Negative Positive
Title: Disappointing
Review: Given that I enjoy Mr. Ford's essay collections and other writings, I was really looking forward to this book. I won't recap the plot here, since other reviewers have done a good job of that.As other reviewers have pointed out, it's an easy read, a "beach book," as it were. But in the end, I found the story contrived and unrealistic, the characters without much depth, and the writing clunky and mechanical. It wasn't completely unenjoyable, but I would have expected better from such an experienced and prolific writer as Mr. Ford.He does create a good sense of the story's setting and location, and I rather liked Simon, the eldest member of the cast. The erotic passages are well-written but their explicitness seems very out of place. Overall, Ford has a tendency to use 10 words when half that number would suffice.
Is the review positive or negative? 