Helpful Score: 2
The back summary was much more intriguing than the actual book. I had first read The Accidental, and enjoyed the style, so I picked this up. It was almost too similar to me, so I enjoyed it less. Just didn't seem like quite so unique a story. Some of the chapters were really compelling, and some were not. The chapter written by the sister did not contain one period. No punctuation in her chapter, which made me just skim right through it in frustration. I thought that in the end, everything tied together fairly well for being so random in the first place. Not my favorite book, overall.
It was a Booker Prize finalist but I just didn't enjoy it all that much.
Excellent! Reminds me of "The Lovely Bones" but much sharper and better-observed.
Not what I expected. Guess I missed the comforting, challenging, rude and beautiful "hilarity" of it. In short -- this was not my cup of tea.
Parts of this were good, but mostly it was just okay.
This is a strangely touching, very disturbing, mysterious and sometimes frustrating novel. Still ... it has its merits. I didn't find much in it that was humorous. Mostly, it's sad, and so full of palpable lonesomeness that it's far more heartbreaking than hilarious. But I do think it's worthwhile reading, particularly for the stream of consciousness chapter that focuses on the Sara's sister -- I forced myself to slow down to read it through ... and that particular chapter is, in fact, the most gratifying of them all! I do recommend it, because it is so different and so (ok, I have to say it!) haunting, and because by the last page I had, to my own surprise, tears on my cheeks.
This was a very strange book. As it progressed it became more interesting, but I don't think it wove the stories or characters together very well.
