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Title: Is that all there is?
Review: I'm completely baffled by the five-star reviews for this book. The main characters are likable enough, certainly, but nothing. ever. happens. There is no narrative tension and no real plot, no conflict, no obstacles for the characters to overcome, nothing of substance--just a vaguely pleasant meandering toward an indefinite conclusion. Even the much-anticipated baby seems to disappear into the background once she arrives, like a sitcom baby whose birth is a great episode for sweeps week but who is conveniently asleep off-camera for every episode thereafter.Perhaps my opinion was tainted by reading this book too soon after Alison McGhee's "Shadow Baby" -- a book with both style AND substance. Colwin suffered in the comparison. However lovely her sentences and paragraphs may be, in this case they don't add up to anything greater than the sum of their parts.
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