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Jennifer Welsh's Reviews > The New Life
The New Life
by
by
Jennifer Welsh's review
bookshelves: historical-background, marriage, social, cerebral-academic-fiction
Jul 06, 2024
bookshelves: historical-background, marriage, social, cerebral-academic-fiction
This review is long overdue, as I won this in a giveaway with the promise of an honest opinion. I usually give 3 stars to a book I solidly liked, but wasn’t wowed by, either because I’ve read things like it before too many times, or because it was a book that entertained during the reading and then fell out of my head. This was not that. I can still see scenes and characters and I remember the story well. The writing was much tighter in structure than most debuts. (I actually think this might have been a detriment to this author, as I wanted him to break the whole thing open and let the characters breathe more). It was well-researched and smart.
My biggest issue was with the characters. The book focuses on two very different couples, one older with established standing in the community, and by all appearances very traditional; the other young, progressive, and just starting their lives.
This book is about what it was like to be a queer man right before and after the arrest of Oscar Wilde. The older gentleman has been having affairs for so long during his marriage that he barely hides it anymore from his wife, and she has to accept it. The younger man married a gay woman who loves him dearly, and he loves her back. He is queer, and some weight and mystery is given to wondering how. The reveal was disappointing, and compared to the overall politics of the time, didn’t matter to the story beyond the young man’s internal suffering. It would have felt more meaningful if he were gay, too, and handled it differently from the older man, or maybe bisexual and in love with his very gay wife. Instead, his secret was a fetish, and never really went anywhere.
The older man was terribly unlikable, and although I often enjoy learning the depths of unlikable characters, I felt this book lacked personal depth. There were glimpses of real emotion, I can see the author has it in him, but the book felt more guided by his mind than his heart. I hope he can break open his taut, sharp intelligence next time to let the characters fully bloom with emotion.
Also, the opening scene was the most erotic I’ve ever read. I thought I’d won an erotica book! It was so in-your-face intense, never to be repeated in the story in the same way. This is one place where the structural choice didn’t make sense.
I’d be curious to see how this highly intelligent writer develops in his next work, but overall I felt let down in a way that annoyed.
My biggest issue was with the characters. The book focuses on two very different couples, one older with established standing in the community, and by all appearances very traditional; the other young, progressive, and just starting their lives.
This book is about what it was like to be a queer man right before and after the arrest of Oscar Wilde. The older gentleman has been having affairs for so long during his marriage that he barely hides it anymore from his wife, and she has to accept it. The younger man married a gay woman who loves him dearly, and he loves her back. He is queer, and some weight and mystery is given to wondering how. The reveal was disappointing, and compared to the overall politics of the time, didn’t matter to the story beyond the young man’s internal suffering. It would have felt more meaningful if he were gay, too, and handled it differently from the older man, or maybe bisexual and in love with his very gay wife. Instead, his secret was a fetish, and never really went anywhere.
The older man was terribly unlikable, and although I often enjoy learning the depths of unlikable characters, I felt this book lacked personal depth. There were glimpses of real emotion, I can see the author has it in him, but the book felt more guided by his mind than his heart. I hope he can break open his taut, sharp intelligence next time to let the characters fully bloom with emotion.
Also, the opening scene was the most erotic I’ve ever read. I thought I’d won an erotica book! It was so in-your-face intense, never to be repeated in the story in the same way. This is one place where the structural choice didn’t make sense.
I’d be curious to see how this highly intelligent writer develops in his next work, but overall I felt let down in a way that annoyed.
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Reading Progress
March 13, 2023
– Shelved
March 13, 2023
– Shelved as:
to-read
January 15, 2024
–
Started Reading
February 8, 2024
–
8.93%
"“…ideas worked their way under his skin, until they became part of his whole response to the world, tingling under the surface of everything, flaring like fever when he encountered some prejudice, some small backwardness that made the world seem vast and intractable in its stupidity.�"
page
35
February 12, 2024
–
31.12%
""Edith had a habit of raising her hand to her mouth while she chewed, as if something were always at risk of falling out. When she was also listening, with her eyes fixed on a person speaking, it suggested that what she was keeping back might be words, that she was protecting some impression or response. Henry knew—he was fairly sure he did—when she was only chewing.""
page
122
February 13, 2024
–
46.68%
"“I cannot see where affection between people of the same sex differs from love as it is ordinarily understood. Everything I have ever read in books or seen in plays; everything I have seen in my life of ordinary love, I have known in inverted form. It cannot ever seem unnatural or abnormal, because it has been natural and spontaneous in me.�"
page
183
February 15, 2024
–
68.37%
""He watched Catherine be sought out, talk eagerly, link arms, laugh. He wished he was not married to her, so that he could be one of these acquaintances, could spend a happy hour in her company and then take his leave, think nothing of her until another year had passed, until another party brought them together again, for a charming afternoon.""
page
268
February 16, 2024
–
Finished Reading
August 3, 2024
– Shelved as:
social
August 3, 2024
– Shelved as:
marriage
August 3, 2024
– Shelved as:
historical-background
August 3, 2024
– Shelved as:
cerebral-academic-fiction
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Barbara
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Jul 06, 2024 05:09AM
What a shame Jennifer. Sounds like Crewe missed some opportunities. Great review.
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I'm sorry those characters didn't fulfill their promise. I do appreciate your review and your articulation of how you feel Crewe's writing didn't serve his story. I also am curious about this "highly intelligent writer." I hope he takes note and that his next work wows.
Hey Jennifer, thanks for an engaging review. I understand your reservations, which can always be an issue when an author is writing about real people, especially as here where the facts were facts, based on documentation from interviews for the book that the men were writing,. Do you think it would have been problematic to change things about the characters when to do so would essentially be telling lies, I appreciated that he did not though I agree the book would have been more dramatic and engaging had he done.
The topic is interesting enough but you've articulated your reservations so well that your evaluation makes sense, Jennifer. As for the bold choice of the opening scene, it did catch your attention, didn't it?? I'm thinking of those opening scenes of typical Broadway musicals, where everybody's on the stage in what is usually one of the two most impressive numbers of the show (the other being the finale 😉)
Uggh! I think I would have been turned off by that opening scene. There are better ways of grabbing eyeballs than this. I see your praise for the writing, so I might still try this author. Just not via this book. Fabulous review, Jennifer.
Barbara wrote: "What a shame Jennifer. Sounds like Crewe missed some opportunities. Great review."Thanks, Barbara. It's almost as if he's too smart for his own good. Remember the days of feathered hair when some girls looked too perfect, lol?
Lisa wrote: "I'm sorry those characters didn't fulfill their promise. I do appreciate your review and your articulation of how you feel Crewe's writing didn't serve his story. I also am curious about this "high..."Thanks, Lisa. I think you'd find this one interesting at times, but would agree that it's missing heart. He's a journalist in practice and just wasn't able to shed enough of that to let emotions breathe. The exception was where sexual angst came through, but the effect was almost like following the life of an uptight conservative who breaks free in spurts of sexual extremes.
Bonnie G. wrote: "Hey Jennifer, thanks for an engaging review. I understand your reservations, which can always be an issue when an author is writing about real people, especially as here where the facts were facts,..."Hi Bonnie, which part would require a lie—do you mean the fetish? I agree with you that my suggestions may then not have been right, but for me it never served the story. What was your experience?
As for my desire to break open the characters, I think if a journalist decides to try his hand at fiction, he must flesh out the characters with his imagination of their emotional life, no? I was hungry for that.
Jennifer wrote: "Bonnie G. wrote: "Hey Jennifer, thanks for an engaging review. I understand your reservations, which can always be an issue when an author is writing about real people, especially as here where the..."Not just the fetish, Jennifer, though that too and the wish he had been Gay (which this real person was not). I guess I am also thinking about the wish that people had been nicer, which they apparently were not. Our main character's real son spent his life ardently trying to make people understand the joy of sex with prepubescent children. I am willing to judge his parents and it appears the apple did not fall too many feet from the tree, Since these were all real people with well-documented lives there are a lot of limits on novelization. I rarely read historical fiction that features real people for this very reason. It is hard to write a good story and respect real people and I am horrified when writers play fast and loose with the lives and identities of real people not alive to speak up for themselves.
Yesterday I went to a book event with Erik Larson (who was lovely) and he told a story of taking his then 9-year-old to a book event in Austin for Isaac's Storm. During the Q&A she stood up to ask a question, and apparently, he could not ignore her because C-Span was there and ran over with a light and camera. So he asked for her question which was "So Daddy, how much of this did you make up?" (I think that is such a great story.) Larson is writing nonfiction about real people, so it is different, but for me not that different.
That’s what I meant by asking you if it was the fetish part � was the problem that I wished the author made him gay or bi. I tried to express in my response that I agree with you how that would be problematic. But often I find when someone makes suggestions, the suggestions themselves may be off the mark, but the troubled area is worth attention. There was tension built there that never bloomed for me—did it work for you?And no no no, it’s not at all about me wanting people to be nicer, but deeper and more fully human. I often enjoy reading about unlikable characters. The author obviously did some imagining of their inner lives because he had to, and I just wish he’d gone much further. I felt his journalist skills needed to be unlearned for him to write moving fiction.
There’s an amazing nonfiction book called The Fact of the Body where the author manages to show the humanity in a pedophile without pulling any punches. I actually think you’d appreciate that, if you haven’t read it already.
I enjoyed the Larson story, and I get you: this is why I loved Muriel Spark’s, Loitering with Intent so much, she plays with these lines. But the idea of fact and fiction in writing being unclear also supports my point.
All that said, I’m curious to reread your review of this now, since I’m pretty sure it was your review that got this on my tbr. It’s only fitting that we’re discussing it now, 😅🫶🏻
Geez, despite the lukewarm review I feel like I need to track it down now just for that opening scene!A question, though, which no doubt arises from my ignorance of terminology: The younger man is 'queer' but not 'gay'? I was unaware that those had two different meanings. Can you explain?
Jennifer wrote: "That’s what I meant by asking you if it was the fetish part � was the problem that I wished the author made him gay or bi. I tried to express in my response that I agree with you how that would be ..."I totally get you, Jennifer. Thanks for spelling that out. And thanks for that recommendation. I am interested and will check it out.
Left Coast Justin wrote: "Geez, despite the lukewarm review I feel like I need to track it down now just for that opening scene!A question, though, which no doubt arises from my ignorance of terminology: The younger man i..."
Queer embraces everything under the rainbow flag, Justin. It does not mean Gay specifically.
Oh my! Too bad as it the premise does sound interesting. A fair review, Jennifer.
Jennifer,I feel that a reading response like the one you have shared here is not only helpful to future readers of this novel, but to the author as well. It's always challenging to accept that we didn't perhaps execute the story in a way that achieved its maximum potential, but, of course, I think we all understand that a debut is rarely an artist's magnum opus.
I look for that depth in characters as well - likeable or otherwise. It sounds like this author has some great potential. I'll look to see what he writes next. Right now, I can't pick up books that don't fully entice me! Thanks for helping me sort through them with your thoughtful reviews, Jennifer :)
Justin, it’s good we have friends like Bonnie to step in when one of us disappears, 😅. Thanks, Bonnie! At this point, with nonbinary as an identity, gay is a focused orientation. Queer is all-inclusive.
Thank you, Jen. I really don’t think this one’s for you. Just a guess. I’m willing to be wrong, :)
Julie wrote: "Jennifer,I feel that a reading response like the one you have shared here is not only helpful to future readers of this novel, but to the author as well. It's always challenging to accept that we ..."
Julie, thank you for your thoughtful comment. I feel like you’re getting what I’m saying, that the author has real talent and achieved things most others don’t in a debut, but it felt viscerally imbalanced, the way it does when I see a muscle-man, lol. And some people like that. And there’s nothing wrong with liking that. But there’s potential for a deeper experience from both the writer and his fans.
Candi wrote: "I look for that depth in characters as well - likeable or otherwise. It sounds like this author has some great potential. I'll look to see what he writes next. Right now, I can't pick up books that..."Yeah, Candi, I don't think this one would work for you. Although, you may want to peek at the very erotic opening scene, lol.
Gaurav wrote: "Excellent review, Jennifer :)"Thank you, Gaurav, :)
Jennifer wrote: "Candi wrote: "I look for that depth in characters as well - likeable or otherwise. It sounds like this author has some great potential. I'll look to see what he writes next. Right now, I can't pick..."Ha! Well, if you twist my arm, Jennifer, I just might have to! :D :D
Candi wrote: "Jennifer wrote: "Candi wrote: "I look for that depth in characters as well - likeable or otherwise. It sounds like this author has some great potential. I'll look to see what he writes next. Right ..."Ha, once you begin there will be no twisting needed ;)
Sounds like this had infinite potential; too bad it didn't deliver, but wow, what a place to start from. Your review sounds fair, Jen, and I know how much you value quality characterization. Once he works out a few kinks - hah! - who knows what this author will next surprise you with.
Charles, exactly: this is written with intelligence and clearly passion, and I’m curious how he will develop.
