This is a book that tells the same short story from the perspectives of multiple people in a small, rundown diner in a small town. It was a very interesting concept that, for me, had potential, but also had a number of problems. The entire book is about nine minutes that happened leading up to, during, and immediately after a robbery told from the individual perspectives of each person in the diner at the time of the attempted robbery.
First off, I believe the book could have used a good editor or at least a proofreader. At times, I felt that the author was trying to imitate a particular style of speaking for some of the characters, and at other times, it seemed like it may have been a poor translation from a foreign language, or maybe just needed some fine tuning.
Individually, some of the stories had the potential to be very enjoyable if expanded into a book of their own. For example, the deaf piano player was a character that intrigued me. Of course, I can’t help but wonder why a rundown small diner that seems to be in the middle of nowhere had a piano inside, as no small diner I have ever seen or heard of has space for a full-time piano player. The only exception to this that I can think of would be if it were a piano bar, which this place clearly wasn't. And this wasn't the only character that I wanted to know more about. There were a number of the characters whose stories, if expanded and broadened, would have made for much more interesting tales in their own right.
With each individual character’s story ending at the same point of time, I was often left wanting to know more about what happens to each character after the end of their part of the story. And while each character had their own individual background details about who they were and why they were there at the time of the robbery, in several cases the stories overlapped enough that they felt rather repetitive to me due to being very similar and containing nearly identical information.
I do need to warn you that within at least one character's story, there was what I believe was meant to be a date rape. Though depending on which character is telling their side of the story, it was (or wasn’t) consensual sex involving someone who wanted to have a baby and a guy trying to help her out knowing there would be no commitment between them. Honestly, the stories around this incident and the multiple characters involved left me rather confused as to what actually was or was not closer to the full truth of that story.
All in all, while some of the individual perspectives were interesting, there really is much more I would have liked to know. As it stands, I’m afraid that I'm rather confused as to the intent and purpose of the book as a whole. I think I would have enjoyed it more myself with fewer characters and more details tying them together into a longer, more complete story, or as individual short stories dealing with more about one or two of the characters and their full stories beginning earlier and running beyond the confines of this tying-together incident. As it was, there was just not enough time or space within each tale to truly feel invested in any of them, and I was left confused and wanting more.
It was interesting as a description of multiple people in a single setting. And anyone who wants to read a collection of character descriptions and short background histories would likely enjoy this book, but when I finished it, I felt like I had missed the purpose of the story as a whole. I feel like it needed something more to truly tie it all together. It was a very interesting concept, but one that, for me, needed more time and details to make it work as an individual novel.
I do hope that the author will continue to write and perhaps develop his writing with the help of a good editor and proofreader, because as I said, it was a very interesting concept and one that I had looked forward to reading. It just, in my opinion, needed something more.
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