Better Than Ambien One of the most excruciating reads of my lifetime, Gruber makes me long for the more accomplished voice of... say... a Franklin W. Dixon or Beverly Cleary. His dialogue is certainly reminiscent (conjuring grade school conversations), his structure not quite as complex.
I'll tip my hat to an interesting and fairly well-researched premise, however Gruber has executed it with all the skill of a high school junior slamming together a last-night, creative writing project.
Taut thriller? I can't remember reading any book that so quickly put me into such a deep slumber. More effective than Ambien, it took me weeks to finish.
Buy this book only if you want to question why you still read.
Not the best Well, I have to agree with the other less "stary" review. I didn't care for Jake either. I felt the language was course, even ugly when it came from Jake. I liked the other characters better, particularly his brother.
I felt the story bounced around too much. Like the sequel to a great movie, instead of going for a great script, they opt for the 10 car chases with explosion after explosion. I figured out the plot long before I should have been able. All in all, it was readable but I wouldn't pass it on to anyone else. A Michael Gruber fan First, a disclaimer... I am a Michael Gruber fan. I find his writing generally tight, witty and I especially like the way he develops deep, layered characters in his books. So far, the best of Michael Gruber are the early novels by Robert Tanenbaum, the 'Butch Karp' series, which were in fact ghost-written by Gruber. As he has moved off to develop his own name as an author, one has the sense he is still reaching to find a group of characters as engaging and enjoyable as the Karp clan. The Jimmy Paz books were good, but not great. This book is a decent read, thanks to Gruber's craft as a writer, but, in the end, forgettable. Characters are ho-hum and the plot is formulaic daVinci Code imitation. Gruber's still in there, though, and I'll read his next book and the next after that, hoping he finds his stride again! Fast Ride with Plenty of Chills and Thrills While not as literary as The Name of the Rose or Possession, this mystery has action, antique book sellers, travel, a big cast of characters and contemporary New York City love stories. Surely it will become a major motion picture, make stars of the young book geeks, and give a few older actors a good role. I'm glad I read the book first. There is nothing this good on T.V.A feast of meaty fiction This book is like a seven-course literary feast for the starving reader. It is my first book by Mr. Gruber, and having finished it about 10 minutes ago, I'll be ordering the rest of his catalog immediately. It absolutely soars on so many levels: a superbly plotted thriller with a deft, energetic plot full of intricate, dark twists; an existential meditation of the roots of personal identity and growing up; a good-natured, deconstructionist poke at fiction and metafiction; a biting, anecdotal familial drama (or two!), รก la David Sedaris. It never comes off clumsy or over-reaching and it's written in an effortless, breezy prose that makes it impossible to put down. Like any good meal, you want to slow yourself down just so you can savor every flavor, but in this author's capable hands, resistance is clearly futile. When you're done, you'll just sit back and think to yourself, "Wow, I won't have anything that good for a long time." And you'll be right.
