Claudia B. (Claudielou) reviewed on 2/10/2011 + 77 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 2

This book is in the top 10 worst books I've ever read in my life. No kidding. Wally Lamb attempts to write in the voice of a woman, but it certainly doesn't ring true to how I understand women to think, and I've been one for 55 years. I would have thrown it at the wall after the first few pages, but it was the book my bookclub was reading that month, so I felt I had to finish it, then I threw it in the garbage with great satisfaction. What an insult to women! I kept finding myself thinking, "So she did WHAT? That doesn't even make sense!" For example, what woman do you know who would feel an irresistible urge to swim in the nude with the rotting corpse of a half-beached whale? Ok, she felt sorry for the whale... so she decided to take off all her clothes and swim with the decomposing thing? Has Wally Lamb ever even seen a decomposing whale? The stench alone would be intolerable, not to mention the chunks of dead whale flesh and skin floating around, and the things that had come to eat it. The heroine isn't even in the least bit likable. She gets mad at someone so she pours something into their fish tank to kill their fish? (again with the dead fish thing) Avoid this book at all costs.

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