Young Writers Society

The Emperor’s Children

"Marina Thwaite, Danielle Minkoff and Julian Clarke were buddies at Brown, certain that they would soon do something important in the world. But as all near 30, Danielle is struggling as a TV documentary maker, and Julius is barely surviving financially as a freelance critic. Marina, the startlingly beautiful daughter of celebrated social activist, journalist and hob-nobber Murray Thwaite, is living with her parents on the Upper West Side, unable to finish her book — titled The Emperor's Children Have No Clothes (on how changing fashions in children's clothes mirror changes in society). Two arrivals upset the group stasis: Ludovic, a fiercely ambitious Aussie who woos Marina to gain entrée into society (meanwhile planning to destroy Murray's reputation), and Murray's nephew, Frederick 'Bootie' Tubb, an immature, idealistic college dropout and autodidact who is determined to live the life of a New York intellectual. The group orbits around the post-September 11 city with disconcerting entitlement — and around Murray, who is, in a sense, the emperor.”

Claire Messud, the celebrated author of the New York Time’s best Book of the Year, the Emperor’s Children, has definitely lived up to her rewarded title. This gut-wrenching, horribly truthful novel about friends, faults, and family, will teach you things you never know could be learned. With a poetic, beautiful writing style, Messud manages to capture the spirit of her characters, making the reader attached and both repulsed and attracted to them.