Negative Positive
Title: Smoke & Mirrors
Review: The good news is that Stones of Summer is not the worst book ever written. The bad news is that it is not very good. It is the graduate thesis of a Creative Writing student at a Midwestern college. The pity is that the student is not as promising as we have been led to believe. Whoever compared Stones to Stop-Time has obviously not read Frank Conroy's memoir very closely. Stop-Time was understated and lyrical. This bag of showoffy tricks is overstated and hamfisted. In the end, it is not worth our time.
Is the review positive or negative? 