Detailed plot synopsis reviews of One Amazing Thing |
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Really. I guess he was trying to make himself miserable.
Cameron goes to college, but he is too dumb to keep up with the schoolwork. He is probably the beneficiary of affirmative action, and should have gone to a less demanding public university where he possibly could have kept up with the work.
Cameron then joined the army so he could kill some Vietnamese communists. Cameron finally found something he could do without failing.
When Cameron finished killing some Vietnamese communists, he came back to America but still felt badly about the whole abortion thing. His sensitive friend Jeff suggested he sponsor a needy child in India. He would send money and get a letter occasionally. It's the biggest scam in the world; sorry, I mean to say, it's a very worthy way of helping children in other countries.
Click here to see the rest of this reviewSo Cameron "adopts" a little girl named Seva in India and they exchange some messages. Then Cameron decides to go to India to meet her and that's why he's at the embassy now. End of story. Exciting, isn't it?
Now someone named Uma, who is probably not Uma Thurman, tells her story. Oh, before I forget, in addition to being trapped, there is some kind of water leak and the water level is rising. The water is up to their thighs now. I suppose we are supposed to think that they think they are about to die so they are telling all these compelling stories about abortions and lost cats and whatever.
Uma goes to college. Her father tells her that he is planning to divorce his mother. We don't know why. Maybe the sex isn't good any more. That happens sometimes.
This upsets Uma very much. She decides to drop out of school with her slutty friend Jeri. They start driving on the highway and Jeri sees a guy on the side of the road and Jeri insists they pick him up. They get drunk with the hitchhiker. As Uma drives, she notices the hitchhiker boning Jeri in the backseat. Squirt squirt squirt! After all, she's known him for at least an hour.
Then around sunset they stopped the car to smoke marijuana. Jeri invites Uma to have sex with the hitchhiker in a threesome. Uma is not interested. Uma notices that the sky is red after the sunset. This is VERY PROFOUND! We know this because Uma tells us, over and over, how profound it is. The red sunset changes Uma's life! We are told that as well. We are not told how or why the red sunset changes her life, only that it does, because this is a very poorly written book. Anyway the red sunset causes Uma to drop her friends off back where she found them (which pisses them off) and to return to school. Later her father calls and tells her he has changed his mind about divorcing her mother, so maybe she is spreading her legs for him once again.
The people trapped in the embassy hear sounds of rescuers digging their way to them. They will be fine.
The end.
Zzzzzzzzzzzz.
Literary Criticism:
This was a bad book for several reasons:
1) The premise was totally implausible. You have people trapped in a building after an earthquake, the water level is rising... and they make no attempt to dig themselves out? Fearing further collapse of the building, they just sit there and await rescue? Totally ridiculous.
2) The stories were totally disconnected. The stories had nothing to with each other, no common themes.
3) The stories were totally boring. We were supposed to find the stories profound. They were very mundane and dull.
4) There were too many characters. There were too many characters for such a short book (220 pages).
5) There was no central plot. This could have been an interesting book. It didn't need to have so many characters to make it so. What if it just had three central characters--Mr. M., Malathi, and Tariq, in a love triangle? What if Tariq was a radical Islamist about to set off a terrorist attack, and Malathi, in love with him and Mr. M, was torn over what to do, but was eventually persuaded to betray Tariq, and ended up having to shoot him herself to stop a terrorist bombing? Now that would be compelling!
Instead we get a mishmash of inconsequential stories. I'm sure most readers will think it brilliant and it gets a million five star reviews on Amazon.
