The Flamingo Rising

Rating:
Summary: Quirky, pleasant yet forced.
Review: While the nostalgic setting and tone and colorful characters should easily have drawn me in - on the surface it's my kind of book - I found the text somewhat forced and insincere. A constant complaint was that the writer would underline and telegraph the outcome of the chapter I was just beginning. And the conversation the narrator was having with the reader wore thin after awhile. Still the ending did surprise, shock even, and all of the characters were quirky enough to hold my interest.

Rating:
Summary: Read the original instead...
Review: You're better off reading just about anything by John Irving, with nods to Heller. The best that can be said is that it's mildly entertaining, with the potential to make Izzy actually interesting emerging and submerging along the way. Imitation may be the highest form of flattery, but in this case it results in a marginal reading experience at best.