Dwight Allen (1)

Dwight Allen's Judge is rambly. It has potential for warmth but one of its only likeable characters is dead by the end of the first page. I can tell that Allen likes his characters, but I don't. It really feels more like a clumsy, adolescent love story that is trying really hard with its multiple flashbacks and flash forwards and flash inwards and flash elsewheres. I kept reading it hoping it would improve; finally it was just over without Allen having provided any real insight into the world or his characters. I've got two words for you: self-absorbed and boring. I understand that he is trying to tell a story whose point is that you only get to true love by withholding judgment, but it's almost like he is asking you to like his story and his characters unconditionally.… (meer)

When the book opens, Judge William Dupree has just died leaving behind his two sons, Cameron and Morgan, his wife, and his beloved law clerk Lucy. The judge was the glue holding all of them together, and now they are al falling apart. There are numerous flashbacks, which help explain the history of each of the characters, but can be a little confusing at times. Not a fast-moving story, but the characters are well-written, and I did keep turning the pages wanting to know how things turned out for each of them.… (meer)

To one's dismay, the man in the green suit shows up only briefly, though that is one of the most interesting moments in this series of interconnected tales about Peter Sackrider and his family. Peter and his sister Alex love and lose many times but gain no wisdom in the process. The family dynamics, which also involve their parents, are present but simply not expanded upon sufficiently. Peter lusts after every woman who comes his way, including the wife of his old friend, and on and on it goes. There are interludes of good writing here, but the mostly immature text is reminiscent of bad sitcoms, with only hints of better to come.… (meer)