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Title: Remedy Lacks Great Original Ingredients
Review: Goldberg's first novel, Bee Season, was one of the best firsts I'd read in years. Instead of sticking with what worked beautifully the first time around, Goldberg resorted to a couple of clunky contrivances to spoil the formula in Wickett's Remedy. The novel starts out strong, with interesting characters and a compelling historical story line. Sadly, the interruptions of Goldberg's annoying margin commentary and the inscrutable QD Soda newsletter provide nothing more than a distraction. And by the end of the novel, even the story line gives out, stranded along with the protagonist, Lydia Wickett, on an island where both the good work she hopes to do and the story Goldberg begins with such promise amount to nothing much.
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