Books, Dogs, and Other Blogs

+ 1/2* for yummy food descriptions.
+ 1/2* for keeping me just interested enough to continue reading.
+ 1* for writing a book that made me think about it after, and what I would do in this situation.

For me, it's really important to connect to a character. I don't necessarily have to even like them. But I have to connect to them in some sort of way, to be invested in what happens. I have to have someone to either root for or against.

The characters in this novel were all pretty detestable. I think this is one of the few books that suffers from too much character development. You're almost half way through the book before any of the plot happens, and by that time you already sufficiently dislike everyone involved. And, we find out too late in the book that Paul has some sort of diagnosable mental illness that explains so much of his thought and behavior patterns. Maybe if this would have come up sooner, there would have been a little bit of room for me to feel anything other than dislike.

These characters are terrible people in a terrible situation. When not trudging through their personal backgrounds, we have to trudge through the details of their dinner. I kept reading, waiting for the action to pick up, but when it finally did, it was too little too late for me.