I’ll be honest; I’m not a Steel neophyte. Back in 1990 at the tender age of 17, I read Kaleidoscope and I remember enjoying it. However, the experience of reading a Danielle Steel novel at the wizened age of 41 was a less agreeable experience. I pondered what I could possibly say in a review of Coming Out that hasn’t already been said in other reviews. Aside from the five star reviews that inexplicably appear on Goodreads (please contact me, if you think Coming Out is five stars, I have books recommendations that will BLOW YOUR FREAKING MIND!), I think most of the other reviewers have identified the significant flaws in Coming Out and in Steel’s writing style. So, in an effort to be a bit creative (I’m on holidays!), I’ll attempt to write a ‘review’ using Steel’s own writing style. Here goes!Curtis cleared his throat. “I’d like to welcome the members of the Trash Book Club to our meeting. For our meeting this week, we decided to each read a novel by the prolific artist, Danielle Steel. We will provide a summary of our novel, and answer any questions. I’ll start. I read Coming Out, which was Steel’s 69th (snicker) novel and the second of three novels released in 2006. The story surrounds Olympia Crawford-Rubenstein, a nice rich white lady who has three children from a previous marriage and one precocious five-year-old with her current husband, a Jew. (If “Rubenstein” didn’t tip you off already.)“Olympia’s (I can’t even say her name without giggling in my head) twin daughters (inexplicably dramatic opposites, Steel brazenly spitting in the face of all psychological twin studies) have been invited to a blue blood cotillion where they will “come out” to high society. In spite of the changed times, Olympia cherishes the memories of her own cotillion, and expects that the girls will be thrilled to experience this milestone in a young woman’s life. Surprisingly, her daughter Veronica is opposed to the cotillion plan, and her twin sister Virginia is livid that her twin has to spoil everything. Olympia’s current husband, a Jew (yes, I meant to repeat that), agrees that a cotillion panders to Old-South discriminatory ideals, and supports Veronica’s protest. A war erupts in the Crawford/Rubenstein household. And without ruining the book for anyone, everyone is happy in the end. Questions?”Curtis looked over at Kevin, who was politely raising his hand. Curtis looked with love and appreciation at Kevin, who was his closest friend and confidante, and had become accepted as a member of Curtis’s family. “Yes Kevin?”Kevin smiled at his long-time friend and frequent travel companion, and smiled with love. While he and Curtis had not always agreed on everything, particularly when it came to Curtis’s loose morals, they always regarded each other with respect and admiration. “I won’t say anything yet about the book that I read. It’s not my turn. But I’m curious, did you find her writing style somewhat repetitive?”Curtis looked with love and appreciation at Kevin, who was his closest friend and confidante, and had become accepted as a member of Curtis’s family. “Yes, Kevin. I did.”Sarah quickly interjected. “I did too!” Sarah was a friend of both Curtis and Kevin, and she was affectionately referred to as their daughter. “I also frequently noticed her overuse of adverbs. I was quickly annoyed.”“And always using extreme adverbs of frequency, as if something is ‘always’ or ‘never’,” Janna added. Janna was always noticing the small details. She never missed a book club, and always came with something tasty that she had prepared at home. Elena nodded. Elena was a colleague of Curtis’s, and as she tossed her luscious auburn hair to the side, she unwittingly heightened the illusion that she was like a young Julianne Moore. “I noticed she makes comparisons to famous people to exemplify what characters looked like.”Darlene gently cleared her throat. Curtis looked over at Darlene, who he had introduced to the book club because of her assertive, insightful, and often hilarious observations on life in general. He knew she would make a powerful addition to the book club. Darlene added, “I think she used hyperbole about a million times. It made me insane. I wanted to kill myself.”“What’s funny,” Keri-Lee included, “was her random use of large words. She’s something of a random sesquipedalian.” “I had to use the dictionary function on my kindle,” Curtis conceded. Curtis looked lovingly over the sea of white faces in front of him. He concluded, “Well it appears that Steel’s writing style is at least consistent. “In summary, I was tempted to give the book one star. However, at 210 pages, this is one of Steel’s shortest novels, and for that tender mercy upon the reader, I give her an extra star. Next?”
Hearing from a friend from high school that Danielle Steele was her favorite author, and from my mom that she used to read some of Danielle Steele's books when she was younger, I managed to finally grab a copy of one of Miss Steele's newer work. I bought this just a few months (maybe a year) after Coming Out came out, and only had the time and motivation to read it recently. I thought maybe being in college, older and wiser, would help me appreciate a book meant for adults more, but was I dead wrong.The topic, I had no problem with. It was interesting enough, and I could tell she tried (a little too hard even), which made me give the rating of two stars rather than a well-deserved one. This book, I can't even begin to describe how bland and boring and pointless the writing style was. The author (I'm saying author because God knows I wish Steele had ghost writers because tHIS BOOK) kept going round and round, the whole book was a complete mess. The conversation already explained a certain situation, and the narrative did the same thing, and vice versa. I was reading things over and over again, to the point that I could do nothing but wait until something new popped out from in between the lines. The lack of descriptive writing irked me as well. The statement "He/She was a ____, ____, _____ (person)" was so overused, I could only hope that by the end of the book, the author would have learned that there are other ways to describe a certain person -- and that could be by actually making a character DO something. (One other thing that the book kept repeating was the sentence "_____ touched his/her heart.")Speaking of characters, another thing that made this book a huge mess to me was the characters. The characters, ALL OF THEM, were all overreacting and over-exaggerated, it made everything utterly unrealistic. Everyone in the book seemed like grade-A morons.The other reason I gave this book two stars instead of a less than satisfactory one was that the topic had so much potential. I get it. By the end, believe me, I totally got what Steele wanted to portray. "Coming out" meant more to the story than just the debutante cotillion the twins had to go to, as it also meant a sort of "coming out" from the other characters. (I knew Charlie was gay, I fucking knew it.) The topic itself was one star for me, as with the message, but the way she wrote it made it a complete disaster. If only Steele were to focus on the other characters' "coming out" a bit more -- Charlie, Frieda, Harry, and especially Olympia -- maybe the book would have had more meaning, more message, more depth.I can't believe I actually forced myself to finish this book.
What do You think about Coming Out (2006)?
This rich, white, privileged lady named Olympia wants her two daughters to participate in a coming out ball that is only open to other rich, white, privileged people. Her Jewish husband is the voice of reason and flat out refuses to attend. But, Olympia won't give up, especially when a Jewish person and a black person tell her it's ok for her to support the racist function.The basic premise of this book is interesting, how society is constantly changing and what was once commonplace (exclusion based on religion & race) is now questioned and old established traditions ultimately must change or they will not survive. This book, however, does not address any of those issues. This book focuses on a ridiculously controlling female character at the center of the story, who we are told is a fantastic lawyer and mother, but we are never shown any examples of either. I mean, you really want to shout at the lady for the first 3/4 of the book "YOUR SON IS GAY!!!" Because she is just so self centered she can't see it.The big climax of the book is when the 18 year old daughter has the audacity to get a tattoo which breaks her mother's fragile little heart and makes her - it literally says this - want to die. Ink on her daughters back makes her want to die. For some reason when her son finally comes out of the closet, though, she is accepting & understanding. Which completely goes against everything we've learned about her character up to that point. This is a quick, easy (but mind numbingly frustrating) read told entirely from the mom's perspective. The things she is in crisis over - sick kids, tattoos, blue hair, dresses... Are ridiculous pompous rich people problems. I couldn't identify with this book, but i do hope Danielle Steele is not as arrogant and out if touch as this book is. Keywords: mindless, offensive, fluff
—Greta
As the book released in 2006 it is a far cry from being up-to-date or even close to it from the perspective of what a parent faces problem wise from their children now in 2015. It is however, despite being "dated" in it's realism a pretty interesting story about a family who faces a few unforeseen pitfalls that nearly send the mother into a nervous breakdown before things turn around at the end.Have not read a book by Danielle Steel in many years but this one is pretty solid and as contemporary rather than historical setting kind of a kick-in-the-pants in some ways.
—Jackie
Coming Outالتحررتدور أحداث هذه الرواية عن تلك العائلة الكبيرة , التي على الرغم من اختلاف أفرادها في الانتماءات والاتجاهات وربما الديانات أيضاً إلا أنها تحافظ على تماسكها ومحبتها وكأي فرقة موسيقية تحتاج إلى مايسترو يقودها , ويوجه أفرادها وآلاتها للحصول على الأداء السليمكانت هذه العائلة الكبيرة تحتاج إلى المايسترو المتمثل في تلك المرأة الشابة , التي تأخذ على عاتقها مهمة العناية بكُل فرد من أفراد الأسرة , والعناية بهم جميعاًوكأي أسرة بها مراهقين , كان عليها مراقبة سلوكهم والقلق بشأنهم ومعرفة مشاكلهم ومواجهتها معهم كان يجب عليها الصمود أمام مصائبهم التي تُفاجأ بها , مُدعين أنها رغبتهم وطريقتهم في التحرر والانتقال من مرحلة الطفولة إلى مرحلة النضج والشبابأعجبتني شخصيتها جداً , حرصها على حفظ التوازن والنجاح في عملها ومنزلها وأسرتهالا تجعل أياً منهما يؤثر على الآخر , تعمل دائماً لكي تحافظ على نجاحها فيهما معاًبتفان وصبر أكثر ما يثير غيظي هو أن نكون بصدد عمل يناقش فكرة هامة وجيدة ,لكنه لا يطرحها بالشكل المطلوبليس فقط ذلك !!بل يتركها , وتنصب الأحداث على موضوع آخر ( تافه )كان على الكاتبة مناقشة قضية التحرر في نطاق أوسع من ذلكوليس في مشهدين فقط ( من خلال وشم المراهقة للفراشة على ظهرها وتحول الشاب إلى مثلي )ليس فقط مناقشة الفكرة بهذه السطحية , لكنها ناقشت التحرر في التصرفات والأفعال فقط !!رغم أن أهم ما يجب مناقشته , هو التحرر الفكريوبشكل أوسع ولكن أيضاً ناقشته في مشهدين فقط ( رفض الابنة وزوج الأم حضور الحفل لاختلافها مع مبادئهم )هكذا تركت الكاتبة جوهر القصةلتدور روايتها حول ذلك الحفل الصاخب والترتيب لهليس جديداً أن يخذلك كاتب في أول قراءة له , دائماً ما يحدث هذالكن كما يحدث دائماً , لن أكون رأي خاص وحكم معين قبل أن أكرر التجربة مرة أخرى مع باقي روايات دانيال ستيل
—Amira Mahmoud
