I just received an e-mail reminding me that I didn't review this book. The fact that I received this book a year ago and never finished reading it is pretty much the review. I liked what I read, but it certainly didn't pull me under like some books have the power to do. I never truly became connected (either positively or negatively) to any of the characters. I'm not opposed to finishing this book at some time, but for the time being there are more compelling titles on my to-read list.

I had trouble getting all the way through Peripheral Vision. It wasn't complicated, it was merely terribly dull. The writing felt strained and overwrought, and the plot didn't interest me at all. The first ninety percent of the book wanders sort of aimlessly between present and past, presumably to flesh out characters that the reader doesn't particularly care about, then rushes to it's strange conclusion.

There might have been a good story in here somewhere, but it was choked out and the resulting book was a complete bore. ( )

Unlike many of the previous reviewers, I really enjoyed this book, both the structure and the writing. I liked the way we got little snippets of each character's life, then moved on to the next, then circled back...All along I was trying to figure out how they would all intersect - and that was the only disappointing part of the book - the ending, as one reviewer put it, felt rushed, and also contrived. It almost felt like she got tired of writing it at the end and just wanted it to be all wrapped up. ( )

Peripheral Vision starts out slowly. Ferguson's style tends to be more telling than showing, or perhaps it's simply more narrative than action. By chapter four I was confused. I didn't see any connection to the characters from one chapter to the next. I persevered, but it was slow going. Despite that, her characters became compelling to me. Although Sylvia is the main character, according to the back cover blurb, I found Iris and Ruby to be more compelling. The only thing that kept me reading was wondering how all these characters were connected. About two thirds of the way through there was a hint of connections. By this time the characters had also managed to become "real" to me and continuing was easy. By the time I finished this book I had to agree with the back blurb: "Peripheral Vision is a funny and clever novel about love and the lack of it; about motherhood, sight, and insight; and about the different ways we experience and transcend suffering."
One of the really great things about this novel is that I could not guess what was going to happen next. Nothing was predictable. At the same time, nothing that happened seemed wrong or forced. It all seemed natural. The story wrapped things up at the end, but not in a tidy little box. I like stories with a beginning, middle and end, but I don't like formulaic or 'pat' endings. I also don't care for stories that leave me wondering as much at the end as I did at the beginning. Peripheral Vision manages to find that middle ground. ( )

Metaphors used subtly rather than as a bludgeon are more to my liking. Vision in all its literal and figurative guises is bludgeoned to death in Patricia Ferguson’s Peripheral Vision. Ferguson steps in and, like an annoying eye doctor who keeps shoving lenses in front of your eyes to blurry your vision, and keeps interfering with this novel’s stories. While Ferguson’s love for even her most disagreeable characters shines through in the attention she gives to each little detail of their lives, the larger dramatic arc of this novel is completely manhandled. There was a distinct lack of balance between the many plot lines. While the plot line involving Sylvia, the eye surgeon and her longtime, now suffering friend, Will held little drama and mystery, the stories of Iris the depressed nurse and Ruby the depressed mother were much more intriguing. In the end, when all mysteries are finally revealed, I wanted to throw the book against the wall. Was I really reading Sylvia and Will’s story to discover in one final paragraph that (spoiler) they were related?! And what of poor George, Ruby’s son – was it really necessary to withhold the cause of his childhood eye accident for so long? And Iris? She was the biggest disappointment of all – to have read chapters in her point of view, then have her sister say we should have disregarded the Iris behind the curtain because she was damaged – well, that’s just an author putting her nose into a plot where it doesn’t belong. Iris should have been permitted to tell her own story, the whole one. And Ruby disappearing into an off-stage happy ending was a disservice to an otherwise finely wrought character. Vision was supposed to carry this novel’s load, but it’s back broke for me halfway through. ( )