National Post columnist Anne Giardini clearly has talent, as demonstrated in the many passages in her first novel that evoke places and states of mind through a deft, though occasionally simile-heavy, use of descriptive prose. The problem here is a plot that is as cumbersome as it is improbable, a pitfall one suspects the publisher is trying to sidestep by dubbing the novel “comic” on the dustjacket. But while “lighthearted” and “bittersweet” might well describe the book’s overall tone, it most certainly is not knee-slappingly funny. Read more…