Stan Blackburn > Recent Status Updates

Interesting story and characters, but the religious parallelism and prose are tiresome. Enger writes using a western dialect that I find annoying and cumbersome to read at times. His sentence construction slows the narrative. For instance he often writes like this: "This lovely warlike anthem Dad sang . . . ", giving many of his sentences a passive voice feel. I do not agree with all the praise this book receives.

As I guessed, Owen will serve as an Army officer in Vietnam. The tragedy of the novel will most likely happen in that context since Owen's dream dictates that he will save children and die as a 1LT Paul O. Meany, Jr.

Holy smokes, the book takes off in "The Voice" chapter (~ and sustains its hilarity and outlandish build up in the ensuing chapters. John and Owen are now young adults who have bonded well, and Owen's sharp sarcastic wit and rebellious nature are so good.

Abandoned: This book contains way too much painstaking detail about every event, character, ship, torpedo, and moment. I cannot listen to another 10 hours.