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May 19, 2020CALS_Lee rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
Jennifer Egan writes superb scenes. Countless places in this novel I admired and reread a certain encounter she describes, between character and character, or between character and environment, or in a character's inner monologue. Her writing in such set pieces communicates truth in a highly skilled, poetic manner. Here, these magnificent trees don't add up to the breathtaking forest one would hope for, but if the reader can take pleasure in ignoring the forest for the trees, so to speak, there is much to enjoy in this account of a young woman breaking gender barriers in the workforce, of a gangster jealously eyeing a place atop the socially acceptable world of exploitation, of a father who abandons family life and tries to forget himself. If it ultimately doesn't quite work as a whole, the brilliant pieces make up for it.