By James McBride
Oof. I had a tough book club month. While I was hating No Bad Parts for one club, I was also slogging through this one. It was long. It had a lot of characters with their own backstories. Nothing happens. The reader just gets fed backstories of new characters over and over until the book ends. There’s some “breasted boobily” in there, which was off putting. Some characters (Malachi) were set up as though they would be important, but were not. Other characters (dead Dr. KKK and Son of Man) had more critical roles in the “plot” but didn’t get more words than the others. A woman died in the 1930s and somehow her death involved a rant against smartphones.
Cardio exercise with sped up audiobook helped me make it to the end. I don’t think I could’ve gotten there if I had to force my own eyes through the whole thing.