Defending Jacob: A Novel
by William Landay
Defending Jacob/WLanday/Book Review (10/23/2011)
Mr. Landay gets carried away with himself trying to have the main character, Jacob's father, explain himself to the reader. This is annoying and unnecessary. He has his character assuming he knows what the reader must be thinking. Stop this!
The book labors in many places throughout. It seems to pick up most in the dialogue which moves the story forward better than the author/character's attempts at convincing the reader how smart or hip he is. There was a story to be told here, but Landay took too long to tell it. I had to force myself to keep reading this book and could take it in only carefully meted out doses.
The book is apparently more about a human being's extreme denial of anything approaching reality. If the reader is suppose to dislike the father, then Mr. Landay accomplished this. The book was all about the supposed intelligent father who was a perfect example of the ability of the male species's inability to see reality and deal with it head on. This book needs a lot of editing and revising before it is published. It was hit and miss over and over. A lot can be thrown out to tighten it up and make it a more compelling and powerful story. Please tell me the final copy will be a much more fine-tuned piece of work. Otherwise, I cannot recommend it to anyone to read. The reader has to struggle too much to enjoy the writing.
