Conrad B. (Phunter) reviewed on 9/15/2012 + 35 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 4

An endorsement by Marilynne Robinson on the front cover should have been ample warning for me. Her 'Housekeeping' still evokes a strong reaction in me whenever I see her name. By the end of that book I was wishing the main characters would jump off the railroad tressle into the lake - they didn't, unfortunately. But anyway - back to 'tinkers'. There was a dream-like quality to it that captures the final days and thoughts of an old man dying, of his father who suffered seizures and his grandfather who suffered dementia. The prose is good - there are some flashes of brilliance in there - but in general the whole composition with frequent long quotes from The Reasonable Horologist and the various Borealis passages just made it too disjointed to be really enjoyable. It was a good concept with some good content - I just didn't enjoy the way it was constructed.

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