Mary T. (MaryTheCat) reviewed on 4/4/2010 + 15 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 3

If you like a "quick read", you won't like this book. There is no "tightly plotted action that pulls the narrative forward", and none of the central characters can be adequately described by three adjectives and a noun which tell you what the narrator and the larger world think about them. Sebold gives you the facts as they happen, and then loops back through history, so that your moral assessment and empathetic reactions evolve. The writing is not difficult; you can read all the words inside a few hours. But to do it justice, you will have to stop and think through your reactions to it after almost every chapter. Much of the significance of the story is not actually written down.

Distasteful or not, almost every note rings true throughout. Fifty years from now, this will be a minor classic of the western canon.

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