Book Review: The Other Typist By Suzanne Rindell

THE OTHER TYPIST
A Novel

By: Suzanne Rindell

Published:  May 7, 2013

Fiction

Rose is a typist in the local police precinct. It is 1923, and Rose records testimonies that no women should have to hear.  With Rose’s background as a orphan, being raised by nuns, and having to work hard for everything she has, she takes nothing for granted and follows all the rules of society.  That is until Odalie, the new typist at the precinct walks into her life.  Odalie lives in a fancy hotel, has men falling at her feet, and gets everything she wants with a wink of her eye.  Rose immediately falls under Odalie’s spell and their friendship turns Rose into someone she no longer recognizes.

Now, I have to stop here, after my brief synopsis of the book and tell you that I did not finish the book.  I tried.  I gave it several hours and days.  I got to Chapter 9 and page 130 and I just couldn’t go any farther. This doesn’t happen to me very often because I really feel like I am a pretty good judge of “book character”. But, this one just didn’t do it for me.  I was bored and felt like I was forced to read.  I have a “rule” that if I’m not enjoying my reading, I need to quit the book because I have too many other books to read.

So, with that in mind, I can only offer you that hundreds of other people have LOVED this book. There are rave reviews HERE and HERE for THE OTHER TYPIST. There are also several others who have felt the same way I did.  But, as a book blogger, I am not going to lie or tell you that I liked something when I didn’t. It just didn’t work for me.

Some things I did like though were the author’s character descriptions.  I had no trouble imagining Rose or Odalie, the Sergeant or the Lieutenant Detective, or Dotty and Helen from the boarding house where Rose lived.  Rindell’s details of the 1920’s, the expectations of women, and descriptions of those trying to break out of those expectations depicted an era that showed how difficult it was for Rose to find a way to fit in.  Even though I couldn’t find a way to be interested in the story, I found several quotes from the book that I enjoyed.

Suzanne Rindell – Photo by Emily Kate Roemer

Suzanne Rindell is a doctoral student is American modernist literature at Rice University. THE OTHER TYPIST is her first novel. She lives in New York City and is currently working on her second novel. For more on Suzanne Rindell, visit http://suzannerindell.com.