You are considering whether to buy a product. You look at the reviews. Would the following review decrease or increase the chances of you buying the product?
Review title: Lights! Camera! Action! Blood! Yummy!
Product review: Essentially a yawner. I couldn't believe this was the same Evan S. Connell who had me spellbound with Son of the Morning Star. If you buy into the book's conceit -- an authentic diary/tale of sorts from some chap about whom I could care less -- well and good. But look for a real slog a la Cold Mountain. I found myself thinking several times, Hey! Didn't I read about this (or these) particular slaughter(s) ten pages ago? Nope, brand new atrocities. One or two per page. And if you can keep track of more than two or three characters throughout this book, you're a better mental juggler than I am. I counted eleven new historical figures in the space of two pages! Was I to remember them? Would they be coming back later in the book? I guess Connell gets some credit for unearthing all this historical jacalap but it just rolls off the pages, word by word, sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, page after page until you say to yourself, Enough! Deus lo volt.
