Title: As wooden as the proud ships they sailed in
Product review: This is a research-driven book. The author obviously did a lot of reading and then stacked up her note cards, hoping the accretion of historical details would ipso facto form a novel.It didn't. The book is tedious. The characters are cardboard. The dialgoue sounds like one of those Hollywood Golden Age historical dramas where the 16th-century Englishmen all think they should sound like Shakespeare.And like one of those dispiriting Greenland winters, it goes on and on and on.Occasionally she captures a mood, but by and large this is the Elvis Impersonator of sagas. Hard to believe it's by an author as good as Jane Smiley.
Would you say this review depicts the product in a flattering or unflattering light?
