Your Humble Blogger picked up Bandbox (New York: Pantheon 2004) after hearing Thomas Mallon on NPR.
It was, well, OK. It had a bit of that thing that annoys me in historical novels, when Historical Figures are worked in to the story so that the little events of the fictional lives tie in with the Big Events of the day. So, in the scene where the teetotaler falls off the wagon and disgraces himself, he passes out on President Coolidge. Which is funny, in a way, but also annoying in a way.
Other than that, it’s an entertaining story of a 30s magazine, with lots of colorful whatsit, some outright laughs, and nothing embarrassing. It’s poorly plotted, and the characters are all (or mostly all) short-sighted, venal fools, so the climax, when the Bandbox was in danger of folding and its staff in danger of losing their jobs, I didn’t much care. Not that I was just waiting around for the book to end; at 300 pages or so, it went quite quickly. It’s just that having been more or less entertained for 250 pages, if I had had to return the book to the library unfinished, it wouldn’t have been a big deal.
Redintegro Iraq,
-Vardibidian.