Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Houses of Stone by Barbara Michaels
#1
Sad 
[Contains no spoilers, but warning: rant follows!]

This was the first Barbara Michaels book I've read and I must say I was sorely disappointed.

I seem to recall this book being reviewed here before and that the reviews were mostly positive. I admit to bewilderment.

First, I don't understand how this book qualifies as a Gothic. The atmosphere is decidedly mundane (if it exists at all), and while the book-within-a-book is a Gothic novel (and a poor example of one at that), nothing about the actual story or atmosphere was idiomatic to the genre. Yes, there is an old house, but it's there as a prop rather than as a character, about as substantial as a painted cardboard box, and lacks any appeal or romance.

Second, the main character, Karen, is a boring, whiny, entitled little brat of a protagonist, annoying and totally unlikable. Most of the other characters in the book were equally unlikable, with the possible exception of Simon, the bookseller, whom I despised only slightly less.

I was surprised to see a publication date of 1993 for this book, as the tiresome and unremitting tone of academic feminism that ululates through it seemed more fitting for 1977. Does Barbara Michaels get out much? Her perceptions of her chosen setting seem warped, to say the least. I found it hard to believe that Karen had any friends, she was so constantly offputting and rude. But then so were her friends, all of whom seemed carbon copies of herself at varying ages and degrees of militancy. Reading conversations between them, I could hardly tell one character from another. And at any rate I felt that Karen wasn't really interested in friendship, she was really looking for someone to take the chip off her shoulder and force-feed it to her. This never happened, adding to my disappointment in the book. I was really hoping she would fall off a cliff at the end.

As Dorothy Parker wrote, this is not a book to be tossed aside lightly -- it should be thrown with great force. Lousy story (nothing happens, really, except a weak palimpsest about a fictitious early Gothic novel so bad it makes Bulwer-Lytton look like Proust), lousy characters, lousy dialogue (the "repartee" is not even clever, much less witty), no atmosphere, no romance (the heroine is about as cozy as a hermit crab with a toothache), no chemistry, no style to speak of. Gahhhh, this was a horrid excuse for a book.

Why, again, is this author popular?

If this is a case of hit-or-miss, I'll keep my mind ajar in case anyone can recommend a real winner from Michaels. Otherwise I'd tend to agree with Bellatrix's rule of sticking to pre-1976.
Reply


Messages In This Thread
Houses of Stone by Barbara Michaels - by Penfeather - 09-09-2010, 09:10 AM

Possibly Related Threads…
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Someone in the House by Barbara Michaels Charybdis 1 9,342 04-26-2012, 07:26 PM
Last Post: romanticdress
  Ammie, Come Home by Barbara Michaels Charybdis 5 20,405 02-12-2012, 11:52 AM
Last Post: paigenumber
  Wait for what will come by Barbara Michaels Charybdis 3 12,705 08-14-2011, 01:52 AM
Last Post: Fiddlette
  Midnight is a Lonely Place by Barbara Erskine MysteryMind 3 12,066 02-20-2011, 03:56 PM
Last Post: sara
  Kingdom of Shadows by Barbara Erskine MysteryMind 2 10,585 12-20-2009, 12:29 PM
Last Post: MysteryMind
Sad Shattered Silk by Barbara Michaels (1986) Desdemona 1 7,580 12-22-2008, 07:32 AM
Last Post: Monique Devereaux
  Hiding from the Light (2003) by Barbara Erskine Desdemona 3 12,537 12-03-2008, 03:40 PM
Last Post: random capitals
Smile Houses of Stone by Barbara Michaels (1993) Desdemona 10 29,212 08-31-2008, 03:25 PM
Last Post: Desdemona
  Dear Deadly Cara by Grace Zaring Stone whitelady 0 5,392 06-29-2008, 06:41 PM
Last Post: whitelady
  Black Rainbow by Barbara Michaels (2005) Desdemona 0 6,523 12-14-2007, 01:27 AM
Last Post: Desdemona

Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)