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Title: New Cardiff by Charles Richard Webb, Charles Webb ISBN: 0-7434-4416-7 Publisher: Washington Square Press Pub. Date: 01 December, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.8 (10 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Creaky "Cardiff"
Comment: Charles Webb is best known for writing the soulless novel that inspired classic film "The Graduate." In "New Cardiff" he tackles a somewhat softer story, but his minimalist writing and flat supporting characters make it a story as light and forgettable as a breath of smoke.
Colin Ware is an English guy who has just been dumped for another man. Miserable, he decides to get over her (in the tradition of old novels) by going to the US, and somehow ends up in the dinky Vermont town of New Cardiff. The inhabitants are a bit odd but friendly, and Colin befriends quite a few when he sketches their portraits. He also becomes acquainted with Mandy, a smart, supportive young woman who starts giving him therapy for his broken heart.
But then Vera -- the woman who dumped Colin -- comes onto the scene. She reveals that the guy she supposedly dumped him for was all part of an elaborate joke. Colin forgives her for her involvement in tricking him, but now he's got an awkward love triangle to deal with. Vera is determined to scupper his new relationship with Mandy, and Mandy is saying that she never wants to see him again.
"New Cardiff" starts off on a promising note, with a guy going to new places to mend his broken heart. And the basic plot is a classic one -- a love triangle where the third party has to deal with old and new lovers, as represented by the countries they come from. But it feels instantly forgettable. Webb adds nothing new to the tale, and despite being around 350 pages long, the story itself is very short.
But Webb's writing is not up to the task -- it's suspended somewhere between bland screenplay and not-detailed-enough fiction. No descriptions, little action -- just page after page of dialogue. And the dialogue isn't exactly Shakespeare either: "It doesn't really show." "It doesn't?" "We've had worse." "Than this?" "Much." There are stretches of dialogue that are ALMOST witty, but they fall short because they are so underwritten.
And as a result, the characterization suffers. There's plenty of chemistry and cute bits between Mandy and Colin -- although his tale of first having sex with Vera is cringingly bad -- but unfortunately Vera is a cardboard cutout. The villagers also are bogged down with basic personalities and nothing else-- the nosy guy, the Jesus freak, and so on.
"New Cardiff" suffers from a terrible case of underwriting and an overabundance of cliches. While it has some cute moments, it's underwritten and overlong, and nothing you'll remember.
Rating: 2
Summary: missing mrs robinson
Comment: Webb likes his love triangles. New Cardiff is the fourth Webb novel I've read, and I'm sure i would have liked New Cardiff more if i liked The Graduate less. It was similar in many ways, a quick read, beautiful characters that you felt you knew but a third of the way in i could have guessed it was going to be made into a movie. It had me giggling early on but i doubt i would have been doing so if at the time of reading i wasnt myself a stranger living in a strange land called america, desiring to drive on the left side of the road and regularly finding myself having to search for words that make sense to those around me. The novel begins to dry up somewhere around the time Vera enters the picture, and dies altogether before the book ends. Something isn't right about this one, and this feeling is stronger than ever after having learnt it's about to be made into a movie. Colin Firth is great, i mean he is Mr Darcy, but c'mon.. anyone would think hugh grant and colin firth are the only actors with a british accent. If you like Nick Hornby novels you'll like New Cardiff. But, if youre expecting the graduate.. do not, you'll be disappointed. Ah hell, maybe it was fantastic but just not for me, but i suspect this isnt the case.
Rating: 3
Summary: Light and cute, but hollow
Comment: "New Cardiff" describes the American vacation of London artist Colin Ware, who flees a failed love affair and finds himself washed up in the small town of New Cardiff, Vermont, home to an assortment of strange Americans and a struggling tourist industry. He manages to forget his troubles briefly, sketching townspeople and developing a relationship with another woman, but when his old girlfriend journeys from England to retrieve him his new life goes suddenly awry.
This story has much going for it. It's a classic love story complete with jealous rivalry, a long journey, and the promise (or threat) of marriage, but with quirky and entertaining plot twists to keep it fresh. The dialogue is rapid and often witty. The residents of New Cardiff are an amusing set of characters and provide comic relief.
But there's nothing in the story to provide comic relief *from*. The author never really gets into his story. The book is - despite its heft - actually quite short, with lots of blank space on each page, and is almost entirely composed of dialogue. The limitations of this format - no description or exposition - nearly overwhelm the story, and make any exploration of the characters or of the larger themes of the book impossible.
The book's continuous banter is surprisingly easy to read, and a hundred pages can fly by in an hour. But this ease and speed have a price: the whole book - all 354 pages of it - can be read in an evening and forgotten by the next morning, a frivolous waste of a story that could be so much more interesting.
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