mary412's review against another edition
3.0
I'm sure I read this book when it came out in the early 80s, but I don't remember much about it. I'm giving it three stars because... well, Jane Smiley.
12roxy's review against another edition
4.0
Jane Smiley, literary chameleon, does a creditable job with this mystery set in NYC in 1980. It's more of a psychological study than a page turner. Of course, the characters are well-developed, and there are many well-written passages. I'm ambivalent about the protagonist (I think I'm supposed to be) who tries to build a fantasy world around herself when the real one (other than the murders, attempted and otherwise!) seems quite cozy, with good job, good lover, great rent-controlled apartment...but I can't decide if it's because she's not too bright or because she doesn't appreciate what she has.
manwithanagenda's review against another edition
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
When I found a Jane Smiley title I'd never heard of before, I decided I'd find out some more about her as an author. She truly is a literary chameleon, interested in taking on different genres and styles, and, two for two, telling a great story. 'Duplicate Keys' centers on Alice Ellis and her close-knit group of friends who have kept together since college. One morning Alice discovers two of them murdered in an apartment for which all of them held keys.
The mystery and thriller aspects might move slower than the typical novel in the genre, but I appreciated the extra time spent developing Alice and her relationships with her friends, full of reticence and habit, running hot and cold over different periods of her life, it felt very real to me. My own group of friends that date back to my teens may not match up with Alice's, but the dynamics of such long relationships were there, and the necessity of suspecting those friends of murder justifies Alice's constant reassessment and wool-gathering. When Smiley does decide to spike up the tension she delivers a couple scenes worthy of a thriller!. A little excessive of me, but I'm going to try to follow my impulses a little more, seeing as how much that worked out in here.
The mystery and thriller aspects might move slower than the typical novel in the genre, but I appreciated the extra time spent developing Alice and her relationships with her friends, full of reticence and habit, running hot and cold over different periods of her life, it felt very real to me. My own group of friends that date back to my teens may not match up with Alice's, but the dynamics of such long relationships were there, and the necessity of suspecting those friends of murder justifies Alice's constant reassessment and wool-gathering. When Smiley does decide to spike up the tension she delivers a couple scenes worthy of a thriller!. A little excessive of me, but I'm going to try to follow my impulses a little more, seeing as how much that worked out in here.
aemorrison2001's review against another edition
2.0
I'm a fan of Jane Smiley but Duplicate Keys didn't grip me the way Moo or A Thousand Acres did. An interesting but predictable mystery, apart from one gripping suspense sequence towards the end, Duplicate Keys was slow moving and frequently dull. I entertained myself through the slow bits by trying to decide if Smiley was actually basing her characters entirely around diagnostic criteria for specific mental health problems in the DSMIV. No single character rang 100% true and the main character's behavior was so inconsistent it became frustrating and distracting.
nocto's review against another edition
2.0
Hmmmm. I left this book with 9/15 chapters completed five years ago. I'm the sort of person who generally soldiers on through books I'm not enjoying and all my memories were that I did enjoy this book. So I've been kind of bemused for a long time that I didn't finish this book up and decided it was about time for another go.
I enjoyed the beginning, like last time, but hit a severe case of the blahs in the middle. I guess that was like last time too. I could have happily abandoned it again.
In the end it was okay. I expected more really. It turned out to be an alright mystery novel, but I was expecting something more exciting, more bent, more literary, more rule breaking and not at all like a standard mystery.
I enjoyed the beginning, like last time, but hit a severe case of the blahs in the middle. I guess that was like last time too. I could have happily abandoned it again.
In the end it was okay. I expected more really. It turned out to be an alright mystery novel, but I was expecting something more exciting, more bent, more literary, more rule breaking and not at all like a standard mystery.
boxofdelights's review against another edition
3.0
This book presents itself as a mystery or thriller, and it does have some of the trappings of those genres, but it is mostly about friendship: how much you can love someone, and how little you can understand them.
"[C}ouldn't this last for years, in a way that marriage could never last, without effort, without swings in desire, or mistakes in translation, or the balancing of needs that marriages always demanded? People stayed home for passion and went out for companionship, when actually the reverse would work much better."
"[C}ouldn't this last for years, in a way that marriage could never last, without effort, without swings in desire, or mistakes in translation, or the balancing of needs that marriages always demanded? People stayed home for passion and went out for companionship, when actually the reverse would work much better."
jo_crescent's review against another edition
3.0
Not my first Jane Smiley novel but if it had been, I would have still read her others. I liked it quite a lot. I am not a mystery fan, but enjoy a well-crafted puzzle with interesting characters. Recommend this on the strength of its narrator, the likable, well-meaning & sweetly oblivious Alice, as well as the numerous cast of characters that add so much entertainment and speculation to the slow-moving story.
anatomydetective's review against another edition
2.0
A truly mediocre mystery novel by a talented literary novelist. Meh.
carmenghia's review against another edition
3.0
Either I added this book to my to-read pile because it takes place in bad ol' days NYC (1980), or because the lead character is a librarian at my library, or because it was a lady-written murder mystery, or some combo of the above.
The bad ol' day stuff is my favorite part of the book. The lead character, Alice, recounts a stabbing in the Main Reading Room, and a staff member being shot at in the stacks window from Bryant Park as though this was just normal every day NY stuff, and perhaps it was. Bt Alice is sort of a drag as a person. So much of her personality is doing stuff she doesn't want to do, thinking one thing and then flip-flopping that thought a few instances later, of being sneaky and secretive, and it's hard to root for a character like that, even if the setting is fascinating.
The bad ol' day stuff is my favorite part of the book. The lead character, Alice, recounts a stabbing in the Main Reading Room, and a staff member being shot at in the stacks window from Bryant Park as though this was just normal every day NY stuff, and perhaps it was. Bt Alice is sort of a drag as a person. So much of her personality is doing stuff she doesn't want to do, thinking one thing and then flip-flopping that thought a few instances later, of being sneaky and secretive, and it's hard to root for a character like that, even if the setting is fascinating.