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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/86655.The_Keep?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="The Keep" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1171075825m/86655.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/86655.The_Keep?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">The Keep</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/49625.Jennifer_Egan">Jennifer Egan</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/536255?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 1 of 5 stars i thought this was the most criminally over-hyped and misrepresented book of last year. clearly, Jennifer Egan has many well-placed friends (and fellow back scratchers) at the NY Times Book Section to fawningly and falsely fan the flames for this book. "The Keep" is two half-fleshed out novellas awkwardly crammed together. with a tacked-on third short story/chapter at the end. 
 
 i cannot believe that any accomplished and previously published author would look at this fragmentary and sloppy work and say: "Yes, I'm finished! I'm confident I've told a compelling and fully realized story!" what? seemingly important elements and potential subplots are mentioned several times, only to be completely abandoned; characters given prominence only to be completely inconsequential to whatever plot is supposed to be going on. but oh yeah, it's 'meta', it doesn't have to be coherent. whatev.
 
 Entertainment Weekly gave it a deserved "D": <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1219862,00.html">http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0...</a>
 
 i'm only glad i got this one from the library and didn't plunk down money to have my time so wasted. to be fair, i do think she is a decent writer. some turns of phrase and concise descriptions are nice. (and apparently "Look at Me" is great.) but this is just laughably unfinished. the only brightside is that it's really fast reading. she should be embarrassed that so many people paid $25 hardcover for this though. i would.
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/47013?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Sean's review
rating:
bookshelves: rejectbin

i thought this was the most criminally over-hyped and misrepresented book of last year. clearly, Jennifer Egan has many well-placed friends (and fellow back scratchers) at the NY Times Book Section to fawningly and falsely fan the flames for this book. "The Keep" is two half-fleshed out novellas awkwardly crammed together. with a tacked-on third short story/chapter at the end.

i cannot believe that any accomplished and previously published author would look at this fragmentary and sloppy work and say: "Yes, I'm finished! I'm confident I've told a compelling and fully realized story!" what? seemingly important elements and potential subplots are mentioned several times, only to be completely abandoned; characters given prominence only to be completely inconsequential to whatever plot is supposed to be going on. but oh yeah, it's 'meta', it doesn't have to be coherent. whatev.

Entertainment Weekly gave it a deserved "D": http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0...

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