This book must have had sponsors! Honest to goodness, household names really just don't have a place in books. It makes the book trite and dates it. I cannot believe how many times this poor Jennifer Egan used a brand name (on the last few pages, no lie, at least 25 brand names dropped) or said which band was playing on the radio. THis book smacks of the year 2000 in which it was written and unless you were there and remember all the pop culture, it will all seem so irrelevant.
I thought the plot was interesting at first (it was a mystery of sorts), and the idea that it might actually go somewhere kept me reading. And also the fact that there pages of good reviews on the inside cover. The beginning set up many unique characters and I held out hope that all of their stories would converge in some earth shattering way. I was disappointed because the plot just went nowhere, and didn't hardly connect the dots, and when it did, it was typical.
I think Jennifer Egan started out with a bang, but in the end, didn't know what to do with it all, and ran out of gas.