Rameaus Niece CL

by Cathleen Schine

Book Overview

In this delightful novel from an author who "has been favored in so many ways by the muse of comedy,"* we meet Margaret Nathan, the brilliant but forgetful author of an unlikely bestseller. Happily... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0395654904
• ISBN13: 9780395654903
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 280 Pages
• Weight: 1.08 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.8" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Love, lust and academia

The heroine of Schine's witty, often hilarious novel of lust and marriage, identity and obsession, Margaret Nathan, is a young academic whose scholarly book about an obscure 18-century French female anatomist "crept" onto the bestseller list and "settled in," the latest unread rage among feminists. Success spares her a teacher's fate -- the agony of intellectual exposure. For Margaret is forgetful. Not charmingly absent-minded but mortifyingly blank. Dinner parties are silent mine fields of forgotten names and accomplishments, "unable to ask the question because of a feeling that she ought already to know the answer but didn't...." But Margaret shines at research, hungry for knowledge to entrance her mind until supplanted by the next project. Edward, her charming, urbane, ebullient and beamingly egotistical husband insists "that her appalling memory was cleansing, that she came to everything fresh." He forgets nothing. Their marriage, a perfect complement, is replete with satisfaction and love . But Margaret, falling under the spell of an anonymous 18th-century libertine manuscript, "Rameau's Niece," chafes at too much contentment. "Margaret was a demanding person, hard on herself, certainly; harder by far on everyone else." She determines, like some inept Don Juan, to discover herself through lustful experimentation. Margaret's dangerous mood, her crankiness and panics are all hilariously realistic. The trouble is the manuscript that caused the trouble in the first place. Full of obscure references, plagiarisms and academic jokes, it's full of pitfalls for the forgetful Margaret and the averagely educated reader. Nobody likes to feel they're missing the point and Schine, ("To the Birdhouse") scinitillatingly aware, makes a joke even of this-- assuming the reader makes it that far. A delightfully written novel, with a disappointingly muddled middle.

For an afternoon of fun...

Read this book. It's fun in a literary sort of way, so if you're not into that kind of thing, then you might want to give it a miss. I love reading and aspire to be one of those arty, high brow literary types but know I can't, so I read books like these to live vicariously through the characters. But seriously, enough with the bad reviews already! This is an entertaining, quirky, and humorous read. Sure, the characters are annoying at times... but they're meant to be that way, and besides, name one person in your own life who isn't. There you go! So read this book (be sure to have a cup of coffee and some cookies nearby, because it's just that sort of book) and come back here and tell us how much you enjoyed it.

clever and inspiring

I loved this book. What it says about love on its final page is so true. The main character has her flaws, sure, but don't we all? I identified with her more because of them. You'll probably like this book if you're familiar with academic theory; otherwise you might not recognize some of the jokes/types.

A *Wonderful* Book

I also want to respond to that bitterly negative one-star review. I'd say that I've read *Rameau's Niece* six times at least, with undiminished enjoyment. It does appeal primarily to a narrow audience (it was recommended to me when I was in graduate school), but I resent the reviewer presuming to speak for everyone in roundly asserting that reading it is "a waste of time." Reading it has been some of the best time I've ever spent.

Anything but a waste of time!

I just had to write something to offset the only review this book has been given here. Rameau's Niece is a terrific book- a clever and often very funny send-up of the world of academia and the timeless chasm between human intelligence and the human sex drive. The characters aren't *meant* to be likeable. They're generally bewildered intellectuals and wannabe hedonists, meant to be entertaining. Take a chance. Buy this book.