Victoria Pynchon

The writing is flat reportage posing as an acute analysis of a disaffected protagonist. The romantic sub-plot is so sketchily drawn that it’s hard to care whether the protagonist and her inconstant lover finally get together or not. There are also an unbelievable number of scenes in which pure coincidence bring sub-plot and plot characters together and suggest mysteries to be resolved that evaporate because it appears the author is willing to to suggest stakes that are entirely in the suspicious mind of the protagonist. Few of the court and attorney conference scenes get to the heart of the emotional perils to the interpreters subject of the novel. While I’m sure a case can be made for the moral equivalence of genocide/torture and US atrocities, only a glancing remark to that effect is made, accepted without question by the protagonist and a major life decision is made based upon that rickety premise. Finally, the conclusion of the love affair is totally unearned and by that time who really cares.