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Review title: Enough hype already!
Product review: This book is better than the hordes of single-girl -in-Mahattan short story collections and boring memoirs clogging the current literary scene; hence the two stars. But standing alone, it barely deserves that. Guterson's writing is hypnotic, but the pace is slow, his descriptions occasionally laughable, and the love story simply bored me to tears. In addition to being boring, it was also more than slightly offensive--the Ishmael character's heavy-breathing fascination with an "exotic" Asian woman deserves a critique all its own. The plot also seems to take the easy way out, giving the ending an unsatisfying (and frankly unbelievable) tone. As for being politically correct, this book jumps from issue to issue faster than those old 21 Jump Street episodes. Guterson does do an excellent job of evoking place--but he doesn't do justice to the folks who live there.
