I don't understand how Wally Lamb was confused for a good author.

Is that too harsh? Okay, then I don't understand how Oprah could have hated us enough to unleash this painfully uninteresting, largely unlikeable character onto the mass-market shelves of greater America.

Is that still too harsh? Okay, then how about this: I read this when it was published back in '98, and still I feel compelled to write about how much I disliked it ten years later (and on my first day as a goodreads member).