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A Thousand Pardons Jonathan Dee

Posted: October 17th, 2019, 11:35 am
by marymary
A Thousand Pardons was written by a novelist who had success with a previous novel however he was unknown to me. The novel was the book club book after a Margaret Atwood so we went from the sublime to the ridiculous. I contend that very few novelists can write about another gender well unless the themes are universal ones. This novel is one of those that proves that point.

The central character is a woman whose husband is bored by the marriage/work and walks away after a spectacular fall from grace that results in losing his job and reputation and he needs to spend a short time in jail in a cushy open prison.

The central character after more than a decade of being a stay at home mother walks into a job on her first day and single handedly turns the business around. No one else in the firm seems to understand what is going on but it seems to revolve around saving politicians, clergy and Hollywood stars from their baser instincts and making them apologise so that their public will forgive them and move on. The problem with this is that all of the characters are so superficial that no one cares about what happens to them.

It reads more like a “treatment “ than a novel.

I read the reviews of the other members of the club and I am being generous when I awarded 2/10. Most awarded 1 or 0. I have never seen a zero before so avoid, avoid, avoid. :?




https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/ ... dee-review

Re: A Thousand Pardons Jonathan Dee

Posted: October 17th, 2019, 12:51 pm
by Little John
I'm inclined to agree about the gender issue. I have read a few acceptable books but more that did not wash at all.