May 5-15, 2019
I read all genres, all age groups, all kinds of subjects, but the last few Quindlen books have just felt old to me. Even though the main human was less than 10 years older than I am, the whole thing felt so geriatric. And I said "human" because evidently the main protagonist was a parking lot. Not one thing felt fresh or inventive about this group of ho-hum neighbors on a coveted block in NYC. The dust jacket describes the story as "provocative" but that couldn't be more off-base.A quirky technique that was hard to ignore was the constant use of the past perfect tense.
"Nora had had to yank their dog away from a cardboard container of moo shu something..."I don't normally dial-in on grammatical styles, but I couldn't help but notice how often it was used – I don't think normal day-to-day conversation calls for it so frequently.
This is the third dud in recent years from Quindlen. For me she's lost her dazzle from the Black and Blue days. I'm done.
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