Before the Fall

The Emperor’s Children, by Claire Messud (Knopf, 448 pp., $25)

IF it were non-fiction, Claire Messud’s The Emperor’s Children might have been titled Brats: A Study in Pre-9/11 Liberal Narcissism. I’m glad she wrote it as a novel, though, because neither sociopolitical analysis nor literary fiction-which this is-typically makes for such tense, compelling, cunningly plotted reading as Messud has accomplished here.

About the Author

David Klinghoffer

David Klinghoffer, a former literary editor at NR, is a senior fellow at Discovery Institute and co-author of The Gift of Rest: Rediscovering the Beauty of the Sabbath, and other books.

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The Emperor’s Children, by Claire Messud (Knopf, 448 pp., $25)

IF it were non-fiction, Claire Messud’s The Emperor’s Children might have been titled Brats: A Study in Pre-9/11 Liberal Narcissism. I’m glad she wrote it as a novel, though, because neither sociopolitical analysis nor literary fiction-which this is-typically makes for such tense, compelling, cunningly plotted reading as Messud has accomplished here.

About the Author

David Klinghoffer

David Klinghoffer, a former literary editor at NR, is a senior fellow at Discovery Institute and co-author of The Gift of Rest: Rediscovering the Beauty of the Sabbath, and other books.