The Emperor’s Children

by: Claire Messud

Published by: Vintage Books

Reviewed by Linda Lee

A trio of thirty-year-olds, who have been friends since attending Brown together, deal with life as changes come about due to their age, relationships, and the terrorist attacks of 9-11.

Marina Thwaite is the beautiful daughter of Murray Thwaite, a celebrity in the literary world since before Marina was born, and she has lived a life of privilege because of it. She has spent way too much time, and all of her advance, trying to finish a book, The Emperor’s Children Have No Clothes, on how changes in society affect changes in children’s clothing fashions. She is back living with her parents.

Her friend Danielle Minkoff is a documentary producer who works very hard to make her way in the television world. Julius Clarke is a gay freelance critic who struggles to make ends meet. Their lives intertwine as do many who graduate together and remain single. They encourage each other, question actions, and hope to prevent hurt in outside relationships. Sometimes they hope to keep hidden the embarrassing slip ups that happen in life. Sometimes they hide the truth. Danielle’s mother would like to be part of her daughter’s life, but is held at arm’s length.

Marina’s cousin, nicknamed Bootie, comes to New York in search of his famous uncle, hoping the literary world will realize his gift by association. Given a chance to have an article published, he decides to write about his uncle and show the world the truth about the man he grew up believing was more than mere human. Julius’s quest for power finds him in relationships with wrong men or for the wrong reasons. He enters a downward spiral centering on drugs and his need to hide what he sees as his shortcomings from his friends.

These are friends with secrets and families kept separate, sometimes out of embarrassment, other times out of hurt. Various points in the book make you want to shake some sense into each of the characters while at other times you find yourself hurting or cheering for them.

Armchair Interview says: Real characters, real situations, a very real time—Claire Messud writes so engagingly, with a pleasing mastery of the language, it is hard not to be drawn in to her story.