What do You think about The Third Child: A Novel (2004)?
I'm irritated reading this book, but I'll probably finish it. I so loved "Woman on the Edge of Time" when I read it in my early twenties, and now I am nearly always disappointed when I read something else by Piercy. I hesitate to reread "Woman ... " for fear of knocking it of the pedestal I put it on when I was so much younger and more idealistic (naive? same coin / different sides?) ... I don't find the voice of Melissa convinving and the other characters are all either flat or each have some element that makes them not believable to me. But, I want to find out what happens (although I think I can predict ... ) so, I'll grit my teeth and keep going. ETA: finished but it didn't redeem itself to me. Thrilling climax, blah, blah blah.
—Lisa
I didn't like the ending. It was almost surprising before becoming incredibly predictable; it looked like things might turn out OK until they came out exactly like we all knew they would. I was sad about it, too: until the last 20 pages or so I really cared how all the characters were doing.Also, even back at the beginning of the book before everything about this novel was obvious, I was very confused by the dated nature of the dialogue and interaction. These people are supposed to be in college
—Molly
Don't be fooled into thinking this storyline is going anywhere. This was an incredibly incoherent book. At times I wondered if it was a young adult novel. For most of it I couldn't decide who the characters were supposed to be--naive, sincere, important, minor, cunning, loving, stupid... The first quarter to third of the novel was interesting, imaging what it might be like to be the child of an "important" public person. The move to college and dating someone "inappropriate" could have made an interesting story. It fell completely apart once the boyfriend was more than that. There was just too much going on and none of it well done. It read like a draft that the author kept changing her mind about. The ending finally just pushed it over the edge into a completely different genre. I felt as if the author had left the book alone for years then came back and accidentally wrote an ending to another book she had started and then dropped. I really did not think it could get any worse but the author proved me wrong page after page.
—MaryKate
