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Conferences NEWER BOOKS Topic #140

Reading Topic #140

pjay
Member since Mar-26-11
1 posts Mar-26-11, 10:38 PM (CST)

"Teddy's character"

   I love all of SEP's books. I was really disappointed with Ted. He had no depth to him and with his parents, he could have had plenty. His mother is a spitfire and father determined, but Ted walked through life. He should have had a problem after the wedding that really through him for a loop and had to struggle to find some inner strength. They finally let it out that he was distraught over his perfect marriage plans, but come on, he needed to face a challenge that would really test him as a person. Every other character, men and women, have had inner strength, but Ted appears "perfect" and I wanted him to face life and then he could come through.

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JeninChicago
Member since Mar-27-11
2 posts Mar-27-11, 09:31 AM (CST)

1. "RE: Teddy's character"
In response to message #0

   I think Ted did face a challenge of his own, though it was more low-key in this book than the hero's challenges have been in other books. Really, I think Ted was struggling with the same problem Kenny suffered from in Lady Be Good: the whole town pigeonholed him and took horrible advantage of him by forcing him into a role he didn't necessarily want. (I was particularly upset with Emma in CMI for this reason: that she didn't make more of an effort to defend Ted against it bothers me.)
I think I did want a big, splashy scene where Ted finally realized that he needed to stand up for himself against the Wynette mafia, but I can believe that it wasn't in character for anyone.

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trista_h
Member since Mar-28-11
1 posts Mar-28-11, 12:53 PM (CST)

2. "RE: Teddy's character"
In response to message #1

   I think Teddy would have appeared to have more depth if he had had a "voice" throughout the book. Just about the entire book was in Meg's voice and we didn't get to Teddy's "inner monologue" and feelings until the very end so we didn't get to know much about his character except what we learned through Meg. I have to admit that I missed getting his perspective throughout the book.

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