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Rating:  -
Roast mules = somersault
I've adored most of Ira Levin's books. If you've never read This Perfect Day, it's worth the effort of unearthing a copy. That being said, if this ends up being Levin's last published work, he leaves a sad legacy. I bought the book at Goodwill for $1 and I still feel cheated. I would feel cheated if somebody had paid me to read it.
This next paragraph could possibly spoil the ending, so read no further if I and the majority of the other reviewers haven't scared you away from the book.
The winner among the utterly ridiculous sub-plots and literary devices in the book has to be how Levin so disasterously resolves his story. Let's just say that if you were disappointed by how they brought back Bobby Ewing on Dallas, you'll be prone to violence when you finish Son of Rosemary.
Also, could somebody please explain why, oh, why Andy's sexual attraction to his mother was a plotline? Where did that come from?!
Rating: -
It's not just that Ira Levin seemed sloppy and lazy in writing this book. It's worse than that - he seemed to write the story with contempt for the subject. I was horrified as I read it, not because of the "horror" of the subject matter or plot line, but because I couldn't believe how much contempt was pouring out of the author of the original classic. It's as though he was laughing at everyone who enjoyed the original story and was saying, "you want a sequel - how about THIS, sucka!"
Don't buy, don't borrow, don't bother. I've never read anything worse.
Rating: -
Rosemary's Baby was fun; this sequel sucks. Idiotic concept and threaded with all sorts of never-answered plot developments. Murders are left unsolved and never rate another mention after they've happened. The notion of the whole world falling so much in love with a religious figure they're willing to do what Levin would have us believe they are is out and out laughable. And to end this novel as he did, not only knocking this one out of the sky, but Rosemary's Baby as well? Mr. Levin is a rude man. Don't buy this book and don't read it. And if anyone ever figured out his word puzzle, I've yet to hear about it.
Rating: -
When I picked up this book in my local library, I was hoping for a good read, having enjoyed several of Mr. Levin's previous works ("Rosemary's Baby", "The Boys from Brazil", "The Stepford Wives", etc.)
*Caveat: The following comments contain spoilers. Please don't read them if you want to read this work with a "fresh" mind.
Sadly, this book really let me and several other people down for a number of reasons:
*If you're going to write a novel about the Anti-Christ, you're going to need to follow biblical prophecy; in this work, Levin has failed to do that; instead, he has created an unbelievable end-world (eschatological) scenario. (Everyone in the world is going to light a lethal candle at exactly the same moment and get killed by fumes from the candle? Gimme a break, Mr. Levin...)
*Referring to the above point: If you're going to portray the Anti-Christ, you're going to have someone who somehow unites the world's religions, etc. And since people in our day and age are extremely wary, I find it hard to believe that someone who appears on the world scene and somehow unites the world's religions wouldn't be viewed with at least a hint of suspicion; but in this book, everyone (save a few dumb backwoods rednecks and a few disciples of Ayn Rand) loves Andy to death; in other words, Mr. Levin, your characterization of Andy says, I'm the Anti-Christ and you idiots can't even see it! (Follow this with evil laughs.) In the real world, even blind people could see this from hundreds of miles away. Perhaps the latter is not a politically correct description, but I for one am not a politically correct viewer, and I for one find this novel, whose author seems not to wish to offend anyone with plot twists and turns that would require the offending of people if one were to write a believable novel about the Anti-Christ, to be a politically correct horror novel, which ultimately means it's no horror novel at all. (A true horror novel cannot be politically correct.)
*The character of Andy (Rosemary's son) is unsympathetic; he comes off as a Seattle-like grunge slacker; I for one wouldn't follow him. I just don't believe that die-hard Muslims, hard-core Jews and fundamentalist Christians would, either. Andy's diction is that of a suburban high school student; so much for a potential world leader.
*We're TOLD that Andy has united the peoples and nations of the world, but we're not SHOWN how Andy unites the world. (Refer to the above points regarding plot and character believability. Obviously, Mr. Levin has forgotten an important lesson about fiction writing: Show, don't tell. I'd be embarrassed, if I were a novelist, to claim this work as my own because of this one point.)
*Rosemary's been in a coma for 27 years or so; a little more than a month later, she's dancing in front of the world with her soon-to-be-world-leader-Anti-Christ son? I don't think so, Mr. Levin; you obviously know little of human physiology or believe that your readers are idiots; her muscles would have atrophied so much she wouldn't be able to walk for a long, long time, if ever. So much for waking up from a 27-year coma in November, 1999, and cutting the rug in December, 1999, among other things.
*Several of the characters -- like the TV evangelist -- are direct copies of real people; in other words, these characters are wooden figures because Levin has failed to flesh them out; real characters are archetypes, not just clever (or in this case, not-so-clever) imitations of real-world people.
*We never find out what happens to Guy and other characters from "Rosemary's Baby"; in this sense, "Son of Rosemary" is a lot like the "American Pie" sequels, which, because they fail to incorporate characters from previous "American Pie" flicks, fail to fulfill the promises of the subplots and archplots within them. In other words, if you're going to write a sequel, you need to incorporate all of the characters from the original work to make the sequel believable. Barring this, you end up with a watered-down work (like "Son of Rosemary").
*It all ends when we discover that Rosemary had just had a bad dream; the events of 1965/1966, in other words, were just a dream; Andy was just a dream; it was all just a dream...This is the easy, lazy way for a writer to end a work; and it's one of the most disappointing things a writer can do to a reader.
I could go on and on about this pathetic book, but won't; Mr. Levin, you should be ashamed for writing this work; it's bad, lazy writing not becoming of someone who has written great works like the aforementioned ones in the first paragraph of this review.
Rating:  -
If you're one of those people who paid money for the book or spent the few hours reading it when you could have been shampooing your hair or some other trivial task, then yes, be mad, feel cheated and confused. However, if you're like me who came upon this book that someone threw away, you might not be so angry.
Flip forward to 1999, Rosemary wakes from a 27 year coma to find her son, Andy, is the most popular fellow in the world with the ability to bring together all people. He has no religious agenda other than a "can't we all get along" umbrella that has succeeded greatly on a worldwide scale. When it's discovered that our Rosemary is the Mom of the most beloved person in the world, she gets thrown into the arena of celebrity too.
If you look at this book as a whole, it's not particularly good but if you can look at some of the premises, some are kind of interesting. The ending which at first left me feeling cheated actually took on more meaning when I reread it.
If you come across this book and have nothing to do for about 2 hours, not a bad read...otherwise not really worth your while.
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