Chris Engen

Just finished, thank God. I bought this hardcover book for $32 or something at the airport (which I never do) because I heard on Armchair Experts what a great read it was - and it won a Pulitzer! WAIT, WHAT? WHY? I was cringing throughout at Kingsolver's attempt to write like a teenage boy - literally cringing. Throughout almost 600 pages, not much happens. Cringey sexual awakenings, pretty typical descriptions of how you would imagine the area and the people. The book was going nowhere so I finally started skimming about 1/2 way through and picked it up again at the very end. Only for the last maybe 20 pages was there any kind of decent writing and insight. Even then, very generic. I didn't get anything out of this book. I loved her books, so beautifully written - Poisonwood Bible and Animal Dreams. I did not like this book at all and consider reading it time wasted.