Rating: 
Summary: Should stick to writing movies.
Review: This is a perfect example of someone in Hollywood who thinks they can write a book but so obviously cannot. The descriptive passages are endless (and badly written) (and worse: BORING). Every cliche seems to be used, every ugly stereotype (the character names alone are like out of a bad 70's sitcom). The pacing is rather like being at a wake for the dead relative you only met once when you were five. WHEN WILL IT END? I kept reading thinking maybe the ending would make it all worth while. NOT! But it wasn't even an ending that made me want to throw the book against the wall, at that point I just didn't care any longer. I bought this book because someone (the author's friend I think) compared it to "Catcher In The Rye" (I thought COOL! A mystery with Catcher elements) - and to that I say: YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME! Salinger should sue.
Rating: 
Summary: AN AMERICAN ITALO CALVINO!
Review: What are they drinking in Avon, CT?? This book is the first
American novel I have read that draws on the magic realism of Italo Calvino and jumps off the page into the room! There are times when I feel that the author is actually paying homage to Calvino--and at times Baricco--when he takes characters so far
into sixth gear that a reader with no familiarity of opera buffa or magic-realism might cry "stereotype". To me, this is exciting terrain.I just saw the author do a reading in Boston and it only confirmed my excitement. He said he is directing the movie version (I think). I say James Gandolfini as Big Dan!
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