Give me books, fruit, french wine and fine weather and a little music out of doors. --John Keats

Thursday, July 30, 2009

"All He Ever Wanted" by Anita Shreve

At the beginning I found I was not thrilled with this novel, the 3rd Anita Shreve novel I've read. It didn't grab me right away like her others did, and the narrator seemed to be a colossal bore. But I stuck it out. A book has to be REALLY bad for me to lay it down and never pick it up again. Happily, it turned out to be not nearly as bad all the way through.

However, I have put off writing this review for a surprising three weeks now, and I find I still don't have much to say about it. It was a decent book, better than a mind-numbing romance novel, but I think I am beginning to see why Anita Shreve's novels always seem to end up on the bargain book rack. They are good enough, but not great. Although I REALLY did enjoy her novel The Last Time They Met.

2 comments:

Amanda said...

I read this and The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve, neither of them knocked my socks off, but I'd have to say The Pilot's Wife was better.
I had to check on Amazon to remember the plot for this one, I did remember the cover though!

Kathy said...

I'd heard The Pilot's Wife was pretty good but have never read it. Since you say it's better than this one, I think I'll put it on my list!