Review: If you liked TiMER, you'll like this
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 20, 2012
It's fascinating to watch the wild swings in the reviews of this book, everything from moralizing about the institution of marriage to delight in the heroine's wittiness and then back to dismay with Ms. Gean's writing ability. Any writer who stirs things up that much must be worth some attention.Let's cut Ms. Gean some slack here. This is her first novel, and given that, she moves things along fairly well with a combination of witty insights and satirical situations. Since I'm an older guy, I would not normally read anything presented to me as chick-lit or romance, but I found this effort engaging.If you liked the movie TiMER, you'll probably like this story. Both use as their starting premise a world in which personal judgment is replaced by overarching systems and technology. In the case of this book, it's the Department of Marriage that issues matches which everyone must agree to if they want to marry. The plot, of course, unwinds this premise as the heroine Rainy discovers that she detests her "dream" match and hooks up instead with his brother. As with TiMER, romance and personal instinct win out over systems.Some of the critiques that I've read do not seem to grasp the satirical nature of the writing. Satires involve exaggerations and outlandishness. The characters aren't supposed to be studies in depth. This isn't "Portrait of a Lady." A comparison to "Gulliver's Travels" would be more appropriate, but some of the critics here would probably dismiss Jonathan Swift as straining the bounds of credulity with silly characters and sillier situations. But that's what satirists DO!I hope Ms. Gean keeps at this. I see a lot of sparks here. Some pretty good blazes must surely follow.