Great writing, but I was not as engaged as I was with Hamnet. I hate comparing the two books, but I kind of HAD TO. The marketing of the book was capitalizing on the success of Hamnet. Look at the covers:
Not really relevant but bothers me that the covers are so similar.
The writing is good, of course, but I was not as drawn into the characters and the story as I was with Hamnet. Maggie is still a favorite author - don't get me wrong!
And the theme is borrowed from Dostoyevsky's "Brothers Karamazov, another Succession-like tale.
This was a very intersting book, but a bit long, I thought.
From the Guardian review:
"...a writer cutting through the darker depths of what it means to be treated as an outsider in America. At the novel’s halfway point we are confronted with the words “THREE MONTHS LATER”. The central events on which the plot turns have taken place off stage, in an unlit space. Chang is more interested in consequences, and she has great fun unpicking the slightly breathless trial that occupies the final third of the book."
Here's a book I should read again, for sure.
