Barbara M. reviewed on + 147 more book reviews
The book starts out promising--in the prologue, Richard, the protagonist, reflects back on the death of Bunny, a fellow classmate who died after Richard and his friends pushed Bunny off the top of a ravine. Then Richard, a California boy, takes the reader back to when he decided to go to college out east. This is where the story bogs down. I wasn't sure how long I could continue reading before finally throwing in the towel. I think it was around page 140 that the story STARTED to be a little more interesting.
Why I wouldn't recommend this book:
1. Way too long. The author was often overly descriptive. She took a long time at the start describing the various things Richard did upon his arrival at Hampden. Most of those experiences didn't really add anything to the story. The Greek stuff (the students talking about Greek philosophy, etc.) wasn't particularly interesting and added nothing to the story. An editor should have cut the book down quite a bit. The story could have been told in about 300 pages.
2. None of the characters--from the core group to the secondary ones--were particularly likeable. Bunny, especially, was despicable--loud, boorish, no shame in taking advantage of others, etc. I'm surprised someone didn't kill him off long before this. The Greek group--as well as many of the secondary characters--constantly drank and did drugs.
3. SPOILER ALERT: The death of the chicken farmer, which triggered the eventual killing of Bunny, seemed a little farfetched. The twins (Charles and Camilla), Henry, and Francis had spent several days trying to replicate a bacchanalia, a celebration from Greek antiquity, and the chicken farmer ended up dead. In the epilogue, we learn what happened to the central characters a few years after Bunny's murder. There is no mention that the farmer's murder was still unsolved. The reader can assume it was unsolved because none of the central characters were arrested. But, it would have been appropriate to include something about the status of that case. END OF SPOILER
4. As others have noted, it was hard to know in what time period this story was set. It clearly was before cell phones became common because no one in the story had a cell phone. The copyright date is 1992 so presumably sometime prior to that. However, it was unclear if this was in the 1960s, 1970s, or 1980s.
Like the story, I could go on and on and on but I don't feel like wasting any further time on it. Safe to say, I won't be reading any of the author's other books--one and done!
Why I wouldn't recommend this book:
1. Way too long. The author was often overly descriptive. She took a long time at the start describing the various things Richard did upon his arrival at Hampden. Most of those experiences didn't really add anything to the story. The Greek stuff (the students talking about Greek philosophy, etc.) wasn't particularly interesting and added nothing to the story. An editor should have cut the book down quite a bit. The story could have been told in about 300 pages.
2. None of the characters--from the core group to the secondary ones--were particularly likeable. Bunny, especially, was despicable--loud, boorish, no shame in taking advantage of others, etc. I'm surprised someone didn't kill him off long before this. The Greek group--as well as many of the secondary characters--constantly drank and did drugs.
3. SPOILER ALERT: The death of the chicken farmer, which triggered the eventual killing of Bunny, seemed a little farfetched. The twins (Charles and Camilla), Henry, and Francis had spent several days trying to replicate a bacchanalia, a celebration from Greek antiquity, and the chicken farmer ended up dead. In the epilogue, we learn what happened to the central characters a few years after Bunny's murder. There is no mention that the farmer's murder was still unsolved. The reader can assume it was unsolved because none of the central characters were arrested. But, it would have been appropriate to include something about the status of that case. END OF SPOILER
4. As others have noted, it was hard to know in what time period this story was set. It clearly was before cell phones became common because no one in the story had a cell phone. The copyright date is 1992 so presumably sometime prior to that. However, it was unclear if this was in the 1960s, 1970s, or 1980s.
Like the story, I could go on and on and on but I don't feel like wasting any further time on it. Safe to say, I won't be reading any of the author's other books--one and done!
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