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Review: Little Known Facts by Christine Sneed
I know, it's been 3 weeks since my last post, and I'm doing a short book review instead of something personal. The IRL post is coming, I just want to get this book one done while it's on my mind, otherwise it won't happen.
Little Known Facts, by Christine Sneed.
I found out about this book through the Powells.com Daily Dose email, which is a daily email (heh) that features a customer's blurb about why they like a particular book they've read, and the official publisher's info beneath it. I always read these, and have amassed quite a list of books to try.
This book is set in modern Hollywood, and that is what grabbed my interest. I am fascinated by the movie-making process, likely due to my own interest in making animation films back in my teens and 20s. While I've lost that ambition, I'm still fascinated by what goes on backstage. (I love real movie commentaries, ones about creating the film, not just the actors cracking jokes about the surface and trading insults.)
This book is about the family and friends of a fictional huge Hollywood actor named Renn Ivins, an equivalent of Robert Redford or Harrison Ford. The first ex-wife pediatrician Lucy, the aimless trust fund son Will/Billy, the daughter Anna in her residency for family practice, Renn's current 30 years younger girlfriend Elise, Will's current girlfriend Danielle, Renn's second ex-wife Melinda, and a propmaster/wannabe filmmaker named Jim.
Every chapter is written from a different point of view, sometimes even switching to first person for a certain character, then back to third. I wonder about that, but if the character was demanding first person, it's understandable.
The book was indeed interesting, and I did not have to force myself to read it, but one thing really stands out to me:
Every story is about romantic relationships, except one. Characters fall in love--or at least have sex--while being with someone else. Breakups happen, new SOs are found, marriage is talked about and proposed, casual sex happens, not so casual sex happens, worried phone calls to snoop on lovers or discuss relationship problems, etc etc etc. By the end of the book, even the level-headed mom is caught up with endorphins about college friend turned wonderful boyfriend.
The single exception to the entire book being about romantic relationships is the propmaster/wannabe filmmaker. He gets one short chapter, and then a brief scene later in a Renn chapter.
Also of note is that Will does figure out what to do with his life, at least for the foreseeable future, and it has nothing to do with his new girlfriend. He arrived at the idea on his own.
This almost universal focus on love (or at least sex) for almost every character strikes me as odd. Why limit the story in such a way? Many interesting plot twists could be weaved around jobs, or bad luck, or even a character finding a book that changed their life, but instead it's all love affairs. Why, Ms. Sneed?
Or am I the odd one for not recognizing that love affairs are the most important, all-encompassing thing in everyone's life? *sigh* I just hope Jim the propmaster/wannabe filmmaker and Will the no-longer-aimless son are successful in their career pursuits. Good for them!
Little Known Facts, by Christine Sneed.
I found out about this book through the Powells.com Daily Dose email, which is a daily email (heh) that features a customer's blurb about why they like a particular book they've read, and the official publisher's info beneath it. I always read these, and have amassed quite a list of books to try.
This book is set in modern Hollywood, and that is what grabbed my interest. I am fascinated by the movie-making process, likely due to my own interest in making animation films back in my teens and 20s. While I've lost that ambition, I'm still fascinated by what goes on backstage. (I love real movie commentaries, ones about creating the film, not just the actors cracking jokes about the surface and trading insults.)
This book is about the family and friends of a fictional huge Hollywood actor named Renn Ivins, an equivalent of Robert Redford or Harrison Ford. The first ex-wife pediatrician Lucy, the aimless trust fund son Will/Billy, the daughter Anna in her residency for family practice, Renn's current 30 years younger girlfriend Elise, Will's current girlfriend Danielle, Renn's second ex-wife Melinda, and a propmaster/wannabe filmmaker named Jim.
Every chapter is written from a different point of view, sometimes even switching to first person for a certain character, then back to third. I wonder about that, but if the character was demanding first person, it's understandable.
The book was indeed interesting, and I did not have to force myself to read it, but one thing really stands out to me:
Every story is about romantic relationships, except one. Characters fall in love--or at least have sex--while being with someone else. Breakups happen, new SOs are found, marriage is talked about and proposed, casual sex happens, not so casual sex happens, worried phone calls to snoop on lovers or discuss relationship problems, etc etc etc. By the end of the book, even the level-headed mom is caught up with endorphins about college friend turned wonderful boyfriend.
The single exception to the entire book being about romantic relationships is the propmaster/wannabe filmmaker. He gets one short chapter, and then a brief scene later in a Renn chapter.
Also of note is that Will does figure out what to do with his life, at least for the foreseeable future, and it has nothing to do with his new girlfriend. He arrived at the idea on his own.
This almost universal focus on love (or at least sex) for almost every character strikes me as odd. Why limit the story in such a way? Many interesting plot twists could be weaved around jobs, or bad luck, or even a character finding a book that changed their life, but instead it's all love affairs. Why, Ms. Sneed?
Or am I the odd one for not recognizing that love affairs are the most important, all-encompassing thing in everyone's life? *sigh* I just hope Jim the propmaster/wannabe filmmaker and Will the no-longer-aimless son are successful in their career pursuits. Good for them!