Sara DavisCritiques

Strange, Fascinating, and Moving

Short stories are little windows into the lives of others and this is a particularly odd and emotional one that resonated with me. Judging by the other reviews, your mileage may vary.

Back in March, I read a review of this debut novel in THE WASHINGTON POST. Sounded interesting, so I bought the hardback. Read most of it on a Saturday afternoon (while marketed as a novel, it's more like a novella with a blank page between most chapters). Her prose is good enough where I didn't feel the urge to skim sentences, but I just didn't get the plot, though I'm pretty sure she was more concerned with theme and metaphors. I read online where reviewers mentioned Lynchian; that tracks — this is the type of story David Lynch would be attracted to.

Oh, and why did Davis have her protagonist read a Swedish mystery without mentioning who the detective is? I'm 99% sure it's Wallander. I dunno, seemed like an odd choice to withhold that name.

Weak writing, bad MFA work. Nebulous, imprecise language. Tedious.

Lots of loose strings never tied up, so that the end felt more like the author got tired of writing than wanting to finish in a manner that made any sense.