Canada

I didn't enjoy this book for the first 100 pages, but the voice and tone grew on me slowly. There is quite a bit of ambiguity in the book–an adult telling the story of his childhood, but sometimes in words like a child would use, leaving which person (the younger or older) person is actually narrating up in the air at times. But I enjoyed the ambiguity, eventually, and the descriptions of dealing with severe trauma as a child resonated with me. I even had dreams of being a child again while reading the book, which made me like it even more for the motions it evoked.

There were some issues with the book–the second half felt unfinished, and a jarring change in plot feels forced. The central relationship in the book, between a brother and sister, is abandoned for quite a while and then revisited at the end; it would have been a stronger book if it had centered on that relationship throughout.

This has made me want to read more Richard Ford.