The Unfortunates

The main character, Poppy, was born into a wealthy family that made its fortune from mustard. Throughout the book, Poppy is consistently immired in her own shallow world. She lacks compassion and intelligent thought processes in every situation. I'm not sure why I finished this book since I had no interest in how Poppy's life evolved, although "watching" someone so oblivious to anyone other than herself was oddly fascinating.

I thought I was getting chick lit for my guilty reading pleasure when I plucked The Great Husband Hunt off the shelves of my local used bookstore. Instead, I got my favorite thing in the entire world: a novel about the development of a single, fascinating character. Graham said she wanted to tell the story of someone both monstruous and sympathetic and that's just what Poppy Minkel, the main character, is. Coming to age in the restrictive environment of post-WWI New York, Poppy feels out of place and overlooked by her family, especially after her father's death. The greater freedoms of the nineteen twenties and a substantial inheritance from her father's mustard business finally give her the means to break free, first as a flapper and show more then as a clothing designer in pre-WWII Paris. Her selfishness and obsession with money made me wince at times but I found I could never fully condemn a character who refused to be anything but completely and totally herself. Well worth a read. show less

All of Laurie Graham's books have great humour, and this one is no exception with an irrepressible (rich) heroine for whom life is a great adventure. Poppy is a modern American jewish heiress who wants to do her bit for the 'unfortunates' and those in the war, after her dad dies on the Titanic, when he went back to get his mistress' fur muff! She makes friends, gets new extended families, marries twice and is a bad mother to two daughters, escapes Paris at the start of WWII and ends up reconciled with those of her family remaining in America. She rarely appears to let life get her down - although she has her fair share of tragedy. A great fun, quick read.

This isn't my usual choice of book, but as I was given it I decided to give it a go. I did really enjoy it actually, and once I got into it I found myself wanting to read more to find out what happened next in Poppy's life. I did find at times I did not like Poppy very much and she was quite a selfish person, but I don't think I enjoyed the book any less! It does whizz through her life though.

A light and entertaining read but not as good as the 2 other Laurie Graham novels I've read - At Sea and The Future Homemakers of America. It relies rather too heavily on stereotypical characters although that is a deliberate part of the humour of the book.

This book was nothing like what I was expecting. The blurb on the back led me to believe it was going to be a book set in WWI, what I got instead was a book covering years and years of Poppy Minkels life.

Here are some of the things I didn't like about the book;

- You never really get to go into much detail on her life, because it's always moving so fast, just a quick, this happened and it was like this, and then this happened, and then before you know it another 10 years have passed. I guess I just don't like that kind of writing, I prefer good portions of narrative, along with the descriptive text, and you really didn't get that in this book. It was just little snippets of things that happened to her in her life.

- The main character and show more narrator, Poppy Minkel, I found to be an impossible character to like. She started out a naive 15-year-old, which considering she was a child you can forgive, but she remained naive until she was in her 20s, and then moved swiftly from naive to selfish, and often downright cruel.

- For a book that covers so many years and moves so fast between them, the book felt slow.

Overall I don't know if I just didn't get along with the reminiscent narrative, or if it was the main character I didn't like, or if it was how the book tried to cover too much time and too many events in too few pages, or if it was all of this. I just really didn't like this book. show less

Amazing what all transpired in this lovely fluffy book. It was like watching someone juggle. The perfect beach read, even if it was raining every day.