Title: characters can feel more than one emotion
Product review: I've never written a review on-line before, but there has been so much hype about this book I finally gave in and bought it. It's a gutsy premise for a book, and , as many others have said, starts off strongly, but when Sebold tries to do the really difficult stuff - tangle and untangle the pain, anger and emotions in response to such a tragedy - she fails. Each character seems to have only one response - Dad is pitiful, Mom is detatched, little sis goes on to leave such a charmed and uneventful life it simply is not believable. I don't want to give anything away in the book, but when events happen that would make Mahatma Gandhi angry and all Dad does is weep you just lose interest. It is the writer's job to make a character complex, but whenever Sebold comes close to something,she pulls back and throws in another character, from the town or a roadside diner or school. It ends up being a very superficial treatment of a very powerful subject.
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