ludovic, a fiercely ambitious Aussie who woos Marina to gain entrĂ©e into society (meanwhile planning to destroy Murray's reputation), and Murray's nephew, Frederick 'Bootie' Tubb, an immature, idealistic college dropout and autodidact who is determined to live the life of a New York intellectual. The group orbits around the post-September 11 city with disconcerting entitlement — and around Murray, who is, in a sense, the emperor. Messud, in her fourth novel, remains wickedly observant of pretensions — intellectual, sexual, class and gender. Her writing is so fluid, and her plot so cleverly constructed, that events seem inevitable, yet the narrative is ultimately surprising and masterful as a contemporary comedy of manners." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Review:

"Messud deftly paints the neurotic uncertainties of people who know they're privileged and feel sorry for themselves anyway; she makes her characters human....Intelligent, evocative and unsparing." Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

Review:

"Messud's comedy of manners is extremely well written and features characters that come alive....This wonderful read is an insightful look at our time and the decisions people make. Highly recommended." Library Journal

Review:

"Messud's ambitious, glamorous, and gutsy new novel, The Emperor's Children, is a leap forward, a marvel of bold momentum and kinetic imagination." Elle

Review:

"Claire Messud is a novelist of unnerving talent....The Emperor's Children is a masterly comedy of manners — an astute and poignant evocation of hobnobbing glitterati in the months before and immediately following Sept. 11." Meghan O'Rourke, The New York Times Book Review

Review:

"Absorbingly intelligent....[Messud] writing is so sure-handed that she doesn't even stumble on the hurdle of the Sept. 11 attacks...and her exploration of entitlement is both witty and astute." Christian Science Monitor

Review:

"Ms. Messud has composed a comedy of manners, a satire on journalism and misplaced ambition, and a probing, sometimes poignant, drama about confused urban lives." Wall Street Journal

Review:

"The novel surprises in so many ways. Most notably is the way that the story gets more and more interesting as it progresses. By the final chapters it becomes a page-turner, something rarely found in novels without detectives or CIA agents lurking about." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Review:

"If occasionally the reader feels suffocated inside the Thwaites' privileged bubble, the pleasures of Messud's prose are enlivening....You will not learn how to live from reading The Emperor's Children, but you will recognize the pulse of real life on every page." Newsday

Review:

"[T]he novel, for all its evident flaws...demonstrates Ms. Messud's growing range as a writer, her ability to shift gears effortlessly between the comic and the tragic, the satiric and the humane." Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

Synopsis:

A magnificent novel of fate and fortune--of love and friendship, family and secrets, of striving and glamour, disaster and promise--this is a tour de force that brings to life a city, a generation, and living in the moment.

About the Author

Claire Messud's first novel, When the World Was Steady, and her book of novellas, The Hunters, were finalists for the PEN/Faulkner Award; her second novel, The Last Life, was a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year and an Editor's Choice at The Village Voice. All three books were New York Times Notable Books of the Year. She has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Radcliffe Fellowship, and is the current recipient of the Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She lives in Somerville, Massachusetts, with her husband and children.

What Our Readers Are Saying

Add a comment for a chance to win!
Average customer rating based on 4 comments:
rosalind, July 17, 2008 (view all comments by rosalind)
My bookgroup read this, 9 out of ten of us did not like the book, though acknowledging the literary skill of the author. None of the characters were likable, and were not well formulated. The one person who liked it said that it was "like pulp fiction (genre, not the movie)" and a fun read.
Compare it to Zaidy Smith's "On Beauty" ( well there isn't any positive comparison ) a book with well developed characters, plenty of literary illusions, a jab at the academic world,and set in the eastern seaboard.
Our group is 60+ in age. Are the positive comments coming from younger people?
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(4 of 8 readers found this comment helpful)
Celia_Garner, February 14, 2008 (view all comments by Celia_Garner)
Incredible story of the changing nature of relationships under the stress of tragedy.
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(9 of 18 readers found this comment helpful)
anastasiabutt, November 23, 2007 (view all comments by anastasiabutt)
This is a gorgeous book about priviledged youth in NY basically just trying to live their lives, but messing them up with quite a bit of misguided love, adultery, art, and overall stupidity. This book is incredibly well written and shows that despite the priviledge people with money grow up with, it does not make them any better at making ggod decisions and coping with life. The characters are vulnerable and flawed, and the setting is lush and imaginitive.
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(10 of 21 readers found this comment helpful)
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780307276667
Author:
Messud, Claire
Publisher:
Vintage Books USA
Subject:
Literary
Edition Description:
Paperback
Series:
Vintage Contemporaries
Publication Date:
June 2007
Binding:
Paperback
Language:
English
Pages:
478
Dimensions:
7.92x5.72x1.11 in. .80 lbs.

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