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After the event tonight, would someone let me know what the consensus was on the book? I'm 200 pages in, and not sure if I want to finish it. Sway me one way or the other.

Just to apologize again - I felt terrible having to cancel the meetup. It'll be rescheduled for the second week of May, most likely.

Bethany,
As you probably have noticed, the plot is very slow to develop. It took me a while to really get into it, but about halfway through (I'm guessing), I became engrossed. The book is categorized as a mystery but the reason for that classification was not clear to me until reading a good deal of the book. But just like there is a plot (eventually), there also is a real mystery (again, eventually) and I found it to be very enjoyable reading. I could have done without the references the writer made to other readings consistently throughout the book, but I found that easy to get over eventually. I would grade this book as a B+ to an A-.

i think I would go more toward a B. I agree with the "slow to develop" thing, but I am the kind of reader who often views that as a virtue.

One thing that disappointed me in the flow of the novel is that the father kind of disappears as Blue gets involved in her entrance into the gallway school. The charatcer of Blue suffers as a result, and becomes a bit too juvenile imho. the Washington Post review termed his character "pompous" but I truly do not see that at all. Elitist, yes. Intellectual, yes. But pompous? I just don't see it. I have met a few genuine elite intellectuals in my day, and maybe I am weird, but if they are genuine, I find them fascinating people.

I would argue "pompous" implies "fraud" and I do not see that in the character of the father, such as he is. Flawed, heh, indeed. But that is different than pompous.

see you all on the 8th.

paul