Houghton Mifflin -- hc
Boston -- ©1994 -- 306pp
ISBN: 0-395-48889-3
A man's run for U.S. Senate ends badly and shortly after, his wife goes missing in northern Minnesota. What are the secrets he harbors?
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This is a book that has caught my attention over and over on the library bookshelf, so I finally decided that I would give it a read. As a Minnesotan, I enjoy reading books set in Minnesota. In that regard, this didn't disappoint.
But over-all, the book DOES disappoint.
O'Brien's writing is crisp and engaging, and I really appreciated his mixing up of styles, but the book does not open up the material well. By page 280 I still had not learned anything new that I didn't know back about page 50. The book takes too much time to reveal nothing.
Others have commented on the ending, and frankly, I didn't mind the ending -- I rather expected it -- but to have read so much, getting so little, and to end with nothing, well...I don't understand the point. There are lots of writers whom I enjoy for their style, but they usually have something to say as well, or at least have a character that you like.
This book just doesn't work. It'll be awhile before I try a Tim O'Brien book again.
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