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Title: Underwhelming
Review: I was a big fan of Patchett's beautiful, understated Bel Canto. This book had an intriguing setup: a woman is married to a magician who loves her but is gay. After he passes away, she learns that the family he claimed was dead is actually still alive.Unfortunately, once that mystery is resolved, which doesn't take long, Patchett seems to run out of interesting ideas. To be fair, her characters are likable, plausible people, and she has a talent for lovely, understated scenes. But, the story loses much of its tension as soon as the closet runs out skeletons, and turns a little too sentimental. Patchett even goes as far as to include the stilted device of the dead magician giving advice to the protagonist in dreams. This one fell well short of Bel Canto for me -- I do recommend that book if you haven't read it yet.
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