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Title: 0 Stars if I Could...
Review: As many of the other reviewers have already stated, this is a terrible book by a writer we have come to expect much more from. As I read through this novel, I felt myself hoping that I would hurry up and finish it, it was so awful. The story of Tristao and Isabel is unconvincing and comes across as a poor attempt to write a novel that many others have already done, much more successfully. The attempt to venture into magical realism is a complete and utter failure. The only strength of the novel lies with the depictions of poverty in Rio and at the mining camp the two lovers escape to. I dislike this novel so much that I wonder if I can write anything coherent about it. Suffice it to say that you should pass on this book and hope that Updike never attempts something like this again.
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