The Other Typist

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The sergeant incident also bothers me; he's a father figure to Rose, and Odalie is having sex with him? Rose's head would explode if she were a multiple. By this point Rose's unreliability as a narrator is clear; as is the fact that Bad Things are going to happen. Not only are we seeing Odalie through the prism of her obsession, but Rose is writing her account in an asylum under the supervision of a psychiatrist who believes that "telling things in their accurate sequence is good for healing the mind". The problem is, Rose can't do linearity. She tends towards egoistic impressionism, a habit Rindell has fun with in a scene where Odalie introduces Rose to her arty friends, only for Rose to be appalled by their love of The Waste Land: "If I recall correctly, the poet was called Eliot Something-Or-Another and the poem itself was all a bunch of jibberish, the ravings of an utter lunatic." To go any further would be to create spoilers. Let me say this: this book will have you guessing until the very last line – and I do mean the very last line. It’s a psychological study that evokes Zoe Heller’s Notes From A Scandal and Patricia Ripley’s The Incredible Mr. Ripley, with a touch of The Great Gatsby thrown in for good measure. Confessions are Rose Baker’s job. A typist for the New York City Police Department, she sits in judgment like a high priestess. Criminals come before her to admit their transgressions, and, with a few strokes of the keys before her, she seals their fate. But while she may hear about shootings, knifings, and crimes of passion, as soon as she leaves the room, she reverts to a dignified and proper lady. Until Odalie joins the typing pool. As is true of most unreliable narrators, they never let us know what’s really going on. What a fun ride it is as we try to figure it out—knowing it will end someplace weirder than we can imagine. It reminds me a little of “Gone Girl” and “The Dinner,” since all have a delusional narrator who throws out just the right amount of clues to keep me super curious.

The Other Typist by Suzanne Rindell | Goodreads The Other Typist by Suzanne Rindell | Goodreads

Set in the mid-1920s in New York during the Prohibition, the novel follows Rose (the narrator) who becomes obsessed (perhaps sexually) with another typist at work: the beautiful, charming, alluring, mysterious Odalie. With hints toward The Great Gatsby, Rindell’s novel aspires to recreate Prohibition-era New York City, both its opulence and its squalid underbelly. She captures it quite well, while at the same time spinning a delicate and suspenseful narrative about false friendship, obsession, and life for single women in New York during Prohibition.”— Booklist Do you think Rose is a reliable or unreliable narrator? Why? If you did question her veracity, at what point in the novel did you begin to do so? Moderately entertaining, I suppose, but this has to be one of the most overwritten books of all time. So many adjectives! So many adverbs! So many idioms when a single word would do just as well! Vast amounts of clunky, obvious foreshadowing! And a narrator who's unreliable--which we know because she helpfully tells us so, several times. Uh, that's not really how you're supposed to do it. The whole thing reads like some kind of parody. I can't recommend it. If you're in the mood for some 1920s-set fiction with Gatsby aspirations, read Rules of Civility. Don't bother with this.This book is still haunting me. I'm itching to read it again but at the same time pretty apprehensive, because will it be as awesome as I remember..?

Keira Knightley to star in The Other Typist

This all being said, I finished the book. And I will indeed stop reading a book if I feel like it's a lost cause. And there are slews of positive review on this book so its all about opinion and style preference. Suzanne Rindell messes with your head. The Other Typist pretends to be the story of a nice young woman entering the cutthroat world of police work in 1920s New York. But it’s New York, not the nice young woman, who should be trembling. I had a blast reading this and had my nerves scrambled by the end.”—Victor LaValle, author of The Devil in Silver I find little reason to think that Odalie and Rose are the same person; the "multiple personalities" interpretation strikes me as way too far fetched and too complicated to even follow, especially when it includes characters in addition to these two. I admit, though, that there are two places that strongly support that interpretation. I read this book years ago, and still wonder about the ending from time to time. Would love to reread at some point...The fox trot is unjustly accused of becoming unfashionable. On the contrary, the vast majority of recorded dance music sold from the end of WWI through the 1940s was for the fox trot. It has never completely faded away to the present day, and in 1924 it would have been *the* fast dance. I love it; it's fun, easy to learn, easy for a man to teach to even a klutzy novice partner, and a number only lasts about 3 minutes so it doesn't require much social investment. But anyway. If I had written this review when I started reading “The Other Typist,” here is what I would have said: “Oh how I love an unreliable narrator! Rose is complex and compelling. I wonder what is really going on? Where will she end up? In the gutter? In love? In a nuthouse? I’m sure there’s a bizarre and twisty crime in the end. I’m reading on voraciously. Just love it! If this keeps up, it will be one of my favorite reads. 5 stars for sure!” Yet soon enough, a particularly intoxicating new typist named Odalie is hired and Rose – just like her much-admired and morally upright Sargeant and more forgiving Lieutenant Detective – falls under her spell. Rose in particular is captivated by Odalie and flattered that this lovely creature has taken an interest in her. Before too long, they are the best of friends, navigating a dual life of police work during the day and speakeasies when the day winds down. A]perfect social comedy: A plain young typist working for the New York Police Department in the 1920s becomes obsessed with a glamorous co-worker. Revealing that there is a murderous twist in Suzanne Rindell’s spellbinder isn’t a spoiler but an essential for enjoying the exhilarating buildup.”— Daily Candy