All the Right Favors

Odd. Very slow introspective style. It will irritate a lot of readers, but I think worked well. However it is very much a single characters' voice, and hence it failed when any of the other characters used the same style, and the likelihood of so many people all thinking alike is very slim. Equally it was sometimes very poor at giving place and situation details - most glaringly the daughter is originally picked up from a grimy New York train, and the whole point of the introduction to the new school is how this would improve things, yet the pick-up point from the mother remains the same throughout the book. It's never clear whether the daughter is actually enrolled in the new school. And why are these parents on the school board, what show more about the 1000 other children who attend?

Gripes apart, I did enjoy it. Two parents want the best for their daughter, and can't afford the traditional fees (implied) for the entrance. The dad gets approached for a favour which would result in the board's acceptance of the daughter. It seems a little thing with a big compensation. We don't get to see much else form his POV, but the mother is also approached for favours, and she is more contemplating. Inspecting what lies beneath what she's been asked to do. Eventually she discovers some discrepancies, but has to choose how to act upon them and what the consequences for everyone might be.

Interesting style and characters but didn't quite work as a novel, the balance of cut-aways from the mother's POV was not right and didn't work, and too many of the characters were too similar. May read others works by this author, although not with the same people. show less