Quite cleverly interwoven tales - shame I didn't care about the characters
Judging by the cover, this is a book that's gone down very well with critics in the US. I often find however that a critically acclaimed book doesn't always translate into an enjoyable read and this proved to be the case for me with "Improvement".
On the plus side the author weaves together a bunch of tales about inter connecting lives that really prove the "six degrees of separation" theory. The problem for me was that it's a short novel and perhaps tries to introduce too many characters. Each individual storyline is so short that we don't really get under the skin of any of them. Most are, frankly, pretty self absorbed and quite unlovable. Thankfully it is a quick read because by the time I'd got to the end my only reaction was "so what?".
Clearly a well respected author in the USA but not one that floats my boat I'm afraid.
On the plus side the author weaves together a bunch of tales about inter connecting lives that really prove the "six degrees of separation" theory. The problem for me was that it's a short novel and perhaps tries to introduce too many characters. Each individual storyline is so short that we don't really get under the skin of any of them. Most are, frankly, pretty self absorbed and quite unlovable. Thankfully it is a quick read because by the time I'd got to the end my only reaction was "so what?".
Clearly a well respected author in the USA but not one that floats my boat I'm afraid.