Jamie McAlister has problems. She's a recent college grad in a down economy with a train-wreck of a family. Also? She's got a pretty serious case of immaturity and is almost too naive to live.
Jamie manages to land an unpaid internship at the White House along with a free luxury apartment (belonging to the parent of a friend) but she's still not happy. Because she deserves more. Because she's earned it somehow. By existing, I guess. She, almost by accident, finds herself having an affair with the President of the United States a la Monica Lewinsky and the book details the affair itself and the fallout when it's discovered.
I wanted to like The First Affair so much. I loved The Nanny Diaries and have always thought the writing team of Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus was great but this book just left me disappointed.
I don't know if it was the blurriness of the main character or if it was just the fact that the whole book read like weird real-life fanfic but it just didn't work for me. Jamie never became a real person for me. Even though the story is a first-person narrative, her personality just never quite came through. She's just sort of there. Vacuous and insecure, floating through life passively. I could never quite get a sense of her beyond that I didn't like her.
As for the "weird real-life fanfic" observation... to be fair, that may be on me. This might be a fantastic book for anyone who doesn't remember the whole sordid Clinton-Lewinsky ordeal of the late nineties. For those of us who can remember the scandal though? This book is like an almost-but-not-quite retelling of that story with a few details changed - Jaime doesn't come from a wealthy family and it's a coat that provides the DNA evidence, not a blue dress from the GAP.
As for the "weird real-life fanfic" observation... to be fair, that may be on me. This might be a fantastic book for anyone who doesn't remember the whole sordid Clinton-Lewinsky ordeal of the late nineties. For those of us who can remember the scandal though? This book is like an almost-but-not-quite retelling of that story with a few details changed - Jaime doesn't come from a wealthy family and it's a coat that provides the DNA evidence, not a blue dress from the GAP.
I will say that the last quarter of the book was better than the rest. The pace picked up from its previous plodding, repetitive tone and the drama increased once the affair was leaked. There were still moments of frustration as Jamie proved herself to be dumber than dumb at times but there were also stand up and cheer moments, like when Jamie's horrible, narcissistic older sister Erica piped up with the quote I opened this review with. I actually said out loud as I read that line, "Thank you!"
No comments:
Post a Comment