The description of the book (as well as some glowing reviews) led me to believe that I would love it. Unfortunately, I found it impossible to even like it after the first chapter.
The first chapter was gripping, tragic, and utterly compelling. I congratulated myself on finding such a great book and settled in for the rest. Unfortunately, after re-establishing Guy, the main character, after the events of chapter one, the novel begins to switch back and forth between what is happening in the story and what is happening in a completely different story that Guy is writing within the novel. Both stories are written in the same tense and in the same voice, which is a bit confusing and, worse, super frustrating.
I have a pet peeve about fiction-within-fiction: I do not want to read about your character's sleeping dreams any more than I want to read about your own, unless they are supernatural and contributing directly to the plot. In this book, Guy's fiction does not have any bearing on the novel's plot, so the reader is just passing back and forth between two separate and unconnected novels at whim. If I wanted to do that, I would set up a timer and force myself to switch between two different books whenever the buzzer went off. I wouldn't do that, though, because it is not an enjoyable way to read a book.
After Guy's fictional wife started flirting with his fictional band-mate (at this time we might have been in the past rather than the alternate fiction I really stopped caring), I tried just skipping the fiction-within-fiction parts. Doing that, I found I stopped caring about Guy and his involvement with those two women on the other boat at all. Honestly, he has a few interesting facts, but not much of a personality. So, at about half way through, I just set this book down and moved onto a better one.
Not recommended.
The first chapter was gripping, tragic, and utterly compelling. I congratulated myself on finding such a great book and settled in for the rest. Unfortunately, after re-establishing Guy, the main character, after the events of chapter one, the novel begins to switch back and forth between what is happening in the story and what is happening in a completely different story that Guy is writing within the novel. Both stories are written in the same tense and in the same voice, which is a bit confusing and, worse, super frustrating.
I have a pet peeve about fiction-within-fiction: I do not want to read about your character's sleeping dreams any more than I want to read about your own, unless they are supernatural and contributing directly to the plot. In this book, Guy's fiction does not have any bearing on the novel's plot, so the reader is just passing back and forth between two separate and unconnected novels at whim. If I wanted to do that, I would set up a timer and force myself to switch between two different books whenever the buzzer went off. I wouldn't do that, though, because it is not an enjoyable way to read a book.
After Guy's fictional wife started flirting with his fictional band-mate (at this time we might have been in the past rather than the alternate fiction I really stopped caring), I tried just skipping the fiction-within-fiction parts. Doing that, I found I stopped caring about Guy and his involvement with those two women on the other boat at all. Honestly, he has a few interesting facts, but not much of a personality. So, at about half way through, I just set this book down and moved onto a better one.
Not recommended.
