I Felt Empathy for the Main Character Despite a Slow Start
Readers will probably feel some empathy for Richard Peng, the main character for whom nothing seems to be going right in life. At least in the first couople of pages. After ungrad work, he went to MIT but as time has gone by, he feels like that is not really the path he wants. However, not before he makes a big enough donation at his undergrad school to have a building named after him. As years went by, his school struggled to stay afloat and find its way in changing times, and his building is relegated to a seemingly unimpressive creative writing major.
Of course, here's the ironic twist. Writing, and specifically the writing of novels, is what our protagponist wants to do with his life. His parents are disdainful- you will not make money as an author unless you plan to be the rare exception, and also, your verbal SAT scores were unimpressive.
Sadly, this disdainful attitude seems to have been adopted by Richard when he leaves engineering and becomes a creative writing teacher. Yikes; Richard thinks his students are far less gifted than they believe themselves to be, and even worse, he knows that he is "utterly unequipped to deliver" valuable writing advice to them. It is at this point (still very early in the novel), that one might feel a little of that original empathy start to drain away. Still, I feel some curiosity about how Richard becomes famous. Since he is accused of stealing the plot that made him money, my guess will be that he steals it from one of his writing students. Unlikable ...if true.
Of course, here's the ironic twist. Writing, and specifically the writing of novels, is what our protagponist wants to do with his life. His parents are disdainful- you will not make money as an author unless you plan to be the rare exception, and also, your verbal SAT scores were unimpressive.
Sadly, this disdainful attitude seems to have been adopted by Richard when he leaves engineering and becomes a creative writing teacher. Yikes; Richard thinks his students are far less gifted than they believe themselves to be, and even worse, he knows that he is "utterly unequipped to deliver" valuable writing advice to them. It is at this point (still very early in the novel), that one might feel a little of that original empathy start to drain away. Still, I feel some curiosity about how Richard becomes famous. Since he is accused of stealing the plot that made him money, my guess will be that he steals it from one of his writing students. Unlikable ...if true.