Temptations by Douglas Kennedy: A Book Review

I still have to figure out what the impact is of adding on to a previous post (Book Club post) and therefore I decided  to create a separate post for Book Reviews in the mean time, just in case things don't work out.

This week I read my first book by Dougals Kennedy and he is definately one of my to 10 favourites.The book title is:


......It starts off with the main character, a writer (how apt), reminiscing about how after years of producing unbuyable work, hits it big when one of his novels which becomes a comedy hit is bought. Fames goes to his head and all sorts of disasters happen as a result of bad decisions, including losing his family and newly acquired fortune along the way. Which should really leave you thinking what a loser but the master in Kennedy has you thinking: he does not deserve this, of course if  man has worked so hard for this good fortune it's understandable if he doesn't stay with his nagging wife even if she did slog for him for more than a decade of her life and so what if the billionaires wife fancied him_ that billionaire had no right to get vindictive none the less, as for that live in girlfriend, she is worse than helll and so on you unknowingly keep rooting for him right to the end. Things you wouldn't accept in your own life he gets entitled to.

Surprisingly there are life lessons in here. First line reads :
"I've always wanted to be rich, that might be crass but its a true confession".
In the end he gives a wonderful analogy using the Big Bad Woolf to represent that fact that we need the perpetual state of crises our lives in order to see the possibilities and possibly significance. And so do not be surprised when you do reach your goal to find that it is not all as you had hoped.

My favorite quote he used comes from Emily Dickson whom I absolutely love:
dominion lasts until obtained-
possession just as long-
but these- endowing as they flit
eternally belong.......Emily D.

It is such craft and a gift to be able to write the way Kennedy does. He seduces you with his words and with each scene where something terrible happens you think no I can't go on but just to hear how he disentangles you are drawn back to the pages. In the course of reading this book I actually went searching for qualifications which have literature as a  major. He made me fall in love with the English language.

But above all, what stood out for me was his pace, it lacked all those filling the gaps passages that writers adopt when they try to add pages but have nothing to say. It is consistant from beginning to end, racy but comfortable, sort of like travelling at 120km/h on the highway. It takes you where you need to be at just the right time. Never leaves you wondering but has just enough information that you never think, let's get on with it already.

I want to add The Independent News review of this book so that if interested, you can get a professional opinion, they put it so much better. :(    http://www.independent.co.uk/arts

It is the most wonderful piece of work and I was told that this is nothing compared to his Pursuit of Happiness which I haven't read as yet.
To explore the contents of this book before rushing to the bookshelf, visit this link with a chapter or two:
Temptations: First Chapter or Two