Over the past few years, disappointed by an overwhelming number of mediocre novels, I've increasingly turned to This book renewed my love for fiction.
Over the past few years, disappointed by an overwhelming number of mediocre novels, I've increasingly turned to non-fiction. My rationale was, even if the book is mediocre at least I'll learn something; what's the point of spending time with a mediocre book that's just a story someone invented? This book, though, reminded me of why I used to be a fiction addict.
I don't want to oversell it. It was a long book, and the narrative occasionally sagged. Not every detail of every interaction was necessary, and thankfully the romance was peripheral because it left me pretty cold.
Now that I got that disclaimer over with, I will rhapsodize. This book pulled me in completely. I felt like I was right there with the characters, feeling what they were feeling. The writing was great, the themes natural and multilayered, the characterization dimensional and interesting. The plot wasn't exactly fast-paced, but it wasn't non-existent either. I loved the family members. I loved their relationships and interactions. I loved their dysfunction, painfully real but not over the top and clearly interwoven with genuine love.
For once I'm not alone here (4+ goodreads star rating, actually well-deserved!), which is also nice. So I feel comfortable saying, though not a perfect book, highly recommended....more
Eh. couldn't get into this. I'd like to be kind and say it was the audio, but I think I just didn't like the characterization and wasn't gripped by thEh. couldn't get into this. I'd like to be kind and say it was the audio, but I think I just didn't like the characterization and wasn't gripped by the plot....more
This was one of those silly, over-the-top chicklit books that was perfect for audio. Because despite its farcical nature, I never actually got to the This was one of those silly, over-the-top chicklit books that was perfect for audio. Because despite its farcical nature, I never actually got to the point of snorting and rolling my eyes and abandoning it as I have with many others of this genre. It didn't demand a great deal of attention and I was able to enjoy it even as I tuned out here and there.
Rachel Chu, a New York academic of Chinese origin, has just been asked by her great boyfriend Nick to spend the summer with him in Singapore and meet his family and friends. What Rachel doesn't know, but will painfully learn, is that Nick actually comes from an extremely wealthy background. Aside from Nick's mother's horror about Rachel's humble roots, lots of high-maintenance social-climbing Singapore women want Nick for themselves. What this adds up to is a whole lot of plotting by various parties to break Nick and Rachel up as Rachel innocently goes through the motions of meeting people and attending social gatherings.
The extreme wealth and conspicuous consumption (with the exception of the tight-fisted, principled "old money" crew) was lavishly described and, as I said, over the top. So were some of the reactions to Rachel and the diabolical plotting behind her back. Just about everyone in this book was either a Mary Sue (particularly Astrid, who was truly beyond belief) or completely evil. This is definitely not a book to be read with any seriousness or high expectations.
But for a chick lit read on audio, I actually thought it was pretty decent. If you find yourself in an airport bookstore frantically searching for a plane read, I would give you the go-ahead to choose this one.
The frame of the story is that Julia's father has disappeared, possibly to his hometown in Burma, and that Julia travelsMeh. Just not my kind of book.
The frame of the story is that Julia's father has disappeared, possibly to his hometown in Burma, and that Julia travels there to find him. Julia is then treated to a fairy-tale-like story of her father and his childhood (but everlasting) love, growing up in rural Burma. Her father was blind, his love Mimi was crippled, the two of them were good-looking, saintly, perpetually lovable, and had a passion at 20 that somehow outlasted decades of separation with each of them supposedly living a full life in their own sphere. Sigh.
Although I didn't have a lot of time to surf that tv tropes website (a fun discovery thanks to goodreads; it's amazing how many supposedly original stories prove to be derivative), I'm convinced there are one or more tropes out there which this story is replaying. The story was somehow too sweet for me, with this one-dimensional love, perfect good guys and evil bad guys, etc., etc. I like my stories a little more complex.
But I seem to be alone in this, judging from the goodreads rating, so don't let my review put you off....more
I really want to gush and rave about how much I loved reading this book. This is one of my favorite types of books -- highly gripping non-fiction, a bI really want to gush and rave about how much I loved reading this book. This is one of my favorite types of books -- highly gripping non-fiction, a book with the double delight of being both difficult to put down and educational, so I didn't feel guilty reading just a few more pages when there were, as always, a million other things to do.
It feels so heartless, though. How can I juxtapose my self-indulgent joy at finding a great book with the heartrending plight of the North Koreans as described therein? It embarrasses me as a statement of my privilege that I can use the internet (unavailable to North Koreans) to share my excitement at discovering a good book (I can actually indulge my intellectual curiosity, as opposed to having to stifle it) which I actually had the time to read (because I'm not out hunting for food).
Well, since I've started I may as well describe the book. Barbara Demick engagingly describes the lives of several individual North Koreans -- their day-to-day hardships and often dramatic adventures. Demick acknowledges the arguable selection bias of her focus on North Koreans who've defected to South Korea, but there's sufficient overlap in their stories that the unbelievable situation they describe becomes believable. I found myself rooting for these individuals, caught up in a bittersweet romance, cheering on a defector who proudly shows off her plastic surgery in South Korea, holding my breath as another defector crosses the border, and more. The courage and perseverance displayed by these people is amazing, though Demick acknowledges that they are not easy personalities. Maybe being easy to get along with is a privilege too.
So if you're looking for a good read that will also educate you and make you appreciate what you have, this one is right up there with Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women, Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China, and other wonderfully readable books that are more than just readable books. I should warn you that parts of the book are terribly sad but there is also some redemption for the characters. This book was a great find....more
How do you rate a book that leaves you befuddled for the first 300 pages and then enraptured for the last 150?
This book was a strange experience. I stHow do you rate a book that leaves you befuddled for the first 300 pages and then enraptured for the last 150?
This book was a strange experience. I started out listening to it on audio and found myself completely unable to follow it. The character's in an orphan home. The character's a kidnapper. Wait a minute -- the character's on a ship -- how did he get there? And the rowers -- where do they come into this? Suddenly there are shoes, and Americans boarding the ship, and some kind of problem...
Luckily I also had a library hard copy on my nighttable and decided to switch formats, after which I was marginally less confused. But still confused. The transitions from event to event which might explain how we got to point B from point A were choppy and easy to miss, and it was hard for me to enjoy the scenes or empathize with the characters when I couldn't follow the overarching narrative.
Then it got even more confusing in the second part of the book, where I didn't even know who the characters were any more, much less what they were doing there. The story, which had followed a chronological sequence until then, was now told in a shifting order, making it even harder to follow. Three narratives, three perspectives, three periods of time, all related, constantly switching back and forth. A book I might have put down at any point, and I'm not sure why I didn't.
But suddenly -- I got it! I understood what I was reading about! I understood what was happening! I actually cared about the characters! I felt their pain! I held my breath to see how their story would play out! My hardened heart was actually touched by the beauty of their romance! (And this is me talking.) Too bad it took me 300 pages to get to that point.
Lots of people loved this, and now I know why. But it took a lot of effort and patience for me to get there, which is why I can only give it three stars. I think it would have worked better for me had the first half of the book been streamlined, with clearer transitions. And although I did really appreciate the triple narrative in the second half once I finally understood things, I wonder if it needed to be as confusing as it was.
Definitely one for my lord-help-me-I'm-not-that-bright shelf, but not quite as impenetrable as some of the others on that shelf. You just need to keep reading....more
The writing in this book was beautiful, and the story was great -- or could have been, had it not gottenSometimes it hurts to give a book three stars.
The writing in this book was beautiful, and the story was great -- or could have been, had it not gotten bogged down at several different points. I also felt pretty disconnected from the characters. These flaws made it difficult to fully appreciate the book's strong points, impressive though they were.
We first meet the book's central character, a judge living in Malaysia, when she has retired from her career and is returning to her past. We gradually learn about the judge's past, starting with her desire decades earlier to create a beautiful garden to memorialize her sister. The judge's sister had died what was clearly a tragic death in a Japanese prisoner's camp, a camp from which the judge herself mysteriously escaped. The judge's ambition of creating this memorial garden leads her, as a young woman, to apprentice herself to a man who once served as the gardener to the emperor of Japan. The judge's obviously conflicted feelings about the Japanese make this a complicated situation from the get-go, and of course, things get more complicated.
Although the judge's traumatic experiences in the camp together with her sister are referenced periodically and are clearly a pivotal point, it is not until the end of the book that we learn what actually happened in the camp as well as some mysteries surrounding the judge's Japanese gardening mentor. These parts of the book are interesting; the middle less so as the book bogs down in details of Japanese rituals and a side plot with little apparent relevance. And unfortunately, having lost a great deal of interest as the plot meandered from here to there, it was hard for me to read with the same absorption even once events got interesting again. Admittedly, I think some of this had to do with the fact that I was reading this book on my iphone and constantly flipping screens -- I think this did something to my attention span.
With that said, this book had a lot going for it. It was refreshing for me to read about a location and period of history I've read so little about, and the author succeeded in evoking the historical context without excessive info-dumps. The writing, as I mentioned, was lovely and a lot of the various plot twists and ethical themes were interesting to contemplate. Lots of people liked this book more than I did, and for once I can actually see why.
Still, though, I can't really give it more than three stars. ...more
If you're someone who avoids Indian fiction because you find it too depressing, stay away from this book. An impressive work of narrative non-fiction,If you're someone who avoids Indian fiction because you find it too depressing, stay away from this book. An impressive work of narrative non-fiction, Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, And Hope In A Mumbai Undercity is easily the saddest book set in India that I have ever read -- and I've read many -- because apparently, it's true. The poverty and despair, the murder and suicide, the amorality and corruption -- it's all here and it all really happened.
I had a strong sense of deja vu as I read this because this book reminded me intensely of Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx. It's a very similar read. Katherine Boo, a journalist who, amazingly, did not speak the language and was forced to rely on interpreters, used indefatigable interviewing and copious research to construct a narrative surrounding a pivotal event and following several characters in a Mumbai slum. As with Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx, there's a strong temptation to be judgmental and to forget how a context of poverty and desperation can affect one's character. I appreciated that Katherine Boo did not idealize her characters or paint them falsely to be saints rising above their circumstances, which made it all the more moving in the rare occasions when they did. And as Katherine put it so well, "If the house is crooked and crumbling, and the land on which is sits is uneven, is it possible to make anything lie straight?"
This might even be a five star book except for two issues I had. One was that, as I mentioned, it was intensely depressing. The other was that it felt unfocused at times, following several different characters and subplots, giving the reader a broader and more complete picture of a variety of experiences but sometimes sacrificing the coherence of the narrative. This was particularly challenging for me because I listened to it as an audiobook, which meant that I often ended up tuning in and out and unsure of who we were hearing about now.
This story kind of sneaks up on you. It felt like a quiet and pleasant three-star read most of the way through, with occasional four star moments. TheThis story kind of sneaks up on you. It felt like a quiet and pleasant three-star read most of the way through, with occasional four star moments. Then I finally closed it and thought, you know, that was really better than I realized at the time. But ultimately I think I'll go with three stars because I don't want to oversell the experience of reading it.
Amina, a Bangladeshi 20-something woman, marries George, an American engineer living in Rochester whom she has met online. She moves to Rochester to be with him, assuming that she'll soon be able to bring her parents over to live with them. As her relationship with George progresses, though, she gets some unwanted surprises, not the least of which is that an American man like George may not take it as a given that his in-laws will be moving in long-term. There were some surprises about George's romantic past as well, to which Amina's reaction seemed a bit over the top to me and difficult to fully empathize with.
This book was certainly readable, with fully realized characters and cultural differences that felt authentic. Though slow at times, it never got so boring I felt the need to put it down. At the same time, it did go on a bit too long and though I ended up liking it quite a bit, it was basically a three star read.
I suspect I might have felt as if I were skimming this book, even if I hadn't been skimming it in fact. The pace seemed rushed at times, and overall tI suspect I might have felt as if I were skimming this book, even if I hadn't been skimming it in fact. The pace seemed rushed at times, and overall the story felt superficial. Maybe because it was. I'm not sure this was actually a story, to tell the truth. Certainly the characters were not characters. I think this was simply an excuse to depict colonial India from the late nineteenth century leading up to independence, and to have the characters serve as mouthpieces for various Indian and British viewpoints on the colonial experience.
The story begins with Solomon Dorai, the leader of his village, dealing with a tempest taking place. It continues with Solomon's sons, Daniel, a doctor, and Aaron, a drifter-turned revolutionary. The final part of the book focuses on Daniel's son, Kannan, and his complicated relationship with the British.
These multi-generational sagas have become a cliche of mediocre historical fiction, and this one was particularly poorly done in my opinion. I never came to empathize with the stick-figure characters or to care about the banal plotlines. The whole colonial situation in India and the varying perspectives on it was more interesting than anything else about the book, but I think I would have been better off reading a non-fiction treatise about it. If you like reading novels set in India, there are better ones out there....more
Unfortunately the attention span tends to go down as the pile of tempting books on the nighttable rises. It may simply be too long since I spent time Unfortunately the attention span tends to go down as the pile of tempting books on the nighttable rises. It may simply be too long since I spent time with these characters in "Sea of Poppies" (the prequel), but unfortunately despite Ghosh's engaging storytelling style I just didn't find myself immersed in the characters or caring about what happened to them. Maybe I'll be inspired to try this again at some later point but for now, I'm moving on....more
A very ambivalent four stars, but four stars nonetheless for some strong writing and characterization.
"Listening Now" is the story of Padma, a Delhi wA very ambivalent four stars, but four stars nonetheless for some strong writing and characterization.
"Listening Now" is the story of Padma, a Delhi woman raising her daughter Mallika singlehandedly. Padma's support system includes her older sister, two devoted neighborhood friends, and some contributions from her estranged mother. The first chapter tells the story from Mallika's perspective -- her sad and stressed-out mother, her fantasies about her absent father, her closeness with the neighborhood women and their daughters, etc.
Although the writing was strong, I had some trouble getting into this because I'm not a fan of child narrators. My interest picked up in the next chapter, where the viewpoint shifted to one of Padma's neighborhood friends and offered a whole new perspective. As subsequent chapters were narrated by other players in Padma's story, the story deepened and became more complex. The book also evoked a strong sense of the cultural context and quiet desperation that characterized these women's lives in a variety of ways.
On the positive side, and the reason for my four stars -- I loved the characterization. Although I'm not usually a fan of changing viewpoints, it was interesting to be inside these many women's heads and see the world, and the story, through individual sets of eyes. I even had the unsettling experience of getting annoyed with a character and suddenly realizing that the character was a lot like me.
Books like these with multiple female characters are often accused of depicting stock "types" rather than characters. I find that to be true of chick lit, but I didn't feel this was the case here. I really felt the women as people, individual human beings, with strengths and weaknesses and different ways of understanding their situations and different approaches to life.
So the negative -- the book was a little too long, and started to fall apart at the end. There were things that seemed kind of confusing about Padma's relationship with Mallika's father, and these issues became more confusing to me toward the end of the book. A shorter, tighter narrative might have helped.
Still, if you're willing to invest the time I thought this was an interesting read and a good story overall....more
I suspect I would have enjoyed these stories more in print than on audio, although admittedly I'm not really a short story person in the best of timesI suspect I would have enjoyed these stories more in print than on audio, although admittedly I'm not really a short story person in the best of times. Basically they were pleasant enough, but I have to second Kinga's comment that they didn't exactly scream Pulitzer to me....more
Wasn't grabbing me. Life is too short for books that give me ADD. Oh, well.Wasn't grabbing me. Life is too short for books that give me ADD. Oh, well....more
Meh. Not a bad story, but too superficially rendered for my taste.
Kavita, a poor village woman, has just given birth to an infant daughter she names UMeh. Not a bad story, but too superficially rendered for my taste.
Kavita, a poor village woman, has just given birth to an infant daughter she names Usha. Terrified that her husband will murder the daughter because she's a girl, she journeys to Mumbai to place Usha in an orphanage. Meanwhile, Somer and Krishnan, a California couple struggling with infertility, decide to adopt an Indian orphan and end up with Usha. The book follows the twists and turns in these characters' lives as Kavita and her family experience changes of location and fortune and Somer and Krishnan raise Usha (whom they call Asha) who eventually seeks her roots in India.
There were moments in this book which resonated and smacked of psychological complexity. Somer initially finds it difficult to bond with her new infant; Kavita comes to appreciate her husband despite his flaws; Kavita's husband eventually regrets and examines his zealousness to get rid of his infant daughter. But for the most part, the story was told in a way that seemed almost rushed as it spanned two decades. I didn't feel that I got to know any of the characters; the vicissitudes in their relationships and fortunes passed me by without my getting caught up in them. Where I often find myself complaining about the slow pacing in books, this was a case where the rapidity with which events unfolded precluded my feeling anything about them.
It wasn't a bad book, but the fact that it could have been so much better than it was made for a disappointing reading experience. Not to mention the high goodreads rating and Amazon's placing it on a list of 100 Best Books of 2010....more
I finished this book yesterday afternoon and have already begun forgetting it.
Not that this was an awful book. In fact, fans of The No. 1 Ladies' DeteI finished this book yesterday afternoon and have already begun forgetting it.
Not that this was an awful book. In fact, fans of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency and its oeuvre would probably find this book's simplistic writing, facile plot, and exotic setting charming and quaint. For a curmudgeon like me, though, books like this are way too lightweight. I felt like I was reading a children's book.
"The Marriage Bureau for Rich People" basically offers up a slice of life in an Indian village. Mr. Ali, a bored retiree, opens up a matchmaking service which somehow attracts suitable candidates instantly (why do these eligible people need a marriage service, anyway?) and is wildly successful. The book's slow-moving plot focuses on the love story of Mr. Ali's assistant, Aruna, and on Mr. and Mrs. Ali's difficulties with their activist son.
I'm all for light, comforting reads; I don't claim to be someone who can only be satisfied with an intellectually challenging book. In order for a light read to work for me, though, I do need something in the way of writing, plot, and/or characterization. I didn't find any of that in this book. But then again, I didn't like the much-touted The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency either, so I may be in the minority here....more
How can I possibly describe a 947-page book in the space of a brief review? I guess I could start by saying that my interest was maintained all the waHow can I possibly describe a 947-page book in the space of a brief review? I guess I could start by saying that my interest was maintained all the way through, which is saying a lot. This book didn't change my life or anything, but it was a great read and a great story and I had absolutely no problem with the length. Although a few of the subplots and interludes were arguably less necessary, they were no less engaging.
"Sacred Games" explores the lives of two Mumbai men, a police officer named Sartaj Singh and a gang leader named Ganesh Gaitonde. Both Sartaj and Ganesh are complex characters vividly executed, and I enjoyed reading about their lives' twists and turns -- Ganesh's rise to power in the underworld and subsequent difficulties; Sartaj's challenges as a relatively honest police officer in a world riddled with corruption. I especially loved reading about the characters' love for their native Mumbai, which was vividly and empathically evoked. Despite the fact that Mumbai is not high up on my list of places to visit these days, Chandra made the characters' deep affection for the city palpable and relatable.
I'm going to give this four stars for the first 75%, even though it fell apart for me toward the end.
"Still Life with Rice" reminded me very much of WI'm going to give this four stars for the first 75%, even though it fell apart for me toward the end.
"Still Life with Rice" reminded me very much of Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China -- a young woman's chronicle of her grandmother's life in war-torn Southeast Asia told from her Korean grandmother's perspective. It's pretty amazing to contemplate all the things Helie Lee's grandmother went through and her courage throughout -- married off in an arranged marriage (which, fortunately, developed into a loving union unlike depictions of arranged marriage in other books), fleeing to China with her husband where she started multiple successful businesses including opium trading, returning to Korea where she suffered the ravages of war and walked from North Korea to South Korea with her children, etc. The book read more like a novel than like the true story of someone's life, which was mostly a good thing.
Things started to go south for me toward the end. The narrative became choppy, and the events and choices increasingly unbelievable. It was hard for me to understand some of the decisions Helie's grandmother made, and extremely difficult for me to believe the way things worked out. Though billed as a true story, the book started to feel like an amateurish novel where the character's motivations are unclear and the loose ends neatly tied. If Helie Lee is in fact recounting events accurately, it's a pretty amazing story but my ability to empathize with the main character diminished in the final quarter of the book.
I would still recommend the book overall. It was a fascinating story about an unforgettable woman, and an enjoyable introduction for me to Korean history and culture. ...more
Most of the historical fiction books I've read have tried to do three things -- evoke a sense of time and place, depict historical events through the Most of the historical fiction books I've read have tried to do three things -- evoke a sense of time and place, depict historical events through the eyes of their characters, and last (and often least, unfortunately, even though this is ostensibly the reason to read a novel in the first place), create multifaceted characters who are experiencing their own growth, development, and plot. The best historical fiction books I've read integrated all three of these goals into a smooth and readable narrative -- Gone With the Wind, for instance. Unfortunately, much of the historical fiction I've read has been mediocre and concentrated heavily on the first two goals -- describing the time and place, and following the historical timeline. The third goal, that of creating an interesting plot and believable characters in their own right rather than simply using them as an excuse to give us the history, often falls short.
This was the case here as well.If I were really honest, I'd put this on my "couldn't finish" shelf because I actually skimmed about 3/4 of it. But since I did, in fact, push myself all the way to the end, I'll give myself a pass.
I started out enjoying this book. Ghosh's writing evoked the scene, and I wanted to read more about the characters and their travails. That ended, though, when things suddenly became choppy and contrived. I want this character to get rich, Ghosh apparently decided, so I'll have him make this deal, have the other characters pay some lip service to how risky it is, and boom! It works out! Now, thought Ghosh, I want these two long-lost people to reunite and end up marrying. So, a quick reunion, a summary rejection by the woman, and then a dramatic scene where she changes her mind just as he's leaving and has to chase him down. Poof! They're married. Many important events happened this way, while other parts of the book were extremely long and draggy -- unnecessarily so, in my opinion. Much of the book seemed like an effort to situate the characters in convenient times and places so as to give us some history and promote an anti-colonialist agenda. Not that I'm a fan of colonialism, but I'm also not a fan of agenda-driven novels.
I did enjoy the fact that Ghosh focused on an unfamiliar (to me) setting -- Burma -- and made me more aware of both its own history and its role in world events. And I was interested in the characters and in what would happen to them -- at first. Unfortunately, somewhere after p. 100 the story started to fall flat for me, and then more and more characters and jumpy subplots were introduced as I found myself less and less motivated to follow them.
I read Sea of Poppies, a later book by Ghosh, a while back and really enjoyed it. I guess he matured as a writer, which is nice. In this earlier novel, you do see his potential but from what I can see, his later work is much better....more
The story begins at the end and basically works backward with a little back-and-forth within that structure, a deviceI thought this book was fabulous.
The story begins at the end and basically works backward with a little back-and-forth within that structure, a device which would have been irritating and ineffective in the hands of a less gifted author but worked beautifully here. As a result of the structure, events which seem minor at first gradually take on a breathtaking symbolism and significance as you begin to discover their roots, and the story becomes deeper and deeper as you keep reading. The language is beautiful -- for once I found myself (mostly) thinking, "lyrical" and "poetic" rather than overwritten. The continually shifting viewpoints, something I usually dislike, actually served to make all of the characters three-dimensional and real.
At the beginning of this story of the unhappy Rajasekharan family, an Indian family living in Malaysia, we learn of three disappearances -- the dismissal of Chellam, a mysteriously accused servant, the departure of Uma, the oldest daughter in the family, for America, and the death of Paati, the children's grandmother. As we move back in time, we learn about the original mismatch of the two Rajasekharan parents, Amma and Appa, and their growing divide; Amma's ascent from her poor family of origin into the life of a rich socialite desperately trying to mask her unhappiness, constantly carped at by Paati, her superior live-in mother-in-law, and disconnected from her three children; Paati's increasing irascibility with old age leading to the family's hiring Chellam in the first place and then to Paati's mysterious death; Uma's increasing detachment from her family even before her escape to America; and eventually, the pivotal events two years prior to the end of the story which brought the family's unhappiness to the surface and served as a catalyst for everything that followed. Much of the story is told through the eyes of Aasha, the youngest child, who attempts to palliate her loneliness through richly imagined communication with "ghosts" (another device I usually dislike, but one which worked here because it seemed less about magic realism and more about an exploration of the inner life of a six-year-old) and who is tragically an important agent in the story as well as the one most deeply affected by the events.
Naturally, I have a few gripes. The story was a bit of a slow starter for me; I became captivated around Chapter 4 but was more ambivalent until then. Looking back, I don't know whether it could have been otherwise given the structure, as you don't really understand what's happening until you keep moving backward. My bigger gripe is with the incest/non-incest part of the plot -- I AM SICK AND TIRED OF DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY STORIES WHICH INEVITABLY CONTAIN AN ELEMENT OF INCEST/MOLESTATION! AAARRGGHH! There are dysfunctional families without incest! And they can be interesting too! It's become a cliche already. The only reason I didn't remove a star for that (and I was sorely tempted) is that, looking back, that's probably the only kind of event that could have facilitated everything that followed. I also had an issue with the ambiguity of the incest; if it wasn't actually incest but something like incest (which is what the book seems to imply), then why were the results so dramatic?
But I forgave that, because the book as a whole was so damn beautiful and well-done. I should add as a disclaimer that my sister and some other goodreads reviewers didn't like this book, but it certainly has my vote....more
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