Testimony by Anita Shreve Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Testimony
Book Review: Duke Lacrosse Case
Summary: 3 Stars
Good book, just kept reminding me of the Duke Lacrosse case. I wonder if she got her idea from that event. Maybe I felt that connection because I live in Durham but did anyone else think of that?Book Review: Engaging, but I would have preferred more tawdry
Summary: 3 Stars
Although this book was a quick read, I didn't care for it. For one thing, the non-linear narrative, told from a variety of perspectives, only works some of the time and quite often fails. (Anytime Shreve is attempting the voice of a lower class townsperson, it comes off as condescending.) Oddly, her male narrators are much stronger than her female narrators, and the voice of the "victim" is so cliche as to be painful. Also, the incident at the center of this book is not as interesting or as scandalous as it could be - I'm sure she wanted to stick to a realistic scenario, which she did, but the thought that this incident would be in the national news nearly every day for two years? Unlikely. Finally, small point, but she didn't bring up child pornography... which would almost certainly have been a charge given the incident.
All that said, it kept me occupied for much of a long flight and I never considered putting it down. If you're like me and addicted to sex scandals and boarding schools, you may enjoy it.
Book Review: Excellent, fast read
Summary: 4 Stars
I remembered that this book was highly publicized a while back, and found it at my local library. I particularly enjoy books whose chapters are each told by a different character, as this one does. Testimony is gripping and engrossing from the first page, and I easily finished it within two or three days. It is about a group of boys who engage in and videotape a sexual encounter with a girl of, shall we say, questionable morals, who claims rape once the tape is released. The boys are popular athletes and the girl is known for her hard-partying ways. Somehow, at different points in each chapter, I was able to feel sorry for each character. Testimony shows how quickly an incident such as this one can easily destroy the lives of an accuser, the accused, and the community as a whole, especially once the media becomes involved. I highly recommend this book.
However, I would NOT wish for this story to in any way diminish the fact that incidents such as the one portrayed here happen on campuses every day, and while there are always two sides or more to every story, there are genuine victims who need to be protected and admired for their courage in reporting these incidents, not slandered and discredited.
Book Review: Explosive cautionary tale
Summary: 4 Stars
When Mike Borden, the headmaster of a prestigious private school in Vermont, is handed a tape by his secretary, he isn't sure what to expect. He certainly doesn't expect to see two highly respected students and a third post-graduate student engaging in sexual intercourse with a 14 year old girl, but that's precisely what he does see. The last thing he anticipates is the explosive effect that this single tape - that this single evening - will have on so many lives, both in and out of the small town in which the private school is located.
This is quite an overwhelming book. The story is immensely more complex than I've just described, but it's very difficult not to give away any details and still write a summary. The author rotates viewpoints, featuring the girl, the boys, the headmaster, some of the parents, and other related people. It really reads like a collection of testimonies from all the players in the very serious events of those few days that determined many futures. At times this is disorienting. Each person's narrative is written in a distinct style so that they're easily distinguished, but it's very easy to lose track of where you are in the story, particularly when a person's chapter is only two or three pages long. They also skip around in the book's timeline, and as I read quickly, occasionally I'd wonder just what was happening with the other people at the time because it didn't seem clear to me. Perhaps if I had spent more time on each perspective, this wouldn't have mattered, but I also really wanted to work out just what happened.
On the other hand, the emotional power of this book is not to be missed. Anita Shreve carefully gathers in all the threads of her tale and brings it to a startling climax that you don't expect until only a page or two before it happens; looking back, however, you can see how the rest of the day's events led to it. It feels carefully crafted to evoke this particular outcome and to minutely examine how everyone felt about the tape.
In the end, I'd call this a very good book. It has compelling characters, a riveting plotline, and terrific attention to detail. The rotating viewpoints are a minor problem, but one that I could get past to enjoy the book. And I'm now compelled to add Anita Shreve to my "authors whose work I should read" list.
Book Review: Falls below her usual excellent mark
Summary: 3 Stars
Falling somewhat below her usual mark, Shreve gives us a somewhat contrived, albeit interestingly conceived, novel with /Testimony/. With quite the array of characters, her latest offering is concerned with a private school that has had its foundations rocked by a sex scandal - a videotape showing numerous members of the school engaged in carnal acts, among other things, has found its way into the hands of the headmaster. The ensuing drama is told through the perspectives of a dozen or so characters, and everything starts to fall into, and out of, place.
Though the story is somewhat muddled by the fact that so many people are involved and each has a unique view, /Testimony/ is nonetheless packed with emotional turmoil and intrigue. If you can get through the non-casual and hardly approachable style, /Testimony/ is packed with a interesting story, however doing so will be a challenge.