Generally, I love Jane Smiley, and thoroughly enjoy her books. Not so with this one. It's as if Rick Moody crept in and infected her writing. Ewwwww. Plus, one would think: ten people, ten days, ten different points of view, but no, people get left out, and annoying people are thus given more than their fair share of time. Granted, I've never read The Decameron, but I was under the impression that was the whole point of the thing.

The best part of the book may be the quote about Dr. Zhivago on the back.

This book is an example of the kind of pomo that makes me want to slap someone. ( )

A meandering conversation between various individuals staying a house in the hills of L.A. The book is almost exclusively dialog, most of it believable. Relationships are depicted warmly and sweetly, but the book is quite tedious overall. ( )

haven't any of the characters in this book heard of Viagra? It seems odd that Hollywood is the last to know!

I was a little put off at first by the fact that every chapter had a sex scene for no apparent reason, but really the main point of this book was conversations. And even the sex was mostly just to give the characters something to do while complaining about the Iraq war. This book has a bunch of about loosely-related people staying in the same house in Hollywood, mostly just talking about movies and politics and their shared histories. It was very relaxing to read. :) ( )

This incredibly boring book by one of my all time favorite authors (1000 acres). Ten days of self indulgent , boring people that I have no desire to get to know. There is a ton of the most boring sex imaginable. There is no real ending or resolution. I spent weeks slogging through this hoping that it was going to get better. It didn't. ( )