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This book is shaping up to be an outrageous garbageburger

I am nearly halfway through and I think this is the first book I've read in a while in which my dislike has grown so steadily and started blooming into hatred. It is basically a poorly written rant, interspersed with poorly written 'stories.' I plan to keep reading, in hopes of learning something.

What's the opposite of engrossing? On nearly every page I am stopping to process, think, resonate, and to be honest, take snapshots of particular passages to send off to people who I think also had tough childhoods. So it's taking me days to get through this slim book, while I plowed through other, engrossing books.

This is the second time I've read this book. Wood is a phenomenal critic and illuminator of fiction. He makes a subtle argument for fiction - mostly the novel - by showing how details, character, register, and point of view, work in fiction. His readings are often brief, but they are insightful and train one to be a better reader.