Rating: 
Summary: An honest voice revealing emotional warmth and depth
Review: While I have known Justin personally for several years [disclaimer], this is actually the first time I have experienced his writing in depth. I also tend to gravitate more toward escapist writing and don't seek out "realistic" fiction dealing with contemporary characters and situations, so I wasn't sure how I'd react to this book. I have to say that I found myself thoroughly immersed in the book. The characters are drawn in such a way that they seem vivid and familiar throughout the stories. The stories are told with a graceful and casual ease--as though they were being related to us through conversations with the characters (though the book is all in third person). As important as the characters themselves are the webs of relationships--primarily familial--in which they are enmeshed. I think this aspect of the book is its greatest success, revealing that the title characters, while seeming adrift, are held up (and sometimes back) by these webs of relationships. This book is an excellent collection of stories about loss, love and family. The prose sparkles throughout. Read and enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: An astonishing portrait of how we live
Review: Years into the future people will mistake these years (1999-2001) as only about technology, fear, rigged elections, etc. But if this book lasts (and it should), people will see that regardless the external climates of countries and politics, the drama of one's life is one's life. There are few authors writing today who so honestly handle their characters. The prose is, to use that overused term, illuminating. But it is a prose that serves only to lead the characters' direction, never to blind the reader with its wattage.This book is so phenomenal that I bought a copy for all of my upper-division English students at the college where I teach. Since then, students have come to me of both sexes, shy and proud, to tell me how they raced through this book, ravished. The sports jocks of the class wept, the class cynic thought he'd lighten up a bit, the class beauty carried it close to her person long after finishing it. Submit to this book and be thankful for literature.
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