Review: tyler perry couldn't have done it better...
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 14, 2013
A madcap adventure to be sure.  First, it was a good story, the author did a great job tying together all those insane debacles that poor Penelope went through.  The Hero was a bit obvious to me, but that didn't steal my joy at their getting together, I am a huge fan of the cinderella story.BUT, I don't know if it was an editing issue or what...  Plastic, in any of its many forms, was not available in the timefram of this novel, 1897 was when plastine was introduced then bakelite, vinylite, and lucite who preceeded the current polymers of modern plastic.  But even then as a container, it was not being experimented with as such, it was more of a jewelry or handle magerial.  So, no plastic jar of face cream that was introduced 30% into the novel.  NOT AT ALL!AND, it was not de rigueur or otherwise for women to shave parts of their body like legs and arms or underarms before a 1915 Harper's Bazaar photo and article.  Yes, I know, we all hear about perverted Frenchmen wanting their women to have the silky hairlessness of young boys ( my, how things have changes).  Honestly, leg shaving would have been absurd, if you so much as showed a heavily stockinged lower ankle in the era of this book you were a tart!... and subject to the most stringent censure, if not completely shunned by polite society.I was fine with Madame Bellafraunde being as manly as she was, but the above errors were too much, I have a great imagination, but if you are writing history, write it correctly, do not foul it up with modernisms.  That is a pet peeve for me almost as incindeary as poor grammer, spelling, and lazy editing.I referenced Tyler Perry for a reason.  I read or heard in an interview once that TP wasn't writing his movies or television shows about one family, he wrote about all the stuff that happens to all families and just uses one family for the story line.  I understand that, the Twilight Zone was not an easy program to write and produce, so it makes sense for the Browns or the Paynes to be the generic family that  TP uses to demonstrate society throwing the book at.  It felt to me like the author used Penelope as a generic girl for everything to happen too, it got a little annoying that she had no self control and no natural gifts except for creating mayhem.I do not mean to trash this book, it had some good points, I mean, I did finish it.  And that is saying something.  But at the same time the author made a misstep that is nearly unforgivable in the writing world, she didn't factcheck her details.  No matter how good everything else is, that is a cardinal sin.