Jonathan Safran Foer

He's done it again. I love what I like in the book, but I don't love the other stuff. Foer alternates voices for each chapter, a device that I usually really like, but when he's not with my favorite, and his best written, character, he's off on this rather stream-of-consciousness, imaginative kick that throws cold water on the whole thing for me. I've taken to skimming and skipping my way through the chapters that are not in the voice of the nine-year-old protagonist. It could have been the new Owen Meany. It could have been really, really good. But, as in Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggars, this book should have been shaped by an editor or other objective reader. Sometimes writers get so in love with their work or their characters that they can't let things go. Some of my favorite writing advice is: You're not done editing until you've cut your favorite part.