Jeff Bursey > Recent Status Updates

The maps that precede the text are shameful. The publisher has to be blamed for this; even if (and that's a big if) the writer supplied them, that's what editing a book is for, to improve things. The maps are mediocre in content (very little detail) and in a washed-out gray. Readers of the _nyRB_ and the _lRB_ see better maps regularly.

Just finished the chapter on Davies' novel Murther... in which, seemingly, he packs in every last bit of his family's lore. Grant's endless plot recapitulation makes it read like an everything bagel. All the sweepings from the granary floor between 2 covers. About as lively as you imagine.

A lot less plot summary of Davies' novels and more bio would be better.

Briefly, some pages back, there was talk of his wife's grandparents. There should be warnings about that kind of thing.

I thought to take a blade out to cut the chapter on Davies' great-grandparents and grandparents. Biographies are better for the least amount of space given to them, unless the figure under scrutiny has really important ancestors. Personal taste, I know.