Title: Short story master once again out of his league with novel
Product review: A book filled with lovely prose but a superficial story and hollow characters. Ethan Canin is perhaps one of this country's premier short fiction craftsmen but this second attempt at the novel (after BLUE RIVER) falls flat. Canin portrays his characters as all this or all that, failing to add dimension. The plot chugs along as predictably and as innocuously as any familiar parable. Devoid of danger and development, FOR KINGS AND PLANETS gives Canin two strikes at bat in the game of the novel.
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