Friday, August 29, 2008

THE BOOK OF AIR AND SHADOWS

The Book of Air and Shadows, Michael Gruber, William Morrow, 2007, 466 pp


I admit it. Sometimes I pick a book because of its title. This one was promoted as being a smart thriller. Well, yes, it had plenty of smart people in it, including a compulsively philandering intellectual properties lawyer, his perfect wife who made millions as a financial advisor, his brilliant but fairly autistic son, a Shakespeare scholar, etc.

It is a thriller combined with a sort of literary style and quite a scathing wit. The book is all about the plot, which I won't go into except to say that various people are after a supposedly never before seen Shakespeare play. (Worth millions of course.) It was the plot that kept me reading; its many twists kept me guessing right until the final page. The characters, the wit, and the info on Shakespeare dressed it up. Really nothing wrong, though it was a bit wordy for a pleasure read, which it was clearly meant to be. I think I was hoping for another Shadow of the Wind, but I didn't get that.

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