consequences of unrequited love. Simons psychiatrists monologue sets the stage for following narrators, who simultaneously move the story forward, confuse our understanding of events, and bare their souls. The ambitious novel is many things (too many?) at once: a psychodrama, social critique, love story, courtroom drama, and literary thriller. At heart, writes The New York Times Book Review, it invokes a Victorian novels exploration of the world through fiction. A disappointing final narrator, some implausible incidents, a self-indulgent tone, and myriad digressions bothered some critics. But in the end, Seven Types offers an illuminating story about the nature of truth.
