Instruct: Classify Amazon reviews into positive or negative sentiment
Query: An excellent first novel.

I rarely have the opportunity to read a novelists first work until long after I've read other works. Then, I am frequently disappointed.Schwarzschild, however, has written a novel he will have to live up to in future work. It is populated with memorable (if sometimes not fully explored) characters who defy archetypes, making them that much more human.Structurally, the novel is plot driven. The characters move from scene to scene quickly and each story arc feeds into the central story around the main character, Max's, return to Philadelphia.There's a lot to love about this book. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a well-paced story populated by interesting characters with a hopeful (but not exactly happy) ending. There's much in this book to make you think about the human condition and to wonder about why we make the choices we make.