Mike Johnson Johnson itibaren Wakefield, West Yorkshire, UK itibaren Wakefield, West Yorkshire, UK

I rescued this book from the trashpile when my company moved and threw out an entire bookshelf worth of stuff. I'd never read any Franzen and thought this would be a free opportunity to do so. There were times when I would begin to get pulled into the story, but the disorganization of the storytelling and the inconsistency of the writing style always left me confused and a bit alienated. Towards the end it picked up as the threads were coming together, but I didn't really like how it all turned out. I just couldn't understand what statement Franzen was trying to make. Also, I couldn't care that much about the characters. They were painted just a little bit too broadly, and the little things Franzen put in there to try to make them more human seemed so weak and transparent. Like when S. Jammu's name is revealed and Martin mentally comments that it seemed so pathetic, like she thought it was her ace in the hole but it didn't have that much impact. Overall, it was too confused to be compelling.