"Jane Smiley" the life and times of a sweet-looking older lady who writes the most graphic sex scenes I've ever read

I've been away for a while, this one took me a LONG TIME to read and, I've got to say, after all was said and done, it wasn't all that worth it.
I decided to read "Ten Days in the Hills" because Paul Edwards forced me to read "A Thousand Acres" for a class and I actually ended up loving it. I should have known that any author beloved of Paul Edwards would write books that were excessively wordy beyond comprehension.
"Ten Days in the Hills" is a satire of modern celebrity culture. It follows a group of celebrities, some minor, some mega, as they spend 10 days together doing what celebrities do best: basically, nothing.
I wish I had a more erudite criticism of this book, but what I keep coming back to is that it's mind-numbingly boring. I don't know what play I heard this in, but someone describes a book as being "one of those English drawing-room style stories where 300 pages later they've poured the tea" and that is precisely how I would describe this book. Usually, that doesn't bother me because there are ideas expressed and even some witty dialogue, if I'm lucky, but this one just didn't altogether do it for me. Too little happens over a span of too long (500ish pages).
One interesting thing about this book is that many of the characters and, I believe, Smiley herself, make an incorrect assumption about the war in Iraq, one I think we all made early on. The book was written several years ago and most of the characters have taken as a given that the war will only last a little while, so it was interesting to kind of take a look back on what our mentality was about Bush, the war, the homefront etc. just a few short years ago, but that wasn't enough to save the story.
The book does have its strong points. Smiley is a brilliant writer and definitely does a good job of satirizing our perceived celebrity culture, but even that kind of left me wanting more. I don't get the idea that Smiley IS a celebrity or has spent a whole lot of time in that culture, so it always felt like she was satirizing what we all THINK to be celebrity culture rather than what truly goes on. I dunno. I say read "A Thousand Acres." It's a better book and the cover doesn't make everyone on the subway think you're reading a gossip-girls book. 5.5/10