Helpful Score: 3
After all the praise for Bel Canto I was excited to read this, my first book by Ann Patchett, and I was sadly disappointed. It started out great, a story about a racially mixed Irish-Catholic Bostonian family brought together by an accident one snowy night, the Doyle family. There is Bernadette with her virgin Mary statue -the spitting image of her with red hair, pale skin, and blue eys- passed down from mother to daughter for generations; Doyle, former Mayor of Boston; Sullivan, first born son, guilt-ridden over the death of his girlfriend; Uncle Father Sullivan; two adopted black sons, Tip, smart, lover of Ichthyology, and Teddy, sweet, devout Catholic; and Tennessee -like the state- and Kenya -like the country- Moser. I was captured by the end of the first chapter, devoured every word, sentence, but then my interest dwindled and I began to skim through to the end, much like the story skimmed through each and every character, failing to give any depth to any one of them. This could have been a great novel had the author further explored the issues of race, adoption, religion, etc. While plenty of individual thoughts were shared, the Doyle family seemed disconnected. Their relationships were poorly developed, unbelievable. The entire novel spans one night and day, not enough time to convince me of their bond. I do hope Bel Canto is better than this!
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