Family Drama But with a Side of Strange
Jean Hanff Korelitz wrote one of my fave books of 2021, The Plot, so The Latecomer has been on my radar ever since I heard it was coming out. It is a different type of book than The Plot and even had a different style of writing. It is a character driven story about the Oppenheimer triplets and how “The Latecomer”, their fourth sibling, changes their lives.
I was really into the beginning of this book. I think Korelitz is clearly a talented writer. I find her prose flows easily and allows a 400 plus page book to be read with ease. I also enjoy a good character driven family drama with all the dysfunction and this had plenty of that.
Somewhere about halfway through this book, things got WEIRD. It felt too dense and descriptive and needed a good edit. Some of the plot points and side stories seemed just odd and overdone and by the ending I was just perplexed by some of the happenings in this book.
I’m giving it three stars for the character driven family side to the story, but I could’ve done without the religious angle and overdone commentary on every social issue known to mankind. Just too much for me.
I was really into the beginning of this book. I think Korelitz is clearly a talented writer. I find her prose flows easily and allows a 400 plus page book to be read with ease. I also enjoy a good character driven family drama with all the dysfunction and this had plenty of that.
Somewhere about halfway through this book, things got WEIRD. It felt too dense and descriptive and needed a good edit. Some of the plot points and side stories seemed just odd and overdone and by the ending I was just perplexed by some of the happenings in this book.
I’m giving it three stars for the character driven family side to the story, but I could’ve done without the religious angle and overdone commentary on every social issue known to mankind. Just too much for me.