Robert Langdon is at it again—fleeing from his pursuers in the dark of night, in the company of a stunning and intelligent female
accomplice, in a battle against time to make sure that truth wins and evil is vanquished. That is the basic premise of every Robert
Langdon book. It’s a bit tiresome, but
it’s also irresistible. The science,
art, and architecture tie-ins are always fascinating to me. Brown goes modern in this novel—the action
opens at the Bilbao Guggenheim and takes place largely in Gaudi’s Barcelona. I found the chase more interesting than the
revelation at the end, but I will probably pick up the next Dan Brown novel featuring Robert Langdon again, if there is one.
This novel comes from the 2005 Orange Prize winning author of We Need to Talk About Kevin , a disturbing book in which a parent with ambivalent feelings towards motherhood deals with the aftermath of a Columbine-style school killing perpetrated by her son. Lionel Shriver has said that she prefers to create characters that are hard to love, and So Much for That certainly contains some flinty characters, who although they may be hard to love, are nevertheless very believable.
The topic this time is healthcare in America. Shep is all ready to launch into an exotic early retirement on the island of Pemba off the eastern coast of Africa, but when his wife reveals a diagnosis of mesothelioma, he must hold on to his job to maintain family health coverage to see her through her devastating illness. His work colleague and friend, Jackson, experiences a medical dilemma completely of his own doing, which proves to be his un doing. Jackson's daughter suffers from an unusual genetic disorde...
Comments
Post a Comment