“I found this novel to be meandering and unfocused. It has all the trappings and signifiers of "the great novel," but not the coherence. While there were plenty of appealing (and characteristic) Johnson literary flourishes, there were also too many annoying lapses into genre cliches. Sentences such as "His focus was amazing" during a spy vs. spy cafe meeting set piece would be better suited to an airport spy paperback than a National Book Award winner. The frequent name dropping of Graham Greene's "The Quiet American" seemed like a plea by the author to be taken seriously.”
Chris B wrote this review Friday, August 28 2009.
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