Somewhat sentimental and overly long for what is an expected and not altogether original or gripping novel. Its social themes — women's rights, language's use as a tool of domination, etc — are treated with politic caution and on-the-nose superficiality. As such, the novel exhibits a kind of failure to take risks so characteristic of fiction that pleases masses in the moment without promising any lasting significance. It takes itself more seriously than it ought.
