Strange hype and accolades for a book that brings new meaning to the expression "the passive voice". Have all these reviewers ignored or missed the almost pathological use of the phrase "It was . . ." Any writer worth his or her salt knows to avoid the passive voice . . . …more and yet, Ms Jones displays a promiscuity of the passive voice that left me, for one, feeling slighted and ripped off and made me that much more cynical about the state of the book publishing (and reviewing) industry. Have none of these people read Joyce/Beckett/Waugh/Dickens/name any 20th century writer . . . It is depressing, is what it is. (less)