This author is similar in style and subject matter to Updike and Ford. That's elite company, and I know that a lot of people thing highly of all these authors.
So why is it that I can't stand their books? What's wrong with me, that I find them so boring and even distasteful?
The characters are boring, petty, self-centered, and selfish. After a hundred and thirty pages I would sooner watch old Seinfeld reruns than continue reading about these pitiful people. Of course, there is no plot. This is literary, character-focussed fiction. And my only interest in the characters is to see them get punished for being so insipid.
So I detest the characters, and there is no plot. There's also nothing else to keep me reading. No cleverness, no bit of mystery or suspense. There is a "theme", or message. At a hundred and thirty pages I can sense it looming out of the fog like the prow of an oil tanker about to capsize my small boat. Probably something about the dysfunctional family, parents that are still children, adults that never grow up, and the destructive nature of the consumer society. Blah.
So, yes, I had these same complaints about the "rabbit" novels by Updike and Ford's "Independence Day".
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