A great piece of writing. Gives you sweaty palms.
596650
Having read many books on the subject, A Gentle Proposition reads like the author is a veteran of Vietnam. FAST paced with accurate detail the story keeps you turning the pages. I'm looking forward to his next book..
3315849
Reading Viet Thanh Nguyens The Sympathizer, I was too frequently put off by gross overwriting and/or sloppy syntax.

Heres one sentence that should have provoked an editor to intervene:  I had an abiding respect for the professionalism of career prostitutes, who wore their dishonesty more openly than lawyers, both of whom bill by the hour.  Language doesnt work that way.  You can intuit the sentences intent, but you s shouldnt have to.  The writing is inept.  Both of whom does not follow from lawyers.  This sentence, which arrives early in the novel, would get circled in red by a professor in a freshman English class with an an admonishing note.  Down to an A-minus already.

As you proceed, things get worse:

I woke up in the perineum of time between the very late hours of the evening and the very early hours of the morning 

Perineum?  Later in the same paragraph:  I dragged myself to the mossy, toothless mouth of the toilet 

And try swallowing this:

Yoon had made his (homosexual) intentions known to me over a dozen raw oysters at the hotel bar, their moist, open ears cocked upward to eavesdrop on his attempted seduction.

The next time you indulge in raw oysters, be sure to tell them to mind their own business.  For emphasis, box their ears.

One more:

 .. as the seconds, minutes and hours dribbled away like saliva from a mental patients mouth 

There is no context to even remotely justify that one.  Its just a lame simile.  Be grateful that I extracted it and didn't give you the whole passage.

Heres yet another, lest anyone think I might be overemphasizing a minor flaw:

He repeated his question after the waiters had departed, and I said I was not unhappy.  The fat balloon of my double negative hung in the air for a moment, ambiguous and vulnerable.

I will spare you the excruciating two-paragraph apostrophe to the human foot that occurs in chapter 20.  As you hang with this celebrated book, you get a growing sense of a writer struggling for word count.

 I suspect that the enthusiasm for this book (including the Pulitzer Prize and four pages of quotes from rave reviews at the front of the paperback edition luring the reader like the frenzy-producing buildup to an Eddie Izzard performance or a rock concert) has more to do with the subject matter than the quality of the writing.

Geez, Curry, cant you say anything positive?  Yes.  The paperback edition of this novel appends a straightforward, flawless and eloquent essay by the author and an interesting interview with him by fellow Vietnamese American writer Paul Tran.  But you have to survive some 380 oh-so-effortful pages to come to those brief rewards.
1468469
Some great writing. Some not so great. When a friend voiced dissatisfaction with the writing, I shared that it read like the fist hundred pages were written by an assistant. It did get better and turned out to be an enjoyable read.
3833044
This book is very well written, which is saying a lot considering much of what is out there today.  But in a way I would say it is TOO well written.  Let me put it this way: did you watch "The Golden Girls"?  Do you recall how in every episode Blanche Devereaux gave an over the top description comparing something to life in the south, sipping lemonade under the blooming magnolia trees as the scent of the magnolia blossoms wafted in the distance...  It was enjoyable as a few brief lines in a TV show, but that type of writing throughout this book was too much to take in. The writing was too complex, and I really wanted things simplified.  When I got to the last quarter of the book I found myself just pushing through in order to finish it.  I enjoyed it at first, but the enjoyment decreased as I forced my way through, and I'm glad I finally finished today.
1409819
woe are we, when such a gifted writer demeans himself with sophmoric  tripe such as this new novel from salaman rushdie.it appears that mr rushdie feels more than a little envy for J K Rowlings merchandising juggernaut, and has decide to cast his lot in on the childrens fantasy sweepstakes. i sincerely hope he finds his way back to cultured (multi-cultured)writing with adult themes...
1301424
First let me say that Chrissy Anderson is a great writer. Parts of her book were clever, her dialogue snappy. But three times I almost put the book down because it started to drag. I felt like I was being beaten over the head with Chrissy's inner dialogue. For the most part, however, this is a great read. My biggest pet peeve? I don't like being held hostage, reading to the very last page before I get the payoff.
1257395
This was an interesting story.  But I guess I am looking for stories with more substance.  I was really put off once again by all the "nonsense writing" where the two main characters are feeling so hot and horny for one another.  Boy that gets old FAST!!!!  Honestly I have really HAD IT with these kinds of novels. I did not think I would encounter that junk when I picked this novel to read.  Can't someone somewhere write a novel without this stuff in it? I'm thinking I may switch back to sci-fi novels in future!
3357021
I thought Trigger Finger was well written. It's not often that a writer can make you think. I would have ended neatly. But that's what makes us all different. Keep on writing.
1464735
MG spins a great yarn, but if he wants to be a great writer the devil is in the details. His story and flow are very good, leaving readers wanting more but unfortunately his sentences aren't true and refined. I'd rather see one truly great sentence each chapter than a great story laid out in the chapter. See Surf Barbarians, because it's just the opposite, weak story but great writing.
4327896
This is one of those books that you want to re-write so bad that it haunts you.  Especially now with all that has happened during the past 6 months.  The beginning premise is currently shown at your local theather under the title of "Collateral Damage." However, the White Plague is way beyond that intellect.  There are places in the book that drags on and on.  This is the area that you want to re-write.  I think if you approach the reading with a re-write in mind, you may enjoy it very much.  Evolving of mankind does not fare well in this book.  Maybe you could give it a little hope.
2503277
This book is a riot of emotions, written by a writer who wants to write in a rational way.  Beware: he pitches his puzzle in the old way, with all the baggage that belongs to the old way.  Somewhere over the rainbow we see a world he doesn't believe; somehow it survives his unbelief.  And in this being exists the truth.  About religion and legends, about fearies and witches, about dreams and ghosts.  "Thout, tout, throughtout, and about!" Reality?  The reader decides.
2676989
Jane Hamilton is an excellent writer, and she creates wonderful and plausible stories. But she suffers from logorrhea, an excess of verbiage. A skilled editor with both pruning shears and manicure scissors would have greatly improved this book. There were long passages that I skimmed.
Don't let this keep you from reading the book. It's good. But you don't have to read every single word, not by a long shot.
2313646
Really a very good story. But the writing style is pompous and pretentious with needless attempts at some sort of faux sophistication. When rain or shine is instead written as shine or rain just to keep the reader on their toes, thats when its time for an eye roll.
1704089
Wow, if this story is true, it is truly remarkable.  Dominiquie would be a real life action hero/adventurer.  My problem with this book is the quality of the writing.  The writing is atrocious.  If Dominiquie knew anything about the craft of writing, he would find the author and beat the living tar out of him, because that is what he deserves after such a lackluster effort with the pen.  Seriously, i had to laugh sometimes at how cliche some of this stuff was.  I think a monkey could have written a better book.  So read on at your own risk.
3189165
Brilliant writing. The two things I didn't like was all of the f words, and I had to skip sex scene details. I know people say oh thats reality But, I despise this kind of writing. Still the author is brilliant in the rest of the story.
2760433
While it is interesting, it is written in. very short sentences. And can drive you. Insane.
It's poorly written. I could not get past the first 2 chapters because of the short breaking sentences.
It.
Drove.
me.
nuts.
570171
Deja Dead was a good story in the hands of an inexperienced writer. Reichs spends far too much time elaborating on trivial details, particularly the specific ingredients in Brennan's frequent meals; however I enjoyed the same attention to detail when it applied to explaining forensic examinations and procedures.
I cringed several times throughout the novel when the fluidity of the writing was abruptly halted by a terrible simile: "...the blood below my breastbone felt fizzy, like carbonated soda shaken in a bottle" or "I kept rolling them around, like peas on a dinner plate." I begin to wonder if Reichs has some serious preoccupation with food. But there are moments of great writing that occasionally shine through: "Like life. I've long suspected that many of my memories of childhood are actually drawn from old pictures, that they are composites of snapshots, a mosaic of celluloid images reworked into a remembered reality. Kodak cast backwards. Maybe it's better to recall the past that way. We rarely take pictures of sad occasions."
I do feel like Reichs assaulted her readers with the theme of misogyny. In addition to the brutal murders of women Brennan has to remind us repeatedly that women face discrimination in the workplace. Though I think that it tied in well with the novel, the subplot could have been subtler than Brennan's childish little quips about the cave man gender.
The summation of loose ends at the end of novel felt like an episode of Scooby Doo; yet, overall I did enjoy the story. I am interested to see how Reichs grows as a writer throughout her series. I just hope she avoids any more figurative language involving food.