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Title: Derivative and ambitious, ultimately unconvincing
Review: I have not had the benefit of reading the author's husband's works, but will give reviewers who have the benefit of a doubt, that this book reflects the strengths and weaknesses of his work. This author starts out strong with Leo Gursky, whose voice remains the strongest in the work. However, this character is derivative, depending a lot on Saul Bellow and Isaac B. Singer, and ultimately descends into bathos. I had difficulty in following the (to my mind) excessively complex, blowsy plot, which I suspect reflects the current level of the writer's style, without her husband's influence. She attempts to keep fifteen balls in the air and drops a few. I felt that, having missed a couple of turns at the end, that p'rhaps I should go back a few hundred pages and Review. Maybe Diagram. I decided against it, feeling that I should reserve this sort of attention to War And Peace.
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