Monday, December 27, 2010

On My Nightstand - Strangers at the Feast


Strangers at the Feast - by Jennifer Vanderbes

On the back cover:
On Thanksgiving Day 2007, as the country teeters on the brink of recession, three generations of the Olson family gather.  Elenor and Gavin worry about their daughter, a single academic, and her newly adopted Indian child, and about their son, who has been caught in the imploding real-estate bubble.  While the Olsons navigate the tensions and secrets that mark their relationships, seventeen-year-old Kijo Jackson and his best friend Spider set out from the nearby housing projects on a mysterious job.  A series of tragic events brings these two worlds even closer, exposing the dangerously think line between suburban privilege and urban poverty, and culminating in a crime that will change every one's life.

My take:
This book was talked about a lot on the book blogging circuit this summer, so I was really looking forward to reading it, but I have to admit I was disappointed.
The book is told from several different perspectives throughout one day, with each person telling me the reader parts of the relevant past to fill in all the details.
The story is well written and constructed, but I think I found too many of the characters too annoying to allow me to enjoy this book.

My rating: 2.5 out of 5.

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