The Party Upstairs

Why do I continue to be taken in by literary reviews? This was touted as a great book, that examined “class warfare” and the “power structure.” You can find evidence of these themes, if you look hard enough, but what I found were people who made bad decisions, and then compounded them by making more bad decisions. I don’t think that exemplifies the differences in the class structure, but it did make some (if not all) of the characters unlikeable. The story revolves around Ruby, a young woman a couple of years out of college, and her father Martin, who works as a super in an apartment building in New York. Ruby grew up in the basement apartment, but has always been friends with Caroline, a young woman of the same age, who lives in the penthouse. The author does portray rich people as viewing those of lower economic standing as “things,” and this can be seen in the way the character Andy photographs “fringe” people. He arranges their poses, listens to their stories, but his overriding concern is having an art show that will display his work. The writing is good, but I won’t remember this book in a month.

This wasn’t about class structure. It was about mentally ill individuals. Both the father and the daughter needed professional help. Did not enjoy rambling writing at all.

Perhaps, there is a limited story line here, and the main characters go abit off the rails several times, taking actions that seem just an ounce or two short of believable. But the topics seemed fresh to me, the main characters did not seem unstable- rather they seemed like good smart people living through some dark times, sometimes times seemed very dark for reasons they don’t fully comprehend. This is, for one thing, a book about grief, and for another, a book how having money or not having money shapes one’s worldview and life experiences. Wish it weren’t so, but the story reminds us of reality.

Reading the reviews, I would have to note that I don’t think the trust funders quite comprehend the differences that having money can make in one’s experience in the world. Like Caroline, they might try, but can’t ever quite get it, and so, those of another class just seem crazy.

Many many metaphors or allegories in this book, I don’t remember the words for the various literary techniques. but stay open for them. and you may meet them— clanky wheels, rats, bird’s eyes, spaces, rain. This book is best when we pay attention. You don’t have to remember the names of the techniques to be touched by the read.

This story would have been better as a novella. That way all the trivial and tasteless and repetitious details in it could have been cut. The most repetitious ones concerned Martins duties as janitor of an apartment building. Over and over and over again we must read descriptions of his duties. I guess the author really, really, really wanted the reader to get the feel of a janitors job. By page 100, I decided to jump ship, but had trouble totally abandoning the story. The look at class differences was interesting, and apparently something serious was going to happen at the upcoming party in the penthouse apartment. Something life changing.

Hence, instead of deleting the novel from my Kindle Fire, I decided to continue reading, incorporating as much skimming as necessary to make it to the end. I liked the end. Not the tragic thing that happened, mind you. That seemed quite unnecessary for life to change for those who needed life to change, and seemed to offer additional proof that there was something puerile about this whole story. Seriously, there was something terribly off-putting about it, besides all the details; something that gave you the feeling it was emotionally stunted, like many of its characters. In other words, it was not a memorable story. After finishing the last page, I deleted it from my Kindle Fire.

Sounded like a bitch fest from a writer who had a chip on her shoulder. I waded through the book, found a few short, interesting sections like girls getting locked in the elevator room and Ruby meeting Andy, but otherwise boring, boring, boring. Wait until your library has it in stock. If you miss it you are not missing much.

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