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Rules of Seduction
"Magida is a fine craftsman with ample literary sensibility."
THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD
Handsome, green-eyed, sexy, Jack Newland never makes the first move. It has always worked. Until his twenty-eighth birthday. After a debauched celebration, Jack steps out of the fast lane and begins to confront the parts of himself he's always denied. And with no facades to protect him, long-held secrets emerge, threatening Jack's engagement to one woman and his new love for another...Brilliantly blending a New York novel of manners with the concerns of the MTV generation, Daniel Magida has created a perfectly rendered portrait of one young man's struggle as he decides whether to follow his rules or follow his heart.
THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD
Handsome, green-eyed, sexy, Jack Newland never makes the first move. It has always worked. Until his twenty-eighth birthday. After a debauched celebration, Jack steps out of the fast lane and begins to confront the parts of himself he's always denied. And with no facades to protect him, long-held secrets emerge, threatening Jack's engagement to one woman and his new love for another...Brilliantly blending a New York novel of manners with the concerns of the MTV generation, Daniel Magida has created a perfectly rendered portrait of one young man's struggle as he decides whether to follow his rules or follow his heart.
422 pages, Hardcover
First published September 2, 1992
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August 10, 2009
I certainly can't disagree with the reviewer who wrote that this book is "sure to attract those for whom upper-class antics, real or imaginary, are a source of endless fascination" (Kirkus Reviews). But I think the reviewer misses the point. This isn't a book about upper-class antics; it's a book about people-pleasing gone bad.
The Rules of Seduction is a touching story of a character who has a good heart, yet seems to do everything for the wrong reason. Jack Newland has always done everything requested of him and has rarely been faced with the questions of whether he made the right choice or whether he did what he wanted to do. Over the course of the book, though, he is forced to face these questions and is at a loss for how to answer them.
I very much enjoyed this story of someone finding himself--better late than never--and I recognized quite a few people I know in the character. Upper-class antics or not, many of us can learn something from a character forced to make up his own mind for the first time in his life.
The Rules of Seduction is a touching story of a character who has a good heart, yet seems to do everything for the wrong reason. Jack Newland has always done everything requested of him and has rarely been faced with the questions of whether he made the right choice or whether he did what he wanted to do. Over the course of the book, though, he is forced to face these questions and is at a loss for how to answer them.
I very much enjoyed this story of someone finding himself--better late than never--and I recognized quite a few people I know in the character. Upper-class antics or not, many of us can learn something from a character forced to make up his own mind for the first time in his life.
Displaying 1 of 1 review