mariel9898's Full Review: Elizabeth Peters - The Love Talker
I generally don’t like contemporary romances and this book is no exception. The premise is just plain silly. I know that I’m in the minority since this book came highly recommended and even won many prestigious awards.
Jane Darlington is a world famous physicist who has a very high IQ. When she was growing up, she felt like a freak because she was so much smarter than other kids. Now she’s in her 30’s and her biological clock is ticking. She decides to have a baby, but insists that the father must be rather dumb. She figures this will increase the chance of having a "normal" child (this made me seriously questions her "genius"). She sets out to seduce football player Cal Bonner since she figures he’s not too smart. Once she gets pregnant (the circumstances of which are truly funny) and Cal finds out, he forces her to marry him. Not that he’s planning on being married forever. He makes Jane go to North Carolina where he grew up. The rest of the story takes place there. This is a typical romance with the required happily ever after ending.
The main problems I had with this book are:
1. Personally, I was offended by the notion that if you are "too" smart, especially as a woman, you are doomed to feel freakish and to never have a full social life. Jane kept blaming her social awkwardness on her brains. To me this was just ludicrous. This woman was obviously not ready to have and raise kids, especially on her own. The only thing I kept thinking was how mentally screwed up a kid raised by someone with those attitudes would be.
2. How can anyone who is supposed to be so smart act so stupidly? First there is the assumption that a not-so-smart father will somehow lead to an average child. Then she makes an assumption about the smartness of the man she picks as her baby’s father without really looking into his background at all. Jane may have been a brilliant physicist, but basic genetics must have been a class she failed.
3. Cal has this thing about not wanting to have a child born out of wedlock, but has no compunctions about having a child who will be raised in divorce since he plans on getting one the minute the baby is born. Again, very dumb thinking from someone who is also supposed to be very smart.
I found the secondary story line in this book to be a million times better than the rest, and I would recommend reading this book just for that. It deals with Cal’s parents and how they get out of a romantic slump and learn to love each other again while recapturing the romance of their youth.
I don’t read books to read total reality, and occasional lapses in common sense are fine, especially in comedies. However, I just can’t enjoy something that is based on a totally ludicrous premise. I found the "dumber is better" theme to be slightly offensive. Although I often hear people being critical of their offspring for many character traits, being "too smart" is not one of them, and I doubt anyone would go out of their way to have child who’s intelligence is only average.
One good thing about this book is that it is very well written—I read the whole thing even though I hated the premise—and it’s also very funny. Some of the conversations and scenes are truly hilarious. The characters are very well drawn (especially Cal’s grandmother), although I can’t say I liked all of them or thought their actions were, well, sane.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.