Ten Days in the Hills – Jane Smiley

On this one the various e-mails between people really said it all. The only additional things I can recall at this delayed stage are that:
- Mr Pink was particularly impressed by the structure of the novel, with two sections to each of the days having (apparently – as I couldn't see it) a logical process linking them all together
- There was a general view that she wrote well, but didn’t really seem to have anything to write about, no plot etc so it just became tedious – though Mr Pink in particular felt that a strength rather than weakness
- Differing views on the characters, varying from Steve claiming to have met most of them in his lifetime, to me thinking they were all parodies and wanting to either punch them on the nose or run out of the room if I was ever with any of them
- Mark T appeared to have an in-depth knowledge of the page numbers on which the graphic sex was contained
- My view that this felt a bit like going back 30 years and reading a Harold Robins novel – but with longer words and sentences and no ending