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Title: A Slow Go
Review: In this nearly 500 page book, Tom Spanbauer appears to leave no thought unexpressed. The descriptions of the characters' dress, of places and things mundane lard the tale like cholesterol in an artery. The accretion of the quotidian eventually becomes mind-numbing. (What was his editor thinking?) The situation isn't helped by the fact that the punctuation -- there are no quote marks -- is affected and annoying, leading to sentences like: "Maybe I should just confront, I said, The chef, I said, Maybe I should talk to Daniel." By page 100, I began to skim, looking for names or phrases that might signal an advance in the plot. This proved fruitless, however, since the narrator frequently recants what he has just said. Eventually, I put the book aside. The really unfortunate thing is that Mr. Spanbauer has considerable talent. I suspect this same story would have been terrific if he had indulged the reader instead of himself.
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