This is a real good news/bad news situation.
The good news is that I thoroughly agreed with a woman at the book club where this was discussed when she said that the book could have used a good editor.
The bad news was that, just after I thought we’d found some real common ground, she went on to explain how “the blacks” all move into one area of town together, and how “the Mexicans” do the same thing, one moves in and then their whole family and friends are around all the time all of a sudden.
I have to say, it’s really hard for me when a crazy person takes a stand that I find reasonable, then rounds it out with something insane. It makes me question my own sanity, which I don’t much care for. It would be like Hitler and I agreeing on one aspect of life that I find really important, like the fact that there is no reason to have one of those stupid silverware separator things in your kitchen drawers. But then you stop for a minute and say, “He agreed with me and felt the same way about the silverware thing. But on the other hand…there was all the, you know, maniacal genocide stuff.”
I left the book feeling like I could have done with a little less, that’s all. There’s a particular section where the author takes a road trip with a very strange woman (with whom I MUST agree on some other point of life because that would only make sense) that drags on way too long. Honestly, the weirdo was more sympathetic at first, but by the end I got sick of her. It was like I had spent so much time with her that it killed what little sympathy I had. Granted, that’s not a deep well to begin with, but I definitely made the complete transition from feeling for her to hoping that she would melt. Just melt right where she stood.
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