Well, Lawrence Block has written so many things, he was bound to disappoint me at some point. Unlike his other books I've read, this is an ensemble piece with multiple protagonists and points-of-view. I guess this was his 9/11 novel, showing its after-effects on various New Yorkers in the year following. It doesn't fail because of its ambition (it's honest and unsentimental), and it doesn't fail because of its meandering tangents, (Block's tangents--Keller's stamp collecting, Scudder's AA meetings--are normally the most engaging parts of his books) It just sort of doesn't all come together. It's long, it's pace is off, the dialog isn't as sharp as it normally is. Maybe Block, just like his characters here, was just too damn weary after 9/11 to be totally on his game.
