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Title: The Manikin: A Novel by Joanna Scott ISBN: 0-312-42138-9 Publisher: Picador Pub. Date: 01 December, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00

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Average Customer Rating: 2.75 (4 reviews)

Rating: 2
Summary: A disappointing and frustrating read
Comment: I was eager to read this book because it's set in a part of the world (upstate NY) where I spend a lot of time and it exactly the kind of neo-Gothic tale I usually love. She has talent, it's undeniable, but Scott is far too enchanted with her own writing to tell a decent story. Every time I found myself beginning to be captivated by the narrative or the chatacters, I'd stumble across a highly polished, self-conscious set-piece of prose that screamed "HEY! Look at me...don't I write well?!" After a second attempt to finish this book I am giving up on it and moving on.

Rating: 2
Summary: Good, but only to the midway point
Comment: This is a wonderful Victorian-style novel about a manor house, its mistress, and her domestics. Wonderful that is, until the middle of the story. The author makes choices that effectively shut down the flow and pacing of the story. It's spooky and interesting, but the sudden turn and the unexpected switch in the narrator's point of view, time, and setting make the rest of a great read a downer.

Rating: 2
Summary: Characters are stagnant and boring. Not fun.
Comment: I cannot believe that this book has won awards. I like certain passages; Ms. Scott's imagery is often good and the "mood" is earthy and dark. However, overall it was disappointing. I just finished it and I could hardly wait to put it down and move onto something more interesting. Ms. Scott desperately tries to make her characters more than cardboard cutouts, but she never manages to succeed. I found myself not caring about the fate of any of these people or the house they lived in (which is really the main "character" of the book).

The author has mastery of language but the story, like the mounted animals in the book, is merely the pretty arrangement of skin with no guts inside. No life.

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