this book does a few things that on paper shouldn’t work, and yet not only do they, the story is more poignant for them.
First, the story moves slowly, with long stretches setting the mood and characters, but instead of feeling too l long they gave me the time to let them sink in, to appreciate who they were.
another thing is the use of dialogue tags. by all rights, they should have gotten on my nerves after a few pages, but they ended up creating the cadence of Ox’s mind.
It’s been a long time since a read a book that made me feel so much, from the Sunday dinner when Joe is 17 that had me laughing so hard I was crying, to the reunion, that ha me choking up. any book that manages to make me care so deeply about the characters gains an extra star just for that, and on the whole it is already a good story. I didn’t think the resolution was as strong as it could have been. some of the decisions felt like n.v they were made for plot purposes rather than be character driven, but by then I cared enough for the. to become a minor quibble.
I look forward to reading the next book.