Helpful Score: 1
I feel slightly unfair for giving this book only two and a half stars but I REALLY did not enjoy reading it. The pacing and tone of the story completely switched after the first hundred pages or so. In terms of narrative structure, the book starts with an event, then flashes back to tell the story of the people involved up to that point, and then jumps ahead 15 years from the event and tells the story in a linear sequence, flashes back to the back-story of another character, and then ends up back in the (?) present. It seemed a weird structural decision to make. Claire, the main character, was almost entirely unsympathetic to me and made completely irrational choices. I understand she is supposed to be affected by grief, but 15 years in the future you'd think some semblance of normalcy would have returned to her. I felt no real connection with any of the other characters as well. The third part of the book did make me feel some sympathy for Minna but I still thought her actions and character were unreasonable.
Perhaps the most grievous offense is that the event at the beginning of the book, which seems meant to be the point around which the whole story will turn, ends up being nearly inconsequential by the time the book is finished. If this is supposed to be a meditation on how grief remains with us, the tragedy at the beginning being basically dropped from the story doesn't seem to support that idea.
Perhaps the most grievous offense is that the event at the beginning of the book, which seems meant to be the point around which the whole story will turn, ends up being nearly inconsequential by the time the book is finished. If this is supposed to be a meditation on how grief remains with us, the tragedy at the beginning being basically dropped from the story doesn't seem to support that idea.
