Rating: 3/5
Review:
A bit of a struggle
I'm afraid I didn't get on very well with this book. I admire its aims and courage in dealing with difficult and in many ways unappealing subject matter: trying to understand the motivations of the assassin of a noble and popular politician and the effect of the assassin's actions on his family isn't an easy route to popularity and a wide audience, and Noah Hawley does a creditable job in attempting to explore these things. It's just that it didn't really work for me.
Hawley writes reasonably well in that his prose is generally well crafted, but it felt rather turgid to me and often left me with a slight sense of wading through treacle. The narrator's voice isn't badly done, but I didn't really find that it engaged my attention and it has some very trying traits - he used the phrase "As a doctor, I..." so often, for example, that I began to want to give him a slap. I found that the whole thing had a sense of trying just a bit too hard, and in the end, however laudable its aims and conclusions, it became quite a slog getting through it.
My problems with this book are plainly very personal because lots of others have found it very good indeed so please don't let me put you off - it's just that it didn't really appeal to me.
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