Negative Positive
Title: Yuck
Review: I wouldn't even give this book one star, but the guidelines won't let me keep the rating slot blank.Yes, the writing is good and the characters realistic, in a sense, but ultimately I found the whole exercise tiring.The entire novel seems to be one long list of references and allusions to poetry, novels, plays, etc. While I almost always enjoy it when an author alludes to other works, it seemed to me here that in Pamela Dean's case, she was just being facetious, showing off, flaunting her lofty high-minded literary knowledge. Like she's alluding for allusion's sake. Yuck, yuck, yuck.Also, none of the characters in the novel seemed truly... well, NICE. They weren't mean, but they weren't wise; they were somehow very irritating to me.I don't know. I think the novel has a certain style and type of characters that many will find easily entertaining, realistic, insightful, and wise. Myself, I couldn't stomach it.
Is the review positive or negative? 