(no subject)

I finished Drop City a couple days ago. It was good, although it didn't feel like a particularly substantial book to me. As usual, Boyle's writing was spot-on, which made reading the book a pleasure. It's amazing how he always manages to have exactly the right word for everything. He's also really good at dialog, and did a particularly great job of capturing the ridiculous, cosmic dippiness of the hippies' speech.

One problem that I had with the book was that there were a few story lines that just didn't seem to go anywhere. The most significant example of this problem is the whole subplot involving Lester and the other 'spades'. They were a significant source of conflict among the Drop City residents, and then tailed them up to Alaska, showed up where no one expected them, and then...disappeared! I just couldn't figure out their function in the narrative. I'm also not entirely sure how I felt about the ending. I thought the last chapter was a really beautiful way to conclude the story, but somehow I expected something more climactic to happen before the end. So it wasn't perfect, but it was still an incredibly fun read with some really engaging characters and Boyle's usual great writing.

Since finishing Drop City, I've been reading The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler. I've hardly gotten started, so I can't say much about it yet, but so far I'm not crazy about Tyler's style. I also don't find the main character to be particularly sympathetic. We'll see.